Bye Clover

We rescued a stray puppy 1 year ago.  How do you NOT take a puppy, under the circumstances?  Give it a go.  But here we are, a year later, and I realize that the family is not too keen on this dog.  No one walks the dog, or loves on the dog.  The dog stays in the crate, our out in the yard alone.  THEN, in her boredom, she barks incessantly at random nothing...irritating the neighbors who subsequently call the cops!!  

I've been conditioned to immediately respond when the dog starts barking.  And back into the crate she goes!!  

Maybe because of the type of dog she is...or maybe because the lack of family interaction...the dog doesn't even come to us when we call her.  She sits and acts like she doesn't know who we are.  I took her to a dog park, out running, out the gate, and she just fails to even acknowledge the person calling for her.  

She's not aggressive at all.  And she's actually a great dog.  

Just not for our family.  

And they all know it.

So I found another family for her.  Not a shelter, or the humane society...or released into a park.  But a person who wants her.  

Ian was sad initially, but he's a reasonable guy and realized that I'm right.  

"Ian, every time I ask you to even feed the dog, you moan and groan...."

"True."  He responds, sniffing, wiping tears from his cheeks.

So we meet a seemingly nice, single young woman wanted her.  Really wanted her.  I interacted with this woman for an entire a week.  There were quite a few other interested people, however, this girl was very persistent and explained her case well.

So we get all the stuff together.  Clover gets a bath (that she hated!!  HATED!!)  Cleaned the crate (that I agreed to send with her, which is a big deal because crates like this one run about $20-$50 depending on how fancy it is).  Packed up food, leash, collar, vaccination records....everything necessary!!

This girl drives for over an hour to meet us in a parking lot.  Girl puts dog in crate and drives way across town home.  Dog has nausea/vomiting and poops in her apartment.  She freaks out.  Dog starts whining.  She emails/texts that she "can't handle" the dog.  

I email her, and give her coping (and de-escalation) suggestions.  She has to keep the dog at least overnight.  We agree to take the dog back the next day.  

Next day comes, and the kids have an extension on their activities due to Easter and Spring break make-ups.  So can't do it.  AND besides, I explain to the girl that it is kinda cruel to my young children to say bye to a dog (Ian spent time actually shedding tears over Clover) only to reintroduce the dog...only to have her leave again...

...emotional torture for the little guy!

So she agrees to keep the dog.  Which makes me happy.  Hopefully...she's giving Clover a good home.  

Dior my Goldendoodle

Welcome to the family my dream dog (one for The Mommy).  Dior our my new Goldendoodle!!

#stoked

Got her in East Texas from Lisa.  Born November 9th, 2012.  Came to our home days before Christmas.  Initially an adjustment due to barking, pooping in crate, urinating all over.

I treated her for worms (tape worms I saw in her poop!)  EEEKK!!

I also treated ear-mites (didn't take me long to identify that after the issue with the rabbits).

Gave vaccinations.

And now...she's ready for her public debut!!

 5 weeks old - Newly home. 

 Dior in February - about 3.5 months old

 January - about 12 weeks old

 Dior's Parent:  Goldendoodle Mom; White Standard Poodle Father

Peris

Dior in March - about 4 months old

Sharing our Carmel(Pop)corn

Carmel and her daughter have a new home.  Popcorn also has a new home.

Met mom who had a daughter who REALLY wanted a guinea pig for Christmas.   And whaddyaknow...we have 2 to spare!!  So she came by last night and picked them up.

Met a mom who has 1 rabbit who's looking for a 'friend' for her lonely bunny.  We have a rabbit that only serves to create "work" for Ian and Haley.  Poor Popcorn doesn't get out of her cage much...and when she does she's not that 'cuddly.'  She's not that cuddly because she's not taken out of her cage much....

So these new homes will be perfect.  And now, with all animals safely in their homes...we are OUT of the accidental rabbit/guinea pig breeding business!!

Delfy. Samadhi. Ralf. Beatrice.

8/18/2011.  With us from Spring 2007 until she died today (at about 7-8 years old), Delfy was our protector!!  Our family's best friend. A true definition of a great family dog. She always did everything to protect us. She is the greatest dog we ever owned. We will miss you. Thanks for giving everything for our family.

Delfy doing what she did best. Watching over the kids and making sure they were safe.

 Delfy taking care of Haley. :-)

4th of July with Delfy in LA. She was so well trained. Didn't have to worry about anything. She looked out for us like God had sent us an angel to protect us from harm and give us unconditional love.

Delfy doing what she loved to the most, protect Ian. From the day we got Delfy she had a very special bond with Ian. She would never let Ian be more than 5 or 10 yards from her. If Ian was doing something that "Delfy did not like", Delfy was quick to grab, yes grab, Ian and drag him to "safety". LOL. Not sure Ian liked it, but he was always safe.


Other past doggies:  
RALF was my first dog as an adult!  Labodor retriever kept me company on lonely nights studying.  He became demented and decided to 'see the world' by running away before he died.

Samadhi was our Lhasa Apso who joined our family in 2006 and decided he wanted to become more aggressive.  And with babies in the home, we had to find a home with older children (or no children). 



Beatrice was our Beagle.  Our mother's dog needed a "buddy" so we traded Ralf for Beatrice. 
 

Chocolate Beignet

I'm not sure if we've properly introduced our newest family addition - Beignet Taylor Schlitz. Our beautiful, silly, wobbly Bichon Frise'. We got him about 2 months ago (at 4 months old), and has had the darnedest time house breaking two puppies and an older (prissy, too-diva-to-poop-outside-when-it's-cold) Bichon, Peris.

So, they stay outside most of the days now, until...whenever.


A picture = thousand words.

Beny loves to play in the mud!!

Update:  Shortly after Beny joined our family he was sold to a set of grandparents who *really* wanted a playmate for their grandson that frequently visits them but cannot have a pet at home.  So on 7/2/12 Beny joined his new family.  

Whatever Lola wants...

...Lola gets.  And "little" yard, big Lola...wants OUT! 

Lola, Lola, the world is just to big to have you to ourselves!! You are no longer able to be confined to our humble acre (and 5 foot wrought iron fence).  So we had to find you a new home.  It is just not acceptable to jump over the fence and chase down every living creature on our street.  Besides the obvious liability, it's just not polite.

Please enjoy your new family.  The Dad is looking forward to running you on the lake each morning to maintain his military physique.  And the Mom is doting already!! And the love you put upon the baby just sealed the deal!!

Clover soup

So, the story goes:

It's late afternoon, and the puppies are put in their crates to rest (and for safe storage while yard work is being done). Dogs all look great getting into their respective crates. There is no food/water in crate. And the puppies are only in their crate about 90 minutes.

As we approach Clover's crate to let her out, we noticed that she had two loose stools and she was covered in thick, foamy/stringy mucous (?vomit) with profuse discharge from her eyes (thick, stringy discharge) and long white/foamy saliva/mucous discharge from her mouth.

Clover didn't appear post-ictal (in the human sense) but was hesitant/shy (all of a sudden) with ears back, tail down. And when we called her to us, she came...but was 'cautious' and gently liked our outstretched hands.

We did not see her seize.

Of note, when we FIRST got her, we fed her formula. While eating, she DID seem to have muscular spasm of her legs, then had violent chills (but, to be fair, the formula was cold)!! After warming her up (and warming the formula) all the symptoms went away. And with dry food...there are NO issues.

Finally, you know about the whole "deworming" thing. She had episodes of coughing/gagging whereby her entire body would shake and she would just lie down. Her belly was distended (in normal 'puppy fashion'). I gave her the D-worm...twice...and all of that went away!!

After online consultation with a vet friend, it was offered that perhaps the puppy had a seizure due to a portosystemic shunt. She suggested we should get baseline labs and bile acids.

Well, if it happened again, (or we had have actually witnessed the seizure) then possibly. But, for all we know, the puppy just ate something "wrong" and had a bout of gastroenteritis.

So observation continues....

Lucky Clover

During a visit to our family's house, we met a dog.

As we exited our car, a medium sized black dog sauntered up to our car.  "Oh, LOOK!  You guys have a dog!"

Our cousin was quick to *correct* us:  "I do NOT have a dog!"

"Okay.  So whose dog is it?!" we inquired.

"I don't know, it just showed up about a few weeks ago.  She was obviously pregnant, and we felt bad for her...so we've been giving her food scraps and water.  Now, she won't leave...and she's living under our house.  And it appears she's had her puppies...but we haven't seen them.  They could be anywhere..." as she trailed off, looking out into the vast acreage they live on.

Exactly 5 minutes later, the kids FOUND the puppies...under a car.  FIVE of them, (initially...and a single puppy was found (later the next day) in the forest framing their land).

As we pull the puppies from under a little red car, the Mama dog comes over...and the puppies scrambled over to her for some nutrition.  Mama's teats were engorged, so I'm sure the puppies were ravenous.

"Looks like you have a dog now...AND some puppies!!"


Our cousin was beside herself, as this was the first time any of them had seen the puppies.  The Mama was last seen pregnant by her son 2 weeks prior, but her fiance' insisted it had at least been 3 weeks.  We were surprised that none of them seemed to CARE that there were puppies out there that needed to be found and cared for.

"I guess I'll go ahead and buy some anti-freeze for them to drink to 'deal with' this 'problem,'" she mumbled.

WHAT?!  You can't DO that, we insisted.

But she was convinced that killing the puppies was the only 'solution' for her.  "We can't afford all these dogs, and I certainly don't want 7 dogs hanging out on our property...pooping and attracting flies," she shared.
 

So (like suckers) we took one, 'saved one.'  We chose a girl (since we had 2 female dogs at home already).  It was St. Patrick's day, so we named her Clover.

Clover was approximated to be about 3-4 weeks old (according to my cousin and her family about the last time the dog was seen pregnant).  So we decided to formula feed Clover once home. 

Clover has adjusted to life in our household nicely.  There was an episode of cough/gagging...where she was looking very weak and appeared to be quite sick.  After a quick Google search, her symptoms appeared consistent with worm infestation.  And considering her 'background', that was not an unreasonable possibly.

So we went up to the feed store and purchased some D-worm.  Gave it to her.  And after a day or two, she was all better.   A week later, she seemed to have a mild recurrence of gagging/coughing - so she got a second dose of D-worm.   We also treated all the other dogs.  Following these two administrations of D-worm Clover's abdomen immediately went from being distended to normal.  And our previously "fat" puppy was all skin and bones.  Evenso, she appears healthy and happy.

And a week after her recovery, she received her first set of shots - administered by Ian.

Today, she is doing great.  Much bigger, shiny coat, playful, healthy, and friendly.   

She appears to be mixed with lab and pit to me.  Both are great family dogs, so we're hopeful that Clover and the family are in for a long great relationship.

Coffee - good to the last drop.

We are sad to say, that our beloved bunny Coffee, has died.  But her last day was spent roaming free in the grass, sunshine, and fresh air.

Yesterday, as we were cleaning the cages, Coffee was "restless."  She has always been a bit skittish and difficult to "deal with."  So much so, in fact, that the kiddos had trouble getting her out of her cage to play or what-not.  But this day, she was impossible!  So, we put the cage on the ground and opened the gate.  As she started to come out, we had a dog crate waiting.  She hopped from her cage, into the dog crate. 

Our plan was to just leave her there, clean the cages, and then move her back. 

Popcorn was already in the crate, so we thought this would be a great opportunity for mom and daughter to spend some 'quality time' together on Mother's day. 

Took us about 30 minutes to clean the cages.  And during that time, we noticed that Coffee appeared to be fighting with Popcorn.  She was mounting her, and "growling" at her.  So much so that I thought "OH NO!!  Did we mistakenly put the male black Rabbit (Pepper) in the cage INSTEAD of Coffee?!"

So I immediately went to investigate.  I opened the crate, and reached in.  And Coffee bit me!!

This time, she's not pregnant.  Nor is she unfamiliar with us.  We've hand fed this bunny for months (almost a year).

So we decided to let her roam our safe, enclosed yard.  Maybe she's frustrated being in the cage so much?  After all, the kids don't take her out as much as the others....

I took the crate to the backyard, opened the door...and she immediately hopped out.  Popcorn, on the other hand, did NOT.  So we moved Popcorn back into her (now clean) cage.  And everything seemed okay.

Later in the day, Ian went out to feed Coffee fresh veggies.  Coffee wanted no part...stomped her hind legs, "growled", and ran away. 

So we left the food in our outdoor rabbit hutch, with water, and an open door so she could come and go as she pleased.  The outside temperature was perfect in the 70s, and overnight lows in the high 60s.  Plenty of shade, shelters, and cool dirt available.  No predators present.  So we felt okay giving her a bit more space to move about. 

Towards the evening, we noticed that she barely moved from one spot.  BUT...maybe, she was afraid of the wide-open space that she wasn't accustomed to? 

***
This morning, we went out to check on her, and she was still in the place were we last saw her about 12 hours prior.  Stiff.  Dead. 

In retrospect, maybe she was ill?  I tend to think that she was actually older than we anticipated (with her cataract, perhaps she was elderly even?)  Nonetheless, Coffee is gone.

And then there were TWO. 

Snickers and Hershey

 Snickers and Hershey

Hershey - one of the male pups - went to a new home.  We were introduced to a new school friend by Dr. Altom, and they were looking for a male companion for their little Piggie, Snickers.  Snickers was all alone, and wanted a buddy.

I am happy to report that Hershey's new family LOVES him...and Snickers is SUPER happy to have a new BFF!

Winners all around!

Piggie Update

Guinea pig family: daughter, momma, Hershey, daddy, and Fudge

After our home vet visit, we immediately separated the males from the females.

The 2 male sons (pups) - Hershey and Fudge



The 'internet said' that guinea pigs are self-sufficient from day one (with regards to being able to eat/drink/exist independent of their mothers). We know how reliable the internet is, so we were taking a big risk when we decided to take the baby males away from Mom when they were 3 days old (same day that the genders were determined)!! However, I am proud to report, that all piggies are alive and thriving!!



Yeah, the female pup that stayed with her mother is a bit 'larger' than the males...

(L) Male Fudge; (R) Female - notice how much larger she is!


...but all are doing very well. AND the males are getting along nicely.

The Feed Store...

...sold all of the Kits!!

And are asking for more!!


But, we have two new puppies, and that's enough for us for now!


This is Peris with her new 'husband' Beignet (Beny).





And this is Clover (because we got her on St. Patrick's Day). We'll share her story in a later post.

Nothing like Hershey and Fudge to brighten up a day

Coconut has his 'boys' with him...and he is (now) happy (again).  HERSHEY, COCONUT, and FUDGE

Guinea Pig Depression - no more

Coconut is a mellow guy. Sorta slow. Wobbly. Big. And low-key. But, after we took him out of the cage so Camel could have the pups, he was alone for about a week. And during that week, the poor little guy became so "depressed."

Initially, he would come out of his house on a regular basis and squeak/whistle at us. Protesting his new living accommodations. Protesting being all alone. He was interested in the kids...happy to get out of the cage like never before. And after human interaction, he seem okay...for a day...

THEN, after a few days, he stopped coming out of the house. The little food dish was barely touched. The water didn't need to be changed everyday. And he stopped whistling.

Poor guy.

***

So it was chocolate to our hearts when, after the male pups were confirmed male and placed in his cage...he danced around. He purred, and he walked in circles around the pups. He sniffed, and chased, and seemed to actually kick up his heels.

Then he started eating again...and the water began getting low.

And he was happy!


INTRODUCING:  Hershey and Fudge - perfect remedy for a 'depressed' spirit.  

Two boys and a girl.

So, we had a vet home health visit thanks to our friend (Dr. Altom) and determined the gender of our piggies. There are two boys and one girl.

This is a FEMALE. Y shape, no 'penis'. No 'doughnut'




This is a MALE. With a penis at 12 o'clock, and a round doughnut surrounding the whole thing







Pup 1 is a BOY
Big trucks and everything 'boy.'





Pup 2 is a BOY
Pup 2 on Night Fury Toothless





Pup 3 is a GIRL
Pup 3 is the Princess




And this is Papa Coconut. Confirmation received that HE indeed has testicles, although he is too 'chubby' for his 'foreskin' to be retracted enough to actually reveal his penis - even for the veterinarian.

But there's the doughnut and the penis is felt inside of all that foreskin (which may be why the pet store folks got all mixed up).