Mercy
Then Chris called me back on Sunday morning while I was giving Mercy a bath.  Chris said that Mercy was tired last night probably because she took the dogs running in the fields the morning before Mercy was transported.  I know Chris got rid of the kennel smell when she first got Mercy and gave her a bath, and she bathed her again after their run in the field, but Mercy still had this "doggie smell", and that�s why I gave her another bath.  She was okay during the bath.  She did jump out of the bathtub twice (I only have shower curtains, no shower doors), but otherwise she stayed in the tub and didn't move around much, even when I put water and shampoo on her face.  She still had some smell after the bath, but I think she will be okay after a couple more baths.  And I cleaned her ears and put Advantage on her.  She was moving her head a little bit when I was cleaning her ears.  But she settled down for about two minutes for me to clean them.  She still had some wax in her ears, but her ears are not red, so I didn't think they were infected.  I also clipped her nails.  She was moving a lot, but settled down for a few seconds for me to clip them.  Also she has no problem letting me put my hand in her mouth to push the supplement tablet down her throat.  And she walks okay on leash for her age.  She doesn't pull that much, but she does tend to go from one side to the other a lot.  But I predicted that she would be more active as she feels more comfortable living here.  Mercy did try and did get on my bed several times.  But I will teach her "Off".  I will see if she's okay with other dogs in my apartment complex, and she will get to play Samson, Dr. Ravis� Bassett Hound.  And I'll ask later if the kids that I baby-sit for can come see Mercy.  I'll try to take her to see younger kids later.  She really doesn't seem like she misses her sister.  I think she's pretty sweet but is still a bit unsure what all happened in the past few days.  But I think by the end of the week, she will think she's safe here.  Debbie also called me Sunday afternoon to check to see how we were doing, and she also answered some of my questions that I had about Mercy�s records, and she talked to me about what generally happens during a heartworm treatment.  It sounded a little complicated and scary at first, but after I thought about it for a few hours, I think it would be a lot easier than caring for a cancer patient.
The first night whenever I put her in the crate, she would whine for a few seconds.  But this morning after she finished her breakfast, she actually went into the crate by herself.  So I think she's crate trained.  Mercy's pretty smart (Virginia told me that I say that about all the dogs I�ve taken care of.  Well, actually I think Springers are above average).  And I started teaching her basic obedience.  Last night Mercy was able to "Sit" about 50 percent of the time.  This morning is like 70 percent of the time.  She was also learning "Down".  And I planned to buy some treats (at the time I only had Greenies, left over from Dudley) to teach her "Come".  I also started brushing her teeth the first night.  She turned her head a little bit, but overall she pretty much let me do it.  And I brushed her fur, and it seemed like she enjoyed that.  I had bought the slicker brush and a microchip with injector about a month before, because last time Dudley had to use Anastasia�s brush until we could order him one, and I didn�t let him run without a leash before he was microchipped.  I think Mercy might be okay if the person who wants to adopt her has cats.  But just be prepared to spend about a month to sort things out.  But furry very small animals like mice and hamsters might not be good, because twice Mercy picked up Anastasia's furry mouse and rat toys with her mouth and tried to walk around with them. 
Mercy drinking water lying down, with her hind legs in splits.  How weird!
When we came back from running errands and took her potty, I noticed that Mercy left some feces on her fur, so I had to wash her back end.  And also when she went to urinate, she got some urine on the fringes on her back leg.  So I decided to give her a haircut.  Maybe it�s just the ground covering around the apartment that�s causing her to soil her back end when she goes potty, because Chris didn�t mention anything about it.  So I guess her adoptive parents can let the back leg fringes grow out again if they have more absorbent ground covering for Mercy.  Well it usually would�ve been a ten-minute cutting job, but it took us over two hours to do it, because Mercy was very afraid of the electric clipper.  So I decided to desensitize her.  We spent thirty minutes just turning the clipper on and off, just letting her get used to the sound, not even touching her body, and I had the clipper near the floor first, then slowly got it nearer and nearer her.  Finally she stayed still for two minutes for me to clip her back end.  Then we spent another hour grooming her head.  She kept freaking out, so I had to stop several times to keep reassuring her, but she stayed still for thirty seconds each time for me to finally finish grooming her.  Debbie had mentioned earlier that Mercy was shaved in Mississippi, but when I told her that Mercy�s clipper phobia, she said that actually later the people at Olive Branch told her that they only shaved her ears, and they had to hold her down when they were doing that, because she was freaking out when they were doing it too.  I also cut out a mat between her toes that Dr. Marine had found.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Last night during the thunderstorm, Mercy put one of her paws and her nose on the front door where I hang the leashes.  So I took her out potty (even though I had taken her about an hour ago and she didn't potty at that time).  But when we got outside and walked around a little, she was scared of the thunder and rain noises, and pulled me back to the apartment door and had her front paws on my front door (as if she was saying "Open the door now!") as I was trying to get the key out of my pocket.  First thing Monday morning I took Mercy to see the vet.  Dr. Marine weighed her, and said that she's now 50 lbs.  Dr. Marine did the florescent staining on Mercy's left eye, because I told him that Chris told me that she was hesitant to put eye drops in that eye for inflammation because she was worried that there might be a scratch on the cornea, which can cause ulcers if she put eye drops in the eye.  So he did the staining and found no scratch.  And he gave me some ointments to put in that eye twice a day.  He, like Debbie, found no need to repeat the vaccines (booster shots were recommended on the humane society's papers).  He agrees that Mercy is about 2 to 3 years old.  When I told him about the other dog, he was wondering if there's a possibility that Mercy was Hope's mother (people in Knoxville was thinking maybe Mercy and Hope are sisters).  I asked what was that scar on Mercy's nose (it's a small round spot that's missing fur).  And the vet said it's a dog bite mark.  When I got home and was petting her, I remembered that I had seen similar marks on her legs.  There's one on her shin on her left leg, and one near her heel on her right leg.  Dr. Marine said there is still some wax in her ears (even though I cleaned them the day before we went to the vet), but it seems like there's no infection right now.  But he will check them again when she goes in for heartworm treatment on next Tuesday (they are closed next Monday for Labor Day).  Dr. Marine said he didn�t want to start the heartworm injection right away, because of all the places that Mercy has been in the past several days, he didn�t want to give heartworm treatment to a dog who could have kennel cough or common contagious diseases.  And also he said there are two plans for heartworm treatment.  Because I didn�t know which one Debbie wanted, I said I would ask her first.  Dr. Marine said Mercy is a very pretty dog.  Mercy tried to get up the wooden bench in the waiting area, and she had her front paws on the front door of the vet's office, in order to see out of the glass part of the door to see who was coming toward the door.  So definitely she will get on furniture.  Dr. Marine said he's pretty amazed about all the work we do in our organization.  He said he hasn't seen anything like it from the rescue groups in our area.  After the vet visit, I took her to the groomer's place to have her anal glands emptied, because last night I saw her biting her tail.  The groomer's assistant said her anal glands were really full.  When we were at the groomer's place this morning, Mercy met an overweight male Jack Russell Terrier in the parking lot, and they just sniffed each other.  Then we went to Lee County Humane Society to have her microchipped (actually just to borrow their scanner).  But one volunteer was really nice and came out to the car to help me chip her.  She also said Mercy is very pretty.  During our ride in the car this morning, Mercy really wanted to get into the car.  She stood up and had her front paws on my car.  And when I opened the front driver side door, she tried to get in.  She was also very good about getting into the backseat fast.  When I had the windows open, she sat up to sniff the air coming in from the windows, but she didn't put her head out (when I had the windows closed, Dudley would have his nose pressed against the window, and when I had the window open, Dudley would squeeze his whole head out of the window).  This morning when we were walking through the apartment corridor to get to the parking lot, we met the neighbor's Lab-mix neutered male.  I don't know who started it, but as we were getting closer to each other to pass each other, the dogs were both making faces, ready to growl. 
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
For the past two days, Mercy's been eating three cups of dry food mixed with two cans of wet food each day.  And I've been feeding her about five times a day.  I'm hoping that she will put on some weight before the treatment, because I figure that if the injections really hurt the muscles around the injection sites like Debbie said they would, I don't think Mercy would eat that much for the first few days of the treatment.  When I took Mercy out potty this morning, there were some birds on the grass, and she tried to chase them.  She hasn't seen any squirrels around yet, but I'm pretty sure she would chase them too.  Mercy is doing pretty well on her potty training.  But she did have an accident on the carpet around noon today.  I had taken her out about fifteen minutes before that, when she was pointing at the leash on the front door.  She only pooped when I took her out.  So when she was pointing at the leashes again fifteen minutes later, I thought she just wanted to go outside, not potty, but go sniff stuff.  So I told her that I would take her out again when I finish cleaning the bathroom.  Well, when I came out of the bathroom, I saw a wet spot on the carpet.  So I put her in the crate, and cleaned the carpet with the carpet cleaning machine.  So she definitely has a signal for when she has to go.  But right now she just can't hold it very long after she feels like she needs to go.  And she has to learn to empty her bladders when I take her out, not whenever she wants to.  But I really think she will accomplish all that by the end of the week. 
Then in the afternoon I left Mercy in the crate and went to school for an hour to use the internet.  Debbie said in her email that she had talked to Dr. Marine, and they agreed that Mercy would get a dose of Heartgard first, then try give her the two injections 24 hours apart a week from today.  But if her body can�t take it, then we can do two injections 30 days apart.  She said that Dr. Marine said that overall Mercy looks fine, except the entropion, which might be able to resolve itself without surgery, and because her heartworm test showed moderate worm count and she has no symptoms of the disease, she should be able to withstand the back to back injections.  Millie emailed and said that maybe at one time Mercy had been taken care of, because the reason she likes to ride in the car might be she was allowed to do so, and that she knew to run towards the door when she was scared of the thunder and rain.  Chris emailed to say that maybe the lingering smell on Mercy was from the anal gland.  And you know, she really didn�t smell anymore after the trip to the groomer�s.  So it probably was from the anal glands.  Chris also mentioned that Mercy loved to ride in her car and sit on her bed and couch too.  After school, I stopped by the vet�s to pick up a dose of Heartgard for Mercy.  I got to talk to Dr. Marine while he was doing surgery, and he said he would have to keep Mercy for two nights while he gives her the heartworm injections.  In the picture, Mercy is sleeping on the bed and with the lamb toy that Chris gave her.
Also she has been very good in the crate when I go to school for about four hours a day.  But early this morning when I came back after 20 minutes after I dropped off my car at the dealership for maintenance, as I was coming down the corridor, I heard this constant yelping sound, like she was hurting.  But when I opened the door, she stopped.  And of course she wasn't hurt.  Then I took her out potty.  I think she was yelping because she really needed to go potty and she can't do it in the crate, not because she has separation anxiety now.  And I was trying to cut back and take her out potty every five hours, but after her accident on the carpet, we are going back to every four hours, and whenever she points the leash.  I had the TV on Animal Planet this afternoon, and there was a story about some piglets.  When the piglets were making the squealing sound, Mercy started sniffing the TV. 
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