After I received the owner relinquishment application from Kathleen, who is the owner relinquishment coordinator, I noticed that her first family consisted of husband and wife, and they had their first baby right before they moved Blue to their friend�s home in April. Also, I noticed that it says Blue was born in October 1996. So I immediately emailed Heather regarding Blue�s age. I was a little concerned about her adoptability, and even her trainability. I mean old dogs can be taught new tricks, but it usually just takes longer. In the application, it also says that Blue is a 45-pound liver and white bench-bred female, spayed, tail docked and dew claws removed. It says Donna and her husband lives in Charleston and that they�ve had Blue since she was a puppy. Donna indicated in the form that Blue has no medical conditions and is up to date on vaccinations and heartworm and flea preventatives. Blue is not microchipped but is housetrained, and they think she�ll probably be okay with children, even though they did not expose her a lot with kids. Donna also indicated that Blue would wag her tail when she sees other dogs but is dog aggressive. The person who is taking care of Blue is Kevin, who lives in Nashville. Kevin has two cats who did not get along with Blue. While Blue was living with Donna and her husband, she was allowed run of the house while they were not at home and slept in their bedrooms on her own dog bed. Donna said in the comments section, that Blue usually got along with their other dog, but they fought about five times a year and she thinks the fight has gotten more intense since the other dog has started fighting back. Because of the new baby, they think it would be safer to give up Blue. Their other dog is older and has hip dysplasia and they think would be harder to place. And Donna recommended Blue to be placed in a home with a single person working from home, or a family with kids. Also I noticed that the application was filed in April, so it seems like they�ve been waiting for a while to relinquish Blue.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
I emailed Kathleen and Heather saying that I will consider fostering Blue, but I still had several questions, because I know if I do take her and it doesn�t work out with me, we�ll have a hard time looking for another foster home for Blue. I didn�t want any direct contact with Donna or her husband or Kevin. I guess it�s from when I had Penelope, I would always worry that her previous family would ask her back, so I don�t want to deal with Blue�s previous families at all either. I don�t even want them to have my phone number or email address because I don�t want them to contact me (I�m not too convinced about the increased fighting story, I think in large part it probably had to do with the new baby and that they might not have time to handle two dogs and a newborn at the same time; even if it has something to do with the dog-dog fighting, they really should�ve taken care of that and had the dogs trained BEFORE the baby arrived), and I told Kathleen so. Kathleen understood and is willing to act as the go-between. I asked about Donna�s comment regarding Blue going to a home with somebody working from home or a stay-at-home mom and if Blue has separation anxiety. And I had some questions regarding the dog fights. Donna emailed Kathleen:
�Blue was fine to be left alone in the house. When we were gone (which sometimes could be a 12 hr day), she and my other dog as well as the cat had run of the house. We did close the bedroom doors so she wouldn't get on the beds. The only time she ever messed (pee) in the house was when she was on prednisone which makes you drink a lot of water and then she wouldn't be able to hold it for very long. This is what we had her on for her allergies. She isn't allergic to one particular thing, just certain weeds/allergens in the air due to the season so she would be on it sporadically.
She has been w/ Kevin since Feb of this year. That was the first time we had her teeth cleaned. Kevin hasn't taken her to the vet as far as I know. I have a call into him. We sent heart worm and frontline meds with him to last a few months. I did call him last month and remind him she was due and he said he has a vet friend who gave him the meds. I told him if we wanted to find a home for her, we needed to keep that updated.
She also was on Prozac for her "anger management." When Kevin got her to TN, he weaned her off of it and she seemed anxious so I advised him to put her back on it. She is getting along with his cats now but in the beginning there seemed to be some issues. Kevin actually sent me a picture of Blue and his cat on her bed together!
We didn't keep Blue in a crate but she did go in the crate in the car to Kevin's and he would put her in there sometimes. When I spoke w/ him, he didn't seem to be consistent with the crate usage and I think there was some confusion on Blue's part whether it was a punishment or safe haven? Apparently the cats would crawl in there or sleep on top and hang there arms down to tease her. I didn't really feel I had a say in telling Kevin what to do or not to do since she technically wasn't my dog any longer. Also when she first got to Kevin's, he locked her in the bedroom one day while the carpets were being cleaned and she tore up the bedroom carpet trying to get out. I did tell Kevin then that he should have crated her on that day....(he was at work)
The main reason Kevin is giving her up is b/c he is a single guy in an apt and works long hours. When he stayed at our house, he could just open up the back door and let her out, now he has to walk her. Also, I don't know that apt. living is condusive for her. She is not on a special diet.
Our other dog is a female Springer as well. The fights were started for various reasons, primarily jealousy. We did separate them when they ate and we didn't give them toys in the house. Also they were separated at night to sleep (nothing like waking up to a dog fight at 3 am). They didn't require vet care afterwards but there was some blood. We would break them up. Part of the problem too, was that as time went on the fights got more vicious and it was harder to pull them apart. Also, my once docile older dog (the other Springer) started to really fight back to defend herself. When people would come to visit, we had to tell them to ignore the dogs and give no pettings b/c that could start a fight. I have to say, when our other dog was away for whatever reason, Blue would mope around and not eat until she came home, then she would be so happy to see her! Running around the yard, barking and jumping. Very bizarre! They actually used to play so well together, chasing each other thru the house. My husband and I would get such a kick out of it. I'm not sure what happened. I actually took her to the vet to see if she had a stroke or brain tumor that was causing the personality change!�
Monday, July 24, 2006
I insisted on an evaluation on Blue before I foster her. So Debbie arranged for a volunteer from another rescue group to do the evaluation. Here�s what she said:
�Blue was very comfortable with me. I did not approach her until she came to me. She came right up to me, licked my face and turned over on her back for a belly rub. She was a very sweet, loving dog. She is a purebred, liver and white, born in Oct 96. She is spayed and was bench bred but they never registered her because they did not intend to show her. She is 44 pounds. He called the owner while here and she said her husband had contact with the breeder. I don't know if this was recent or not. I did not get a name of the breeder. Her vaccinations are due in Oct. She was wearing her collar with rabies tag. She is on heartworm preventative and flea preventative. I did not see any fleas on her. She was very clean, smelled nice and had recently been shaved by Petsmart. Kevin had no idea they were going to shave her and refused to pay for the grooming.
She is housetrained, crate trained, has never hunted, rides well in the car and the groomer never complained. She is good with children. She is NOT good with other dogs. I brought one of my setters out, a small girl. Darla walked up to Blue and was wagging her tail but Blue showed her teeth and Kevin got her away. Kevin had problems with her and his cat but they have worked it out now and the cat sleeps with her. She does know obedience. She has had ear infections and her ears were a little dirty but not draining or smelly. Her teeth looked good and they were pretty clean. Her eyes show some grayness but she does not appear to have any trouble seeing. She may have some trouble hearing which appears to be her only medical problem. She was very good about being examined and did not mind me picking up her feet, looking in her ears, mouth etc.
In my opinion Blue would be best placed with an older person or a couple who are retired. Kevin says she will destroy things if left in a room by herself. She apparently likes to be with people and would be a great senior dog for a quiet middle aged, older couple without children. I just prefer not to place older dogs with young children. She should be the only dog and probably no cats. He says she likes all the attention and loves to cuddle.�
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
I told Kathleen that it�s hard to believe that a nine-year-old dog does not have any medical issues. Kathleen said she has a copy of medical records that Donna sent her, and she sees some prednisone used and also ear medication. So I said I trust her that Blue is overall healthy for a nine-year-old.
Blue looks very cute in the pictures Donna sent. When I forwarded the pictures to Virginia, she thinks Blue is very cute too (a great comment from a cat-person).
I asked Heather if I foster Blue, if she would be willing to dog-sit for two weeks in October for me. Heather said yes. So I told Heather and Kathleen that I would be willing to foster Blue.
Tonight Kathleen called and said Kevin told her that Donna told him that their older dog is dying, so they don�t want Blue to go into rescue anymore. I told Kathleen that�s fine with me too.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Kathleen emailed, �Turns out Kevin misunderstood Donna and she still wants to turn her over to us. Her other Springer is not dying, just showing signs of hip problems. Anyway, can you still foster her? OK we are back on track to take Blue into rescue. Millie will contact Kevin to arrange pick up in the a.m. Kevin if you could send along whatever food you have with Millie that would be great to help with the transition to whatever the foster home will be feeding her. Do you have unused heartworm meds? Do you have a copy of the vet records you can send along as well? I can fax the copies I have but it's better if you have the originals to pass them along with Blue. Could you also write up a list of things she likes or dislikes? How often you feed her and how much, where she likes to sleep etc. When is she due for her next Heartworm pill or Flea prevention application. Any advice you can pass along to the foster home will help with Blue's transition.�
I told Kathleen that I am still willing to foster Blue.
Millie called tonight and we arranged for me to meet her in Clanton near her lakehouse tomorrow to pick up Blue.
I left Auburn at noon and got to Clanton around 1:30 PM. Millie and Craig were waiting at the gas station. Craig said Kevin tried to give them all the dog stuff, and Millie said they did not have room in the car for the dog crate, because it was a hard plastic crate. But what came along are two buckets of dog food (cat litter buckets), Millie said Kevin was feeding Kirkland brand lamb and rice formula and now is changing to Iams, and he was feeding half of each, two cups total a day. Also they brought vet records, two sets of leash and collar (two Lupine collars, one Lupine leash, and a retractable leash), dog bed, three dog toys, two dog bowls, a bottle of hydrocortisone spray, bottle of dog shampoo, and one-page of typed up notes from Kevin. Millie said Blue was upset the first 40 minutes of the drive, but after they let her out potty, she was fine. Millie said Blue rode well in the car (Millie�s dog, Freckles, did not go to Nashville with them, but they picked up Freck from boarding in Birmingham). Millie said Blue stiffened up when Freck sniffed her, but did not bark or growl at him. She didn�t want any fighting in the car, so they put the dog food buckets between the dogs during the ride. Millie and Craig showed me that Blue probably has ear infection. Blue sat up some times and lied down sometimes as we drove back to Auburn.
When I got home at 6 PM yesterday, Tara was asleep in the crate.
I fell asleep last night with the TV on. I was planning to put Tara in the crate for the night, but obviously I didn't do that before I fell asleep myself. When I woke up at 3 AM, she was still sleeping and was okay (no potty accidents). So far I'm taking her out every 4-6 hours (Kevin said in his notes to take her out every 12 hours). Since she did well without crate overnight, I am not planning to crate her when I'm at home.
She's still doing great with Anastasia (pretty much they just ignore each other), and she's still absolutely wonderful as far as humans are concerned, no food guarding behavior, let me touch all over her body, etc.
I didn't touch her ears because from my experience with Penelope, I know better to wait and have the vet see the fully infected ears, so he won't say that they are not infected if I just cleaned it. Kevin typed up this one-page note, in it says nothing about ear cleaning, and he didn't send along any ear cleaning solutions (however he did give us one bottle of hydrocortisone spray). I think Kevin and/or Donna does not understand that most Springers' ears need to be cleaned regularly to prevent infection. Also I looked through the vet�s notes, it looked like she was treated with prednisone and ear ointment two to three times a year since she was three years old. First I don�t think she would need oral prednisone just for ear infections, and also if they had cleaned her ears regularly, she probably wouldn�t have had recurrent ear infections at all. But now her ear canals are narrowed, which makes her more susceptible to ear infections. And I don�t understand the vet either, why would he keep giving her prednisone? And I also see that he gave her ProHeart 6 injection twice (until this drug was recalled for high health risk reasons). None of my vets recommended this heartworm drug when it came out, so I don�t completely trust this vet�s judgment either. Further more, even though Donna said they put her on Prozac for several years, there is no record of it in the vet�s notes. I wonder where they got the drug. And why would they put the dog on it for several years without doing any training at the same time (that we know of). It seems like they just want a quick fix (instead of putting the time and efforts in to do the training), which turned out to be not enough when the baby came.
This morning I took her to the vet. The vet found both of her eyes to have cataracts. He said they are far along, but not serious enough that would require surgery yet, and they don�t affect her vision. Nothing we can do right now. Both ears inflamed and infected, right one more so than the left. He did cytology on both ears, both yeast filled. When I asked, he said right ear canal seems to have narrowed due to chronic ear infection. He gave us some ear medication for twice a day for 2 weeks, then he said to start cleaning her ears after the weekend. He recommended the fur on her ears to be shaved because they are just weighing her ears down and are not getting air circulation, and I said I was planning to do that. He asked me if I shaved the rest of the body, I told him that her previous family did that when the guy took her to Petsmart, but then refused to pay for the shave. The vet said maybe her coat condition was bad enough that it required shaving, and I said I think so too (I wonder how often Kevin brushed Tara). Teeth he said it's pretty bad but not horrible. He said we can wait a few weeks to do the teeth cleaning. He said he detected slight heart murmur on her left side, but he's not certain about that, because he said Tara's breathing pretty fast because of nervousness so he couldn't hear very well, but he said he will check again next time when she has calmed down more. I asked (more like insisted) him to do a thyroid test, and he did and said the results will come back Monday or Wednesday. I just wanted to make sure the allergy and aggression were not caused by hypothyroidism, and Kathleen said it does not look like Donna had a thyroid test on her. Tara was very good and didn�t even move when the vet drew her blood. I asked him about a lump on her tummy, he felt it and said that's an old belly button hernia scar. Very old scar and nothing to worry about (he knows I'm still a little paranoid about lumps because Penelope's cancer). He asked about if I see any limping, I said no limping but her hips do sway a little bit when she walks. He said he doesn't see her having difficulty sitting down or getting up several times, so he said so far no indication of arthritis. I told him I started giving her glucosamine last night (also probiotics, echinechea and goldenseal, and colloidal silver, but I didn't tell him about these), and he said that's fine. I will get her some fatty acid today and give her that also.
Dog-wise, last night on potty break, we walked by a small white dog, about 20 feet away. The little dog ignored Tara, and Tara kept turning her head to look at the dog several times, but no bark and no growl. This morning at the vet's, the vet brought his senior black Lab (forgot if female or male) to work today. Tara was on the scale (47.1 pounds), and the Lab walked past by about 5 feet away, Tara pretty much just ignored that dog, I think she was more worried about what us humans were trying to do to her.
This morning before I left for school, I put several dog biscuits in her crate and she went in by herself.
If Tara can't hear well, I'll just train her with hand signals. I'm teaching her Down and Stay right now. So far her dog-dog issues aren't as bad as Kevin and Donna described, so I'm hopeful about her passing the CGC test. Haven't decided if we are going through obedience class yet or not.
Millie emailed and said that, �Yesterday when we stopped to potty on the way back from Nashville, she was limping a little and it concerned me but Craig reminded me that for the last 15 miles or so she had been sitting in my lap and he thought it was possibly positional as there is not much room in the front seat of his car! I did not see further limping and hope that she does not have arthritis.�
I shaved Tara�s ears right after we got back from the vet�s. She didn�t mind the shaving and was pretty good with it.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Tara continues to do really well with Anastasia, no guarding behavior whatsoever with her either. When Anastasia runs, Tara would walk over to the same room to see what's going on, but otherwise they just leave each other alone.
When I got home yesterday after six hours at school, I found Tara had eaten all the biscuits in the crate and she was asleep. I'm going to continue crating Tara while I'm not at home, until after Keely's visit in August.
Tara's stool is still a little soft, but I've been giving her probiotics and it's getting a little firmer. She doesn't like all the supplements I'm giving her, but she has no problem letting me pry open her mouth to put the dropper/syringe into her mouth. And of course I give her a cookie afterwards. She also has no problem when I put ear drops into her ears. I also clipped her nails last night (they appear to have not been clipped for a while), no problem there either.
This morning we saw my neighbor walking her little terrier dog, about 30 feet away. Tara just looked at them for a few seconds. Then we went to the pet supply store, but it wasn't open yet (the store part), but the staff already put the little dogs (about ten dogs) in the small dog day care area already. Tara and I stood in front of the window (that faces the parking lot) and watched the little dogs barking at us through the glass. Tara looked at them several times, but I did not see any nervousness from her, and no barking and no growling.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
I took Tara to the pet supply store yesterday afternoon. Rebekah emptied her anal glands, said they weren't too bad, and said Tara's really sweet and did great. Rebekah was a little sad when I told her Keely got adopted, she said Keely's her favorite out of my Springers.
This morning it rained, so I put a raincoat on Tara to let her out potty and poop.
Also this morning, Tara was pacing right in front of Anastasia, and Anastasia swatted her with her paw. Tara fought back and pinned Anastasia down and appeared to be biting her. I told Tara "Hey!" but she did not even pause or look at me, so I pulled her off. I examined Tara and she had two little scratches on her eyebrows. There were some cat hair on the carpet but I did not find any wounds on Anastasia. They are okay now, but I think Anastasia has learned her lesson (Brenna and Jake would let Anastasia hit them, but Keely fought back like Tara did).
I cleaned Tara�s ears tonight and she was okay with it overall, just lied there and let me clean them, don�t know if they are sore or not, but her top leg did make the scratching motion a little bit when I cleaned certain spots. After I finished cleaning the first ear, she got up and went to her bed and peed on it. Then she immediately went to the front door and sat by the door. After I cleaned up the spot on the dog bed, I took her outside, but she did not potty. I think she just got a little freaked out from the ear cleaning.
