The past few months have been very interesting….
Adi and Bina, who arrived last summer are moving forward, healing emotionally and physically.
Adi the Cattle dog had her leg amputated in October and within a couple of weeks was
running around, behaving as though she had always had three legs. The pain caused by
the non-healing broken leg was a distant memory…and although no more than 9 months
old when she arrived, by not having to deal with pain and incapacity, she was able to
become a puppy for the first time since she had been 4 or 5 months of age. By now, at age
15 months, she is mellowing, playful, somewhat hyper…in other words a normal little Cattle dog.
Bina arrived a month or two before Adi. Feral, fearful, high strung, suffering with a missing foot
which had either been deliberately cut off by a sadist or lost in a trap-hold of some sort,
Bina at 18 months of age trusted no humans and had little use for most dogs. None the less
my husband, partner in all things animal, Jeff worked with her daily and slowly she came to
trust and accept him into her limited world. She learned where she lived and that it was a
safe spot for her.
Adi and Bina slowly grew to become best friends. Adi taught Bina how to play with toys and
how to dog-wrestle. Although she merely “accepts” me, knowing I am the one who provides food, Bina
she is learning how to become a dog. It is a major step in her ongoing journey.
Sohvi found a forever home with a wonderful woman and two other Border Collies. Although we miss her terribly, we know she has the best possible life she could have!
In October we took in Bella, a 8-10 year old Chihuahua with two huge inguinal (abdominal) hernias.
She also had Tick Fever which had to be cleared before surgery could be done…or she might bleed- out. Locally in SoAZ we were not able to find any Veterinarians willing to work on her. Our Vet, Dr. Heist, thought the surgery could be too complex and the chance of bleeding too great. Even the local specialists were hesitant and refused to work on Bella.
The hernias were huge! …but gratefully we met with Dr. Brett in North Scottsdale.
His practice is a 450mile round trip from our facility….but I brought Bella up for '
an initial consult and then drove up again on a Tuesday a few weeks later to leave
her for several days for the surgery. On Friday evening that week I drove up again
and picked her up.
In order to make room for her organs, Bella’s spleen had to be removed or it might
rupture from the pressure of insertion into a tight space.
Today we are working on her weight, attempting to get two pounds off the chubby Chi
so that she can be spayed and have a small re-opening of the hernia (on one side)
repaired. We plan on bringing Bella back up to Dr. Brett for what we hope is her final
bought of surgery in another month.
Bella
During the period of time, we accepted an elderly, toothless Chihuahua with a broken jaw named Feo…which means “Ugly” in Spanish. He was an owner turn in to Pinal county and, not surprisingly, no one wanted him….
Crystall a lovely young woman I work with at Pinal kept telling me about him and hinting how much it would mean to everyone there if we were to take him….So we did. Little Feo has turned out to be the sweetest little guy, full of vim and vinegar…Although he is fed a specialized slushy diet of soft dog foods, he is doing great, gaining weight, making friends and hanging out with our elderly little Chihuahua named Princess.
We were also able to pull a pure little Dachshund we named Demi from a euthanasia list at Arizona Humane Society in Phoenix. She was found to have Valley Fever, which made her unadoptable. Since we already have three dogs being treated for VF, we accepted her into the pack.
Feo
Bari Mears, founder/director of PACC911 has a number of little Doxies. After sending
her pictures and stories of little Demi, she agreed to foster…and now adopt…
little Demi who has been renamed Ellie Mae. The sweet little red dog is doing very
well, recovering from Valley Fever and making friends at her new forever home.
In early March we accepted a little 10+ year old Chihuahua we have named Little
Red Fox, or “Red” for short. She is a sweet little girl who we believe was neglected
by not abused. She came from the Maricopa pound. Blind, Red has with the worst
cataracts I had ever seen. Sadly, when we took her to see Dr. Merridith at Eye Center
in Tucson, she was found to have detached retinas so that cataract surgery would
not help her see again. A frightening side effect of cataracts in dogs ic Glaucoma, the
painful disease which builds pressure up in the head. We are putting specialized
medicated eye-drops in Red’s eyes daily in an attempt to avoid Glaucoma. Red will
go back to see Dr. Merridith again in September and will have regular checkup to
insure the drops are working.
Ellie Mae (formerly Demi)
Two weeks ago, when we took Bella up for a check-up, we took Red up to see Dr. Brett and had the last of her few remaining rotten teeth removed. Today, eating soft foods, she is happy and pain free.
The most recent addition to our menagerie is Henry, a year-old Cattle dog. Henry is a “lethal white” also called a Double Merle, which is simply stated very bad breeding. Henry arrived about ten days ago.
Henry was born with deformed eyes which have left him blind. Next week Henry goes up to see Dr. Merridith as we believe he might have “some” sight in his left eye. If he does have residual sight, we will do whatever we can to preserve that sight for as long as possible. Of course we might just be not overly hopeful….
Although breeders know that merle markings on Aussies and Cattle dogs is a recessive trait, breeding merle to merle will produce more merle-marked expensive pups. But 25% of these double merle babies will be deaf or blind or have seizures or any combination of these three genetic maladies.
My first “lethal white” dogs were 4-week old Aussie X Cattle dogs. Both pups had been tossed into the desert when the breeder realized they were both deaf and had serious vision issues. They were Little Red Fox named Henry and Murphy. Henry was mostly blind, totally deaf and he began having seizures at 6 weeks of age. Even with major medicalmedical intervention, he lived medical care he only lived two and a half years.
His brother Murphy was deaf and slowly went blind as he grew older. Murphy died at 11 years of age.
Henry2 seems to be fully hearing, and at a year is not showing signs of epilepsy. We hope he will have a long, happy and healthy life.
He is already making friends with Adi and several other dogs here in our crazy dog pack.
Henry the first Murphy
Our Happy Henry (the second) within days of his arrival at CCR. It is rare to see Henry without a bone, ball or toy in his mouth!
Update on the Animals at CCR
May 3rd 2017