Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

Brynn: Back To The Teaching Hospital Again

Today I drove blind Brynn back to Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine for yet another hospital visit.  We needed to bring her back for a repeat echocardiogram on her heart, to see if there are any other changes since we treated her for a heart infection in mid-May, when she was last here.  But the bigger and more immediate reason for her return visit is Brynn's ongoing urinary tract problems. 

Regular blog readers will recall that earlier this year we did surgery on Brynn to create a 'urethral extension,' which was designed to stop the constant leaking and dribbling that was causing severe urine scalding.  Well, the surgery worked ... for a while.  But somewhere along the way in the past couple of months the extension broke down and her leaking resumed.  We had continued to bathe her every day, but once the extension failed, it became more and more difficult to keep the urine scalds from developing. 

And the more raw her skin became, the more difficult it was to bathe Brynn because it was increasingly painful for her.  So in the past few weeks I had to resort to tying up one of her rear legs (a trick our farrier showed us) to keep her standing still and manageable while I cleaned her legs and rear end.  Brynn had also developed open sores on opposing sides of her inner thighs, which meant these sores were constantly rubbing against each other.  In short, we were back to a quality of life issue for this little girl.

Brynn has grown quite a bit since her previous surgery and gained 100 pounds, so her increased size should help the surgeons on this next round.  Because they know what they're dealing with and thus won't have to do all the extensive diagnostics they did the first time, we're hoping the cost will be less than the initial surgery.

I took the first photo above late this afternoon when we arrived at WSU.  With Brynn is fourth-year vet student Milo A., who will be her 'case manager' for this visit.  I was surprised to have a male vet student attending to us because every other time we've been here, we were always working with female vet students.  Now, I have known for quite some time that vet schools in recent years were graduating more women vets than men, but I hadn't realized until today just how big a change has occurred.  Ready for this?  Out of a 4th-year class at WSU of 95 vet students, only 15 are men.  So Milo is kind of a rarity!

It took Milo about, oh, 30 seconds to find Brynn's sweet spot, as you can see in this photo.  I swear I thought she was going to fall over while I was taking this shot.  She just couldn't get enough of that back scratching, and kept leaning first one way and then the other. 

Dr. Kristin Gablehouse, one of Brynn's surgeons, and Teri O., the senior equine vet tech, were also on hand to meet us, and they quickly got Brynn settled in her new stall.  Brynn felt right at home, and started munching hay as soon as they hung the hay net for her.  I took this photo while Milo and Teri were taking her vital signs.  You can see Brynn is happily eating, with not a care in the world!

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Please, It's Only 10 A.M. Don't Wake Me.

Here's little Bailey, who is always one of the last dogs to stir in the morning, and usually not before 10 a.m.  You can see the look I was getting when I took this photo mid-morning.  Not only does he like to sleep in, but because he's incontinent -- he dribbles and leaks when he's asleep -- Bailey doesn't exactly feel the, um, pressure to get up and go outside that other dogs do.  So he's perfectly content to lie there in the morning while we're off doing chores and the rest of the dogs are milling around.   Eventually he'll shake the blankets off and saunter to the front door ... but only because, well, it's always nice to get a little fresh air, you know?

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Blind Cash, Then And Now

I was out taking photos this afternoon of our blind foal Cash for his new Web page (not up yet) and was struck by what a big boy he looks like now.  The photo above shows the little tyke when he arrived back in early March at the age of 4 weeks.  He was impossibly cute, not to mention tiny and cuddly.  And today...

As you can see, he's actually looking like, well, a real horse!  He's now 5-months old, drop-dead handsome, easy-going, and smart.  (Look at that powerful Quarter Horse butt!)  Although he's in the same pasture with Lena and Destiny, two of our blind mares, he spends most of the time cruising around by himself.  He's full of self-confidence and apparently doesn't think he needs a couple of nanny-mares looking after him!

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It's A Tight Fit

I went into the cat house yesterday evening to feed the cats when this scene presented itself.  Those are two of our wobbly kitties, Claire and Wobbles, squashed together inside that kitty condo.  Now, that is definitely a condo unit built for one, and it sure can't be comfortable in there.  Claire (on the left) is usually oblivious to the fact she is encroaching on another cat's space, and I'm sure Wobs was saying to her, "You're crowding me, girl!"  Fortunately they stayed like this long enough for me to get their photo.

Blind Willie Gets Adopted!

Just three weeks after one of our volunteers from Missoula, Kate W., adopted blind Luke, we have another wonderful adoption to report.  One of our volunteers, Katie R. from Helena, adopted blind Willie today!  Katie had been planning on adopting Willie for a few weeks, but was waiting until she got married -- just two days ago, on Friday!  So on her way to Twentynine Palms, California, where her new husband Greg G. is stationed with the Marine Corps, Katie stopped by this morning to scoop up the Beagle boy and take him with her.

Willie was always a bit of a wallflower and quite timid around people.  Often he seemed interested in people until they got to within a couple of feet of him, but then he would drop to the ground and slink.  (We suspect plenty of abuse in his past.)  Yet the first time Willie heard Katie's voice, he sprang to life and started running in circles, tail up, just as joyful and as happy as could be.  He was incredibly excited at the sound of her!

Alayne was there to witness his reaction, and she couldn't believe the transformation.  We had never seen him like this before.  From then on, we figured we had an adoption in the works. 

In our spring newsletter article about Willie, we joked that he was learning how to be a Beagle and would soon graduate from Beagle Basic Training.  We invoked the U.S. Army's famous motto, which for Willie meant, "Be all you can Beagle."  But little did we know at the time that Willie's future would actually involve the U.S. Marine Corps, not the Army!

I took this photo of the newly married couple and their newly adopted Willie just before they left on the long drive to California.  Less than two hours later, Katie called from the road to say Willie had already climbed from the back of the car and into the front seat, and was now lying sound asleep on her lap as she drove. 

I think this is going to work out just fine!

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Now He's A Rolling Dog, Too

This is Patch, now known as Skipper, the little Schipperke with a rare auto-immune skin disease who came to us several weeks ago from a shelter in California.  We renamed him Skipper in honor of his Schipperke heritage, because this breed was used as watchdogs on boats and barges in the Netherlands and Belgium.  ("Schipperke" is actually a diminutive form of the Dutch word for "skipper," so there you have it.)  As you can see, Skipper has now become an official rolling dog himself.

I took this photo of him right after that roll, and you can see he was one very happy boy.  It's too soon to know what kind of "roller" he will be.  We have three categories of rolling dogs here.  There are the "fair-weather rollers," who generally roll only on grass when it's warm out.  Then we have the "all-season rollers," who roll year-round regardless of the weather.  Finally, we have the "snowy rollers," who usually prefer to roll only on snow.

It's kind of hard to tell from these photos, but Skipper's hair is definitely growing back and his skin is in much better shape.  He still has some crusty areas, particularly on his ears and around his neck, and his face does seem to be permanently scarred.  But we've only had a couple of days where he's been scratching at himself, so we are cautiously optimistic we have his skin disease under control.

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Dachshunds 1-2-3

I was heading from the kitchen back to my office the other evening when I looked over and saw this Dachshund line-up in the living room.  That's new arrival Belvie by the wall, then little Daisy on the cot in the middle, and Bailey in the foreground.  Bailey is sleeping on his friend and occasional arch-rival, Mr. Caterpillar.

What's missing from this photo is the white fluffy stuffing that the Doxies and their friends are always ripping out of the soft squeaky toys.  Usually our living room floor is covered with white tufts, so Alayne must have swept it not long before I took the photo.

What's interesting is that although all the stuffed toys get their innards pulled out eventually (usually within 8 hours of us handing them out), Mr. Caterpillar has managed to survive fully intact and fluffy for months now.  I mean, if there was ever a tempting target, it's Mr. Caterpillar.  It's not his size that makes him immune, because Bailey personally had a major role in de-fluffing Mr. Bear, who was very big, too.  So Mr. Caterpillar has a certain je-ne-sais-quoi about him.

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The Calm Before The Storm

Here's another "outtake" from the newsletter photo shoot with Soba and Noodle.  I should have used this shot yesterday instead of the two sisters wrestling (see post below), because this happened before the girls got off their cots to roughhouse with each other.  Nevada the blind puppy seems to always keep popping up in our photos.  She maintained a discreet distance during the photo shoot, but as soon as it was over -- I'm not sure how she really knew we were finished -- she made a beeline for the cots and her two friends.

I think Nevada had every intention of settling in for a snooze with the wobblies, but Soba soon had other plans.  The gentle, snuggly scene in this photo lasted all of, well, about 45 seconds.  Notice Soba's mischievious, ready-to-pounce posture.  I think the thought going through her little head at this point was, "Hmm, sis is lying down ... she's not even looking.  She might even be starting to fall asleep.  This could be my moment." 

And then pounce she did, sending both of them off their cots and into their wrestling match.  This left a somewhat surprised Nevada behind, alone on the cot.  That's when Nevada climbed down and wandered off to sit in the tall grass, as you saw in the photo from yesterday's post.

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Chaos Vs. Serenity

We were taking photos a couple of days ago for our summer newsletter of Noodle and Soba, who are going to be our "cover models" on this next issue.  After getting these two very wobbly, high-energy girls to lie quietly on their cots for the photo shoot (no small task, mind you), they decided they'd had enough of the sitting-still business.  So they tumbled off the cots and began roughhousing with each other in the grass.  That's when I happened to get these shots.

Now, I know this photo above looks like they're fighting ferociously, bared teeth flashing and all that, but this was nothing more than these two sisters having a great time.  What I liked about this shot is the contrast between the sheer chaos of the two girls going at each other in the foreground ... while there in the background are the calm, Buddha-like Brody and the Sphinx-like Nevada.  Both Brody and Nevada were apparently oblivious to -- or merely uninterested in -- the World Wrestling Federation bout a few feet away.

And just four photo frames later, here's what this scene ended up looking like.  Well, that didn't last long, eh?  In one of the other photos I took, Brody was actually yawning, and you can see here that he remained completely detached from the event, as did Nevada!

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Kasha Comes To The Ranch

I took this photo of our newest arrival, Kasha, and Alayne this afternoon.  Kasha arrived late Thursday night.  Alison James, our new development director, was planning to head to Spokane last week on personal business, and kindly offered to pick up Kasha and bring her out to the ranch for us.  (Alison starts her new job with us tomorrow, on Monday, and will help Alayne and me on the office side of running the sanctuary.)

Kasha is much smaller than we expected, weighing in at about 30 pounds.  This photo -- like the original photo the shelter took of her -- makes her look bigger than she is.  She actually is barely up to our knees.  Kasha is very skinny -- I might even call her emaciated because all her ribs stick out -- and clearly her life before getting to the shelter was not a nice one. 

For example, she began digging under the wooden fence in our isolation yard so she can get out to be with the other dogs, and when I went up to the fence and said "No!" in a loud, firm voice, Kasha slinked away and disappeared into her cottage.  I found her cowering in her crate, too afraid to come out.  Once I coaxed her out -- she urinated submissively on the floor on the way to me, however -- and made all over her, the dark cloud lifted and she became a playful, bouncy puppy again.

I guess, having had a foot chopped off, it's amazing she isn't more afraid.  But most of the time she is a very happy girl.  She's been going on walks around the ranch, and she loves these opportunities to explore.  Kasha's a bit of a tugboat, in fact, and it's hard to believe she had a limb amputated a few days ago.  She just wants to get up and go!  She is such a sweet, loving little thing.

On Wednesday, when Kasha was discharged from the hospital in Spokane, a kind lady named Christie fostered her overnight for us until Alison could pick up Kasha on Thursday afternoon.  I wanted to share part of an email Christie sent me Thursday:

"I just want to thank you and your group for the work you do.  I have worked in a vet clinic for 10 years.  And have been a foster home and rescue transporter for 8 years.  NEVER have I seen a rescued animal have the ability to receive the best services in town.  Most rescues are fixed by local veterinarians who donate much of the costs just so treatments can be done.  Treatments are always the bare minimum.  Kasha is very lucky to have such a group as yours caring for her."

When I thanked Christie for her note, I told her we were able to provide this kind of medical care for our disabled animals only because we are blessed with incredibly generous supporters from across the U.S. and Canada.  Yes, Kasha is lucky in many respects -- lucky to be alive! -- but we are lucky to have such kind and compassionate people supporting our work with these wonderful animals.  It's what makes possible everything we do here.

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