Ezra, Week One.

First, an update on the remaining two of the confiscated dogs.  Sadly, they have been euthanized.  They were touch and go while under anesthesia for their spay/neuter.  The heart worms had done enough damage to their hearts that they barely made it through alive.  With that much difficulty during short, routine surgeries, the odds are good that they would never have survived the heart worm treatment. Rest in peace, sweet dogs.  The suffering that you endured for years at the hands of a human is finally over.  I'm so sorry you never got a chance to feel the love of a real family.

Ezra is a mess.  A sweet, loving, eager to please, mess.  She is having a hard time adjusting to life in a home.  Although she is thoroughly enjoying every minute that she spends with us, her real issues begin when she is left alone.  She suffers from extreme separation anxiety- the worst I've seen.  We are talking pacing, howling, panting, drooling, and (unfortunately for me) loss of bowel control and stress diarrhea.  Crating her has been absolutely out of the question.  The first couple of nights were the worst.  She was up until dawn, and as a result, so was I.  She is now on a "supplement" that seems to be helping some.

She also has some real trust issues with the dogs.  It's evident by the hundreds of bite scars all over her that she has been in many fights in her life.  There were 13 dogs in a small space and although I'm sure they were bonded with one another, and had friends within the pack, they had no choice but to fight for any food that was made available to them.  It's a survival instinct.   It has become part of her to be on the defense all the time.  She isn't dog aggressive and the behavior certainly isn't malicious.  She is conditioned to be afraid, which makes her unpredictable.  90% of the time, she is fine with them, just a little nervous.  But if she ever feels overwhelmed, nervous, or threatened, she snaps.  Only it isn't just a snap!  The problem is, there are no boundaries with our dogs.  They literally walk all over and lay on top of one another.  There is no such thing as "too close" in their world.  She needs time to trust that neither of them want to harm or fight her.  She also needs to understand that the humans are the leaders now and we do have control so there is nothing to worry about.  Unfortunately, she is going to have to learn that pretty quickly.  She has bitten both Dixie and Jax now.  I have always said, they are my absolute first priority in all of this.  I know they deal with a lot being part of the rescue program, but I refuse to put them in harm's way.  The look on Jaxy's face when I pulled her off of him was so confused.  It was like  "Mom, how could you let that happen to me?"  He trusts me completely and I felt I had let him down.  Multiple dog homes have disagreements within the packs.  It's inevitable, I know that.  Still, I don't totally trust her now, so how can I expect her to totally trust me?

Her face is totally covered in bite wound scars.

For these reasons, she is never left unsupervised in our home or around the other dogs.  I take her to daycare everyday.  The place that I leave Dixie and Jax when we travel is just down the road from my office, so it's very convenient.   After explaining Ezra's situation, (they had fallen in love with her after the first day) I asked the manager if there was anything they could do to help us out, money wise.  I was hoping for a deep discount.  She contacted the owner of the facility and called me at home later.  They decided that I could bring her for daycare anytime...no charge.  I am so thankful.  It's such good experience for her.  That just goes to show, it never hurts to ask!


***UPDATE:  (Sunday morning)***

As of yesterday, Ezra is no longer in our home.  It just wasn't working.  Although we have made progress with most of her issues,  after the "encounters" that she had with our dogs, I was constantly paranoid and stressed.  I'm sure all three of the dogs picked up on that.  She also went after Dixie again yesterday.  I was right there, so no contact was made, but it scared her.  After that, she spent two hours in the shed because she didn't want to be around Ezra.  She absolutely would not come out.  Not even for our walk.  Trying to cover all of my bases, I tried again to crate Ez (I had been doing short, supervised stints in the crate all week).  Within minutes of me leaving the room, she managed to get her bottom jaw stuck between the wires.  There was blood all over.  I got her out and she was fine, but had we not been here, she could easily have broken that jaw.  Without the ability to keep the dogs separate when we are gone, we determined that it just wasn't safe for her to be here.  Besides just the risk of someone getting physically injured, it isn't good for any of them mentally.   I worry that we could ruin the trust that we have with our dogs, and that could mean the end of fostering.  Right now, they understand that whatever dogs we bring into the house, they are to accept into the pack.  And they always do, with open arms.  If something bad happened, however, it may cause them to lose confidence in our ability to control things.  Dixie was definitely going in that direction.  She acts tough, but she is very sensitive.

This was not an easy decision to make.  I feel incredibly guilty about sending her away,  but I'm not giving up on her.  I have become very fond of her and I know she is a great dog.  She has suffered through a lot in her life and deserves to be loved.  In a home with no other dogs, she will thrive. She is friendly and outgoing to everyone she meets.  She is currently over at the boarding facility that she goes to for daycare.  I talked to the manager about long-term boarding.  She is going to find out what the owner can work out as far as a discount for our rescue.  I am confident that they will help me.  The alternative is for her to board at a vet clinic that works with our rescue.  The situation there would be less than ideal (read: awful) so I want to avoid it at all costs.  She will go down hill quickly in those conditions.  Here, she has an air conditioned, indoor room with walls, not chain link.  It also has a doggy door and her own private outdoor area.  They take her out to run around several times a day.  With the kennel being only blocks from my office, I will be able visit and work with her each day.  She will still be my foster dog and I am committed to her until she finds her forever home. 

Unlucky 13

About two weeks ago, 13 dogs were found in a yard in an adjacent city.  They were hot, dirty, hungry, and covered in fleas.  The owner of the property surrendered nine of the dogs on the spot.  Animal control took custody of them, leaving behind the four dogs that were in the best (and by best I mean least-awful) condition.  Four is the legal limit of dogs that one household can have in that city without a permit.  To take the other four dogs would have required getting a warrant, as the woman would not voluntarily give them up.  They chose not obtain the warrant.  I believe that this was a very poor judgement by animal control.

The nine dogs were taken to the local shelter.   All of them were in need of immediate medical attention, suffering from heat sickness and anemia.  The anemia was caused by the fleas.  Three of them were so anemic that they could only have been saved by multiple blood transfusions. (Imagine how many fleas must have been covering these animals to drain the blood from a sixty pound dog!) Clearly, a small local animal shelter has neither the ability nor the funds to go to such lengths.  Those three were euthanized, ending their suffering.  Of the six remaining dogs, four are heart worm positive, one has mange and one has cancer.  I went out to see them the second day.  All are covered in scars, likely from having to fight one another for what little food was available.

 Now do you see why I feel so strongly that animal control made a bad decision allowing the woman to keep four dogs.  Sure, it's not 13, but four dogs are still a lot to handle.  I have huge sympathy for people like her who are clearly sick (ever seen the show "Animal Hoarders"?)  She lives in filth.   Her house is full of black mold, to which she is apparently allergic, so she spends much of her time sleeping in her yard or car. What a sad situation.  Nevertheless, those dogs were being severely neglected.  They were starving.  They were suffering.  Whether intentional cruelty, or not, isn't the point.  I'm not saying she should be criminally charged.  I know she meant well at one point.  I'm saying that we simply can't leave animals in danger because we feel sorry for someone.  In my opinion, DHS should be involved.  She is clearly on a very destructive path and needs serious help of her own. 

Our rescue has been desperately trying to find fosters to get the six dogs out of the shelter "in time."  There is one dog more troubled behaviorally than the others.  On top of the other issues, she is deaf.  Guess who got talked in to taking her?  She is currently boarding at the vet getting vaccinated, spayed, dewormed, etc.  I'll pick her up on Saturday.  I have heard that she is completely out of control.  These dogs have never been on leash, ridden in a car, been to the vet, or been house trained.  Most of them are about three or four years old!  Luckily, you actually can teach old dogs new tricks.  She will be quite the handful, I'm sure.  Three other dogs are also safe in foster homes, but two are still sitting at the shelter waiting.  Hopefully foster homes will be found before the shelter "needs the space."

I have named our new foster dog Ezra.  (We always change the names when animals come from cases like this.  It' lessens the chances of the previous owners finding them on Petfinder, etc.)  More to come on her when she joins our household.

Bye Bye Bindi!

Bindi Sue is in her forever home!  After all of that, she actually went out there a week earlier than we originally planned on. 

There we a few more scares along the way.  One morning I woke up to a quivering Bindi with bloody discharge coming from her nose.  She also refused food for the first time ever.  I immediately took her in to the vet, fearing the worst.  He discovered that she had a sinus infection (steroids make her more susceptible to secondary infections).  Her heart actually sounded good and her lungs were clear.  All of the discharge and noisy breathing were now coming from her throat and head.  Although she looked like crap, Doc assured me that she was on the road to recovery and that we were officially "over the hump" with the heart worm treatment.  What a relief!  Stupid sinus infection pretending to be heart worm complications scared me to death!

Last Friday I took her in for her final injection and exam.  Everything checked out and she was given the "all clear."  Ironically, as I was starting to plan her trip to her forever home for the following week, I got a phone call from a board member of the rescue about another dog.  As we talked, I mentioned to her that Bindi was ready for her forever home.  It turned out that she was actually heading out toward Memphis the very next day to pick up another dog from our Memphis board member.  She offered to take Bindi along.  I emailed Trish (her new mom) to put the idea out there.  I assured her that if she wasn't ready yet, or had other plans, it was fine with me if Bindi stayed another week.  I had barely hit the "send" button when my phone rang.  "Yes! Yes!  Of course we want her now!"  So, Saturday morning we sent her off on transport to her forever home. 

Later that evening, I received a very sweet email from Trish telling me how much they already love her and how much she appreciated everything we did for their new baby.  She told me that little Bindi was filling a void in their family that had existed since they lost their boxer back in January.  She said that their older dog "came back to life" today after grieving for his lost companion for so long.  In that moment, all of the sleepless nights were worth it.  Bindi was safely in her forever home and a wonderful family was complete again. 

A Glimpse of Hope...

Last night was the first night since she came home from the hospital that Bindi didn't seem to struggle.  She slept pretty peacefully throughout.  Of course, I woke several times and totally panicked upon not hearing her wheezing, as I have grown so accustomed to the sound.  My mind instantly went to "Oh, god, she died in her sleep!"  I would stare at her until I saw her chest rise and then the relief swept through me.  This happened repeatedly.  Because of the steroids, we still had to get up and go out to potty a few times, but I can actually see normal nights in my future again.  Bindi is not out of the danger zone yet, especially given her circumstances, but every good day is a small relief. 

I have spoken, via email,  to her adoptive "mom" and she is aware of the difficulties we have encountered during the treatment.  She is worried, naturally, but couldn't be more excited and hopeful that Bindi will pull through.  She is such a sweet person and thanked me over and over for getting Bindi through this ordeal.  They were hoping to take her home (to Memphis, TN) at the end of the first week in August.  Unless we see a lot of progress between now and then, we may push that date back a bit, just to be safe. 

Sleepless nights.

Bindi's heart worm infection is proving to be more severe than anticipated.  She is having a hard time with the treatment.  There is a lot of coughing and breathing issues, especially at night.  I have basically stopped sleeping!  She coughed up some blood at one point, which was likely a tiny embolism, meaning she could have a larger one at any time.  We are on day 8 of treatment.  They say that days 5-12 are when most problems, including fatalities, occur.   We are doing everything we can but are pretty concerned at this point. 

3 Days down...27 to go.

We had a long weekend here.  I picked Bindi up from the vet Friday afternoon.  She was very happy to see me, but clearly in extreme pain.  The first 24 hours were awful for her, and awful to watch.  She hurt so badly that she was quivering all over.  She barely even moved.  She was absolutely pathetic.  By Sunday, thankfully, she was feeling so much better.  The hard part now is keeping her calm (as I mentioned before, she is NOT a calm puppy!) and cool (it was 109 degrees out yesterday!).   To make things more difficult, she needs to be on steroids.  They not only make her the total opposite of calm, but also make her have to pee constantly, which means going out into the extreme heat more often.  Ironic. Thanks Doc. 

She is exhausting me (I should say this process is exhausting me, not her).  She is literally leashed to one of us every minute of the day.  She wants so badly to play that if she gets away from us, she will sprint into action.  Overnight, I have to get up with her at least twice to take her outside to pee and then I'm up by 5:30 a.m. for yet another pee, breakfast (the steroids also increase her appetite big time), and morning meds. 

Last night, on top of it, she coughed a lot.  That completely freaked me out, making it nearly impossible  to sleep.  I kept worrying that she was going to have a heart attack and die on me! Because of the coughing, and my paranoia, I'm taking her in to the doctor this afternoon so he can check her out.  I want to cover all of my bases.

The worst part is that we can do every single thing right, take absolutely no chances, and she can still die at any second.  Somebody needs to come up with a more modern way to treat heart worm.  This is brutal. 

The moral of the story is... Pay the $7.00 per month to get your dog heart worm prevention!  You do not want to go through this shit.  Not to mention, the treatment varies in price from $1,000 to $2,000 dollars! 

Settling in.

Bindi settled in nicely over the week.  She does much better through the nights, now that she is sleeping on the dog bed in our room instead of in a crate.  She just has some major insecurity issues, which leads to separation anxiety.  She is a very smart girl, and is eager to please.  I taught her "sit" and "down" in one afternoon.  She is also very sweet and although shy, she seems to like everyone she meets- even the cats.   

Most of her progress, however, is because of what she has absorbed from Dixie and Jax.  I can train her.  I can assure her that not every person has a heavy hand or a loud voice.  However, only those two can show her how to relax, have fun, and just be a dog.  They are, without a doubt, an integral part of the program.  I know that fostering takes it's toll on them, especially when the dogs that they grow to love and become attached to leave our home.  I ask a lot of them in this respect and they never disappoint me.  Dixie is especially sensitive to every new dog's specific problems or needs.  She seems to know within the first minute how to approach each one.  Bindi was extremely afraid of them at first, causing her to act out, not in aggression, but in fear.  Dixie was so gentle.  Over the first couple of days, she approached Bindi frequently, putting a paw on her back or head, trying to encourage interaction.  Bindi responded by growling or snapping at her.  Dixie was undeterred.  She simply backed off and tried again later, never giving up.  As you will see by the pictures below, her technique worked like a charm. 

At the office.

New friends.

Can you believe how tiny she is?  She is a mini-boxer!

Dixie being a good mom:-)

Tomorrow morning, I will drop her off at the vet's office, where she will be administered her treatment over 24 hours.  The next 14 days are the most critical of her life.  I would be a liar if I said I wasn't a little freaked out.