Texas Lady

Jolie drinking her last puppywhip—me in tears

Today we said goodbye to Jolie.  After 3 years of multiple medications by mouth, subcutaneous fluids and nebulizer treatments we could no longer treat Jolie’s many illnesses.  She had a COPD-like lung disorder, congestive heart failure, renal failure and her liver was damaged.  Even with fluid pills three times a day she could no longer release the fluid from her belly and lungs, and her heart couldn’t pump all that liquid.  She was straining to just breathe, to just live from one moment to the next.  She was weak.  She would stand unsteadily and fall over and be unable to get back up.  Her belly was bloated and since she had a heart murmur and congestive heart failure we could no longer do surgery to remove the many growths on her body.  I suspected that some of them were very ugly on the inside and probably contributed to her ills.  I took her to the vet Wednesday and they did more blood tests, injected Lasix to release some of the fluid in her belly so she could breathe, and told us that we need to make the hard decision of when to let her go.

Originally we were going to plan to euthanize her Monday morning but then she was so sick yesterday that it just broke our hearts.  Even though we knew we were going to miss her and we would cry a lot to lose her, we also knew that we had to help her leave her pain behind. At about 11 AM today we took her to our sweet vet’s office and told JoJo goodbye, how much we loved her and how much we’d miss her.  Then they gave a shot to relax her while we stroked her and talked to her.  She was so tired and ill that it took effect immediately.  When we were both ready we told them to give the last shot that stopped her heart.  We continued rubbing her and talking to her even after we knew she couldn’t hear us anymore, but it was hard to let her go.  We didn’t doubt for a minute that we’d made the right decision but it was still hard to let go of her.  It’s almost like losing a child.

So now we’re down to seven dogs: 5 Chis, Bandit and Daisy.  They were all very subdued when we came home without Jolie.  There’s always about a 2 week adjustment period when we add or subtract one dog that they are very quiet, not knowing where they fit in the new pack hierarchy.   We gathered up 4 bags of medications to take back to the vet to donate for another animal who might need them.  We changed the crates around so that Jolie’s crate went to Zoe who had adopted her as her mother and spent a lot of time cuddling there with Jolie.  That allowed Dusty full-reign over the crate that he had been sharing with Zoe so that now each dog has his very own big crate without having to share.  I don’t know if it’ll stay that way or if we’ll downsize them.  We’ll just have to see how it works out.

We gave away the small fish tank; the guy is supposed to come pick it up in the morning, so the living room will have a new face by tomorrow this time.  Now that Daisy and Bandit are playing so much and a lot of it in the house, they have been bumping into the little fish tank a lot; I keep expecting them to knock the whole damned thing over in the floor, water, fish, glass and all.  We thought it safe to give away before the disaster happens and someone two or 4 legged gets cut with glass or hit with falling furniture.  Our house is too small to have 2 big/medium dogs playing in the house so we have to make it safe for all again.  May end up getting rid of the 55 gallon tank, too.  I’d like to have a tank though, maybe a hexagon again when Blondie kicks the bucket.  We’ll see.  We just need to make more room to live in these days.

Good bye again to our sweet Jolie girl.  We’ll miss you so much, baby doll!!!!!!!

The dogs are trying to kill us; I’m convinced of it now.  Fancy barks all night and Daisy doesn’t want to go in her crate to sleep.  I was up until 4:30 this morning, then R got up at 5.  I slept until 8:30 then we switched out again.  Something’s got to change!  I disconnected the noisy desktop computer and brought my laptop in from the sewing room so maybe that will help Daisy sleep.  We’re going to let Fancy sleep under (not in) our bed and see if she barks tonight.

Surgery went well but I stopped the pain meds because it’s hard enough to sleep without the nightmares.  It hurts but not so much I can’t deal with it without the medication.  Tomorrow I can drive again so I go back to the black boot.  I’m ready for a trip to Starbucks!  Everyone should have my issues, right? LOL

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks around here.  The most exciting was the demise of Daisy’s crate.  Daisy is absolutely terrified of thunder; there’s not a doubt in my mind anymore.  One night I heard Daisy scratching around in her crate; wasn’t really sure at first what the sound was, just that something was amiss in the living room.  Upon inspection via flashlight I found the noise was Daisy staring, glassy-eyed and panic-stricken at me.  Her nose and mouth were dripping, her mouth was open and she was making a huffing noise.  I was shocked because I didn’t have the foggiest idea what was going on.  I spoke to her gently, softly….then I heard the thunder far, far away and I knew what was going on.

I got her out of the crate and kept her with me for a while until the noise subsided then I put her back in her crate for the night.  I went back to Facebook or email (whatever) and put the incident out of my mind.  It was raining but not hard; I never thought there was still an issue.  A few minutes later I heard Daisy bouncing her crate around again.  Ignore it, I thought.  She’ll lay down and go to sleep if I don’t intrude on her.  But the noise got louder and I couldn’t ignore anything about it.  I walked back into the living room and Daisy was in full-blown panic.  She had bent the back off the crate and was squeezing herself out the top of the crate.  I snapped on the light, opened the door to her crate and alternately called her to the crate door and told her, “No, Daisy!  No, Daisy!  Come to Mama, Daisy!”.   But she was beyond hearing or following my command.  So I pulled the crate away from the wall to give her enough room so that she didn’t injure herself getting out of the crate.  She was much better after she got out.  She wanted to be held and I accommodated her.  She paced, whined, looked at me with those big frightened eyes and neither of us knew what to do next.

I went out to the garage and brought in a container of cable ties because I didn’t know any other way at 1 AM to put the crate back together so that when the storm blew over it would still provide a place for Daisy to sleep.  It took about 30 or 40 ties to get it secure though you can’t tell from the picture below.  This is what her crate looked like at that point:

Daisy’s Crate post panic attack

With 9 dogs of too many sizes in the house I have to be able to keep all of them safe.  I have to be able to crate them to keep them apart at times.  I cannot stay awake 24/7 and watch them yet I do not yet trust that they are safe if out with Daisy.  There are too many variables.  For the most part, Daisy is good out running around.  She doesn’t get into much (except the trash can in the office sometimes where she chews up Kleenex).  She has only peed in the house once and that was during a thunderstorm when she was scared…and only happened once.  She uses the dog door religiously and even in panic she will only pace, cry and try to find a safe place on the couch or loveseat.  She will sleep under our desks even when the other dogs are out with her.  She is good about wearing a muzzle although she has taken them off occasionally.  The problem I have for the most part is Daisy with the other dogs.  Mimi will chase the big dogs out the dog door; she always has…she doesn’t handle stress well and believes that dogs should be seen and not heard, it’s not okay to play in the house.  Mimi’s always been that way and she is single-minded about it and will not back down from her self-appointed chore of ridding the house of noise/play between dogs bigger than herself (at 8 pounds).  Jolie doesn’t like anybody; 2-legged or 4-legged; she’s the only one who has bitten me.  She growls at all the other dogs and holds the distinction of being the only Lindsey dog that has ever got into a physical confrontation with Daisy.  No blood was shed but Jolie pooped all over the kitchen and herself before we saved her and put her in the bathtub (yuck!).  She is old and sick and pitiful but she is a bitchy little dog who wants her way or the highway. Dusty at 6 pounds will bark at Daisy if she sniffs him sometimes, not all the time.  If the little dogs jump on Daisy, I have no doubt that she will jump back and that’s where the problems lie.

So, I went the day after the panic attack and bought Daisy a new, stronger crate.  I slept on the couch with her for 2 or 3 nights because the weather was still bad and she could not/would not/was not able to sleep in her crate.  She was chewing on the new crate, too.  So I told R on the phone that we needed to get some hardware cloth or something to line/reinforce the crate or Daisy would repeat the process.  He just happened to know of some material at work that had been abandoned that might work if he could get permission to take it.  They approved his request and now Daisy has a crate lined on 3 sides with industrial plastic paneling.  It’s smooth to the touch and she cannot chew the bars.  There are no sharp places on the inside to injure her because R and I bolted it on from the inside (which took hours!!!!!!!!).  Of course, by the time it was done the weather cleared up and all has been much better for her.  We now have prescription medicine for thunderstorms and a calming aid she takes every night at bedtime.  I have been able to sleep in my own bed for 4 or 5 days now and life is beginning to calm back down.

Which brings us to Diego, who is a sweet little 5 pound dog who loves to play more than just about anything else.  The bad thing about Diego is that he has no sense when to leave the big dogs alone.  That is how he got between Bandit and the food bowl and got nipped on the ear.  He never knew when to just be still.  He’s a sweet little boy who craves attention and really needs to be the only dog in the house so he could have all the attention lavished upon him, but that’s not this house, so we had to give him back to the lady we got him from.  I’d never forgive myself if one of the big dogs severely injured or killed him, and my stress level was way too high trying to watch them 24/7.  I miss his little face but I have to admit that the entire house is quieter and the stress level has dropped immensely both for me and for the other dogs.  It’s easier to control the canine population without a tiny boy trying to rule the roost and instead constantly putting himself in danger.

I have now woken Daisy with my typing so I’ll get off here and hope she’ll go back to sleep so I can go to bed.  Surgery is Thursday so tomorrow is the last day I have to run errands/prepare prior to getting the big, ugly black boot back.  I need to go to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, when it rains, it pours, doggy-injury-wise.  Zoe goes back to the vet Tuesday morning.  They’ll sedate her and do more x-rays to check her hip.  Hopefully it’s all back in place and stable and she can go on living her young life.  Took Dusty in for his pain issue and found out it wasn’t his tummy but he has a pinched (or somewhat injured) nerve in his spine close to his neck.  So he’s on NSAIDs and pain meds now.  Also, vet says he’s too fat and has small bones so has to lose serious weight.  They sent a chart home to Ronnie of his weight gain, so he will stop feeding them so much crap.  Then, Diego got between Bandit and the food bowl and got nipped on the ear and neck so he’s on pain meds, too.  Yikes!

Zoe seems to be doing fine except she wants to be carried everywhere and held all the time (so what else is new? LOL).  But it’s understandable that she doesn’t want to walk much with her back legs tied together, so we’re humoring her.  Hoping that that is removed for good on Tuesday and she’ll be back to zipping around everywhere again.

Dusty is doing better, finished his pain pills today and still has a few days left on NSAIDs.  Also spoiled but that’s not new either.  He does seem a bit happier and is in less pain so he feels better all round.

Diego is feeling better and is moving around more but he’s still quite traumatized from the attack.  I don’t/wouldn’t wish injury on him but maybe he’ll realize in the future that, at only 5 pounds, he can’t just jump on the big dogs and expect to be king.  He needs to calm his butt down and stop playing so rough.  The big dogs don’t realize that they can hurt him very easily and Diego didn’t realize it either until this happened.  I really hope he’s learned a lesson and slows down now.  I don’t want to see him injured worse the next time.  His little ear has two puncture wounds in it so I may have to take him in to get antibiotics but otherwise he’s good physically.  You can’t move too fast or he screams and runs, so he has a little PTSD going on.  Poor baby!

Daisy is doing great!  She seems very happy and is calmer all the time.  Her wounds have healed and she’s doing great health-wise.  We’re still having some resource guarding issues with food bowls though.  Tonight we started feeding them all in their crates and moved some crates around so there’s no crate beside Daisy’s crate when she eats.  It seemed to work out; wish us luck!  We’ve had her out of her muzzle quite a bit but with Ronnie home on the holiday weekend there’s just too much excitement for the dogs to handle, so she still wears it for part of the day.  We make sure she has time out of the crate on her own without a muzzle and personal cuddle time, too.  We do the same for the little ones but for the most part they are all out together most of the time if Ronnie and I are both home to keep an eye on them.  It wasn’t this smooth when we had Daisy before; wish we didn’t have so many dogs and could keep her but I don’t see that happening.  We still have her listed for adoption and I updated her listing tonight.  Fingers crossed!  I’d love to find a good home for her.

I’ve got to get these dogs well because I have another foot surgery scheduled for June 4th.  I went Thursday for pre-op testing and lab work so everything is in forward motion.  These fur-babies have got to give me a break.  Otherwise I’m feeling well, and with all that’s gone on lately it’s a good thing.  I wanted to sew while Ronnie was off for 5 days but that didn’t happen either.  The house is cleaner (at least it was–Ronnie is a slob and leaves everything wherever and I refuse to clean up anything else until he goes back to work Tuesday.  Not worth it!  But the laundry, linens and all the dog crates/blankets have been laundered.  The fish tanks are clean, groceries bought, vacuumed and moved furniture and vacuumed under it and inside the closet, etc., so it is/was better for a while.  I got to a point where he was messing it up as fast as I cleaned, so I just put on the brakes.  No sense making work for myself; I have enough as it is; I’ll be so glad when he goes back to work!

Well, I’ll get my “Debbie Downer” butt off here and get ready for bed………

Things have begun to look up around here now that Daisy is home once more.  We decided there were things we approached erroneously the first time we brought Daisy into our home.  We let the little dogs dictate the mood the first time not realizing that we, as the pack leaders, should have been in the lead.  (Hindsight is 20/20!)  This time when Daisy came in the door I could see her visibly shaking as she planted her feet on the rug inside the door.  We had already decided that the little dogs would have to toe the line this time; they would have to learn the word “No!”.  And they are learning it somewhat late in their development, but learning it they are!  Mimi and Jolie are still quite vocal at times, but they are called down immediately and are responding to the command.  Daisy is still trying to be the boss.  She gets in the middle of everything we do, shows domination traits (putting herself higher than us, against us, over Bandit’s back, mouthing us with her teeth during play, walking between our legs, leaning into us, etc.) and a little resource guarding of her toys and food.  We do not feed them together and haven’t bought any new toys for her to guard as her own.  She seems to have grown up some since she’s been gone.  She’s calmer, she chews up less toys and doesn’t chew up her blankets like she used to.  Hopefully some of that was stress-related and her still being a puppy and having that chewing urge that puppies have while they’re teething.

Daisy is in her crate only while the littles eat and at night (as are Bandit, Gypsy, Mimi and Diego because either they potty in the house and/or to keep them out of our bed).  She wears her muzzle if she is out of the crate when the littles are out.  We put the littles in so Daisy has free time and gets to eat several times per day just as the littles do.  It’s working well.  We’ve had 2 short temper tantrums: once Mimi thought Daisy was too close to “her” daddy and she started to nip at Daisy, of course, Daisy jumped back, but we stopped it mid-tantrum and that was that.  The other time Daisy and Bandit had “words” (not physical, just barking and growling) in the living room which I stopped and crated both dogs…no more issues there either.

I am careful to watch the interactions closely and am thinking that over time, Daisy will find her place in the pack and the pack will find out that Daisy is no threat as long as they are no threat to her.  Eventually we’d like to not have to put a muzzle on Daisy at all, but only time will tell on that issue.  I think we’re going about it in a better manner now; it is very much different from last time and the stress level is much, much lower already.

On another note, last Monday our little baby, 4-pound Zoe hurt her hip–don’t know how because I didn’t see it when it happened and saw no evidence of any issue.  I let the dogs out of their crates in the morning so they could go potty, walked into my office to pick up my cup I’d left in there the night before and when I walked back into the kitchen Zoe was headed back through the doggie door holding her rear leg up high and squealing.  I picked her up and comforted her but she would not be comforted; she was in pain and wanted me to fix it for her.  I couldn’t tell if anything was broken or out of place, and she has tiny bird-like bones in her legs so I thought it prudent to call the vet ASAP.  I put Daisy back in her crate and took Zoe in to the vet.  They kept her and started pain meds IV—then I was really scared!  They called me after her pain calmed down and said they were about to sedate her and do x-rays.  That showed that her left hip was out of place and they planned on putting it back in place once she was fully sedated but by the time the sedation took effect the hip had slid back into place on its own.  I picked her up that evening and brought her home on pain meds and NSAIDs.  She has a “hobble” bandage attached to both back legs to keep her from slipping the hip back out before it heals.  I’ll take her back to the vet on Monday to make sure we’re headed in the right direction with our baby.  She’s not walking much on her back legs and has been quite the spoiled little pill.  Either Ronnie or myself has carried and held her all week.  If we can’t hold her we put her in Diego’s crate so she is safe and can survey her world properly.

Dusty had his nervous stomach flare up again last night so he’s back on his liquid stomach meds again.  He was bloated up like a balloon last night but it’s gone down a lot by today.  They told me his stomach issues could be stress-related so I’m assuming it’s flared because of the situation with bringing Daisy back into the pack.  He screams in pain when it flares up and is hard for us to handle him.  It breaks our hearts!  But the liquid medication has an almost immediate effect on his symptoms and in a few days he goes back to his normal Dusty self so I’m expecting that to happen this time, too.

Daisy has been found!!!!!!!!!!!!

As the poster says, Daisy is back home, safe and sound!  The sanctuary people found her walking down the street as if nothing was out of the ordinary and scooped her up.  They called me at 8 AM with the news.  Ronnie took off work before lunch and picked her up in Alvin where someone from the sanctuary met him with her so we wouldn’t have to drive all the way out to Danbury.

She is home, knows who we are and acts like she’s never been gone and nothing has ever changed in her life from before she went to the sanctuary at the end of 2014.  She loved on both of us, played in the yard and remembered Bandit (and he her).  She and Bandit are able to be out together though we’re still keeping an eye on them because Daisy is trying to dominate him and we don’t want that to even get started.  The “littles” don’t want her to even breathe the same air as they do, so nothing has changed there.  It’s going to take a while to get them all on the same page but we’re committed to doing it eventually.

She has a few abrasions on her legs and ankles but none of them are deep or infected, and don’t seem to bother her at all.  She’s going to the vet Friday morning for a complete check-up and to get some new Trifexis which she takes for heartworm and flea prevention.  Not expecting to find anything major though.  She has lost a few pounds from when she originally went to the sanctuary but she was up a few pounds then anyway.  She is slender but not bony or anything so she has been cared for sufficiently.  She doesn’t seem to have any psychological scars either so it seems they’ve cared for her well.  The gentleman today said everybody out there loved Daisy and were heartbroken when she came up missing.  I didn’t know if I believed that when they said she was gone, but, after seeing her today and talking to the staff lately I’m beginning to believe what they’ve been telling us.

Welcome home, sweet Daisy!  Mom and Dad love you, sweetie pie, and are so happy to have you home safe and sound!

Flyer for Daisy

Our girl is missing from the sanctuary.  They called me Saturday and said she escaped after being frightened by thunder during a bad storm Friday night.   They said there was one sighting on Saturday but it wasn’t Daisy.  We drove around for 3 hours and found nothing and there’s nothing around there except a fish hatchery, lots of green fields, some farms where there were no animals around the homes, only farm animals, and one sparsely full subdivision set far back on the other side of the country road.  Where can she be and is she being well cared for wherever she is?   Daisy was never afraid of thunder when we had her; I’m very suspicious of this story.  And they said she is the only dog they’d ever lost!  How did she get out and no other dog has ever gotten out?  Why would she be afraid of thunder all of a sudden?  She’s 2 years old and never has been afraid of anything or anyone.  How could she be missing 5 days and no one has seen her?  Are they looking for her?  Or do they know she won’t come back because they’ve done something to her?  This sux!

Mom and 2 hatched babies

Babies alone

Today’s peek into the lives of baby birds

Two little dove babies have recently hatched out in my airplane plant on the front porch.  At first we would scare the momma when we opened the door to leave home, but eventually she realized we weren’t going to hurt her or her babies and she’d just sit there and watch us go by.  Now the babies have adopted her attitude.  See?  There’s no cause to discriminate because we’re different species.  I’d invite them over for BBQ sometime, wouldn’t you?

We went to an event with all our rescue friends last weekend.  There were lots of cute babies of all sizes and degree of sweetness (none of them was less than perfectly sweet!).  I held them all and smooched on them without regard to my own health.  That was Saturday.  By Sunday night I had a scratchy throat.  By Monday night my throat was raw, swollen and yellowish-white.  I was up and down all night last night, just too miserable to sleep.  This morning we awoke to another thunderstorm, lights and alarm system flickering off then on, and Zoe absolutely petrified by it all.  So much for trying to rest and heal!  Even Bandit screamed at one point during a very loud thunder-boomer, and I’ve never heard Bandit scream in his life!  He wanted to be let out of his crate NOW and almost ran me over when I opened the door.  Of course, none of them wanted to go out in the downpour to pee so no throw-rug was safe.  I told Ronnie tonight I absolutely refuse to kiss any more babies the rest of my life.  I feel awful!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I took Gypsy to the vet for a pre-dental exam and blood work.  She enjoyed the trip but didn’t care much for having to sit in the doggie seat the entire way to Friendswood and back.  She stared knives at me the whole way.  Here she is on the way home wondering how damned long it’ll be before she can get home and get out of the car!

Gypsy: “Let me outta here!”

I also took Fancy to Starbucks for her puppy whip before I loaded Gypsy to go to the vet.  Fancy loves to go anywhere, anyhow, anytime, and stay as long as we want.  She never makes a sound and looks very interested in everything and everyone around her.  It’s like she’s watching a particularly exciting movie and is afraid she’ll miss something.

Fancy licking her lips with whipped cream on her chin

Today they all stayed home high and dry while I ventured out to the nail salon for some pampering, then some shopping.  Even though I felt bad it helped to just get a little bit of time to myself.  I didn’t accomplish a whole lot today but I got most of the laundry done when I got home and got part of the sewing supplies I’ll be needing this week to make purses.  I’ll probably go tomorrow and get the rest of the supplies.  I’m going to make at least 4 and maybe more with 2 different patterns.  I’ll post if I succeed, otherwise this will be the last you’ll hear of my purse-making.  LOL  I’ve made several so it’s not a big deal, just time-consuming and I have to be in the mood to do it.  Since I’m making purses for myself, too, maybe that’ll help motivate me.

Well, the old clock on the wall says that if I don’t go to bed I’m going to fall out of my chair.  It seems one of the sleeping pills is actually going to work.  Yay!  Good night!

We’ve thought all along of Bandit as a herding breed, but this Spring I’ve changed my mind…he is definitely a hunter.  He doesn’t run down elephants, rhinos or even deer, but he’s hell on the lizard population!  Today he brought in two recently deceased trophies, one I picked up off the couch with a paper towel, the other has yet to be seen post-battle.  I saw the combat right outside Bandit’s crate but couldn’t get him to give it up; I’m sure I’ll find the corpse when I pull his blankets out to be washed.  I hope I remember…otherwise the entire world will hear my scream when he falls on the top of my bare foot!

Bandit

Bandit is such a good, beautiful dog.  This year he will be 5 years old; he has the shortest expected lifespan of our pack (10 years) and when that time comes he will be a true loss to the entire Lindsey family.  He has been a friend, a big brother, a protector, a confidante, playmate and snuggle-bunny for each dog that has come through our doors.  He’s loved them all and allowed the puppies to crawl all over him, bite him, abuse him and even lick the inside of his mouth (ewwwwwwwww!).  How could that not be love???  And he minds great, is attentive and a lot of company for us.  He always is ready for anything, or for nothing—our choice.  We’re so fortunate to have Bandit in our family.  We love ya, big boy!

Today I had one of those little girl snits!  I ran errands yesterday until 3:30 PM, bought groceries and fixed dinner.  Today I had a doctor’s appointment, Thursday and Friday also booked, then an event on Saturday.  When I got up today I was dreading driving 30 miles to see the podiatrist.  Then I just (mentally) put my hands on my hips, stomped my foot, and said to the universe, “No!”.  I thought then that I’d just spend the day in my nightgown and be damned if I cared if anything was accomplished today, but then I decided that I and the house smelled too bad for that scenario.  I soaked in the tub, took Fancypants to Starbucks and then came home and started laundry, got the bed linens changed, rugs washed, and still spent about 1 1/2 hours watching some sewing videos.  It was an excellent day!  And I rescheduled those appointments with no one caring one way or another.  I’ve got to start going easier on myself; I’m making retirement seem like way too much of a job!