Oh Susie Q, Baby I love you!

We fostered Susi for a couple of weeks while she was waiting on transport to her rescue. She is a sweet gentle girl who is also afraid of people. Her person decided that rather than teach her not to jump on his car, he would just kill her instead. Thankfully a neighbor stepped in & got her to STAR. Shortly after she arrived, I was giving her a rub down & found a lump, but what I feared might be a cancerous tumor. It was discolored & dark. I had also noticed that she had a large scar on her back foot & it appeared to be swollen. I pushed all around on her "lump" and her foot & she did not show any discomfort. Any who skip forward to Susi being at the vet.......the "lump" was a bullet & her foot had injuries consistent with being broken in a trap & being left to heal without treatment! No wonder the poor girl is afraid. The bullet was removed & sadly there is nothing that can be done for her foot. She will have symptoms comparable to arthritis in it for the rest of her life. STAR has set up a fundraising page to cover the costs of the xrays that were needed in order to ensure that Susi did not have any other bullets in her. Any donations are greatly appreciated! Susi is now safe in a home that specializes in rehabbing shy/scared/abused dogs. Thank you to STAR & Happy Dog Rescue for making sure that Susi never has to be afraid of being hurt again!!

Viva La Dog Spa-French Moroccan Oil-Review

Hi everybody! Mrs. was recently contacted about trying a new product out & boy am I glad that she was!!! We were sent a bottle of French Moroccan Oil from Viva La Dog Spa.

Usually if I see Mrs. coming towards me with a bottle, I try to get away as quickly as I can, because due to my sensitive allergy suffering skin, I usually am getting sprayed with ouchie stuff to keep me from getting infections! This time though Mrs seemed pretty relaxed & I thought that I would stick around to see how things played out. As is usually the case, I was stretched out taking up most of the bed  when Mrs. sat down beside me. When she opened the bottle, I could already tell that I was going to like whatever it was! She took just a couple of drops (has convenient dropper lid) & rubbed it between her hands & then she gave me a massage! All the way from the tips of my ears to the bottoms of my feet. All I can say is WOWSER!! This stuff is AWESOME!!! My skin feels soft & supple.Here I am after my massage.

Do I look relaxed or what?!

While I am here, I might as well catch a few zzzzzzs :) 

And now a few words from Mrs.

I was a little skeptical of the oil at first, because I thought that it would leave a greasy feeling & I was also worried that it might leave stains wherever the dogs plopped down, but that is not the case! The oil was absorbed into the skin & left the dogs feeling great! We just so happened to be fostering a Standard Poodle (1 of the breeds it is recommended for) while we were trying the oil out & I used it on her.

This left her hair feeling very silky & she too enjoyed the attention.The products are made in a solar powered plant, the company pre-cycles & all of their bottles are recyclable! You can read more about it here. Bottom line is we feel that Viva La Dog Spa's French Moroccan Oil is a great product that will not only make your pooches fur & skin feel wonderful, but also feels great on people too! The pooches give it a two out of two smiles!

Update 7/12-A sad ending & a bright future

UPDATE:We trapped mama cat last night. She is now at the vet. Please send good thoughts & prayers for her♥

Late one evening,  we discovered that we were being spied on. A big black & white cat was staring in our picture window & taking in all that he could.  He had a white face with a little black mustache & had pretty long hair. We had just finished reading (as a family) a book about Anne Frank & we immediately (due to the mustache & the fact that he was spying) called him Adolph (no disrespect meant & we called him that lovingly). Over the next few days, we made numerous attempts to pet him & he always ran away. That was several years ago & we must have tried to trap/befriend/capture him a million times.  He was not always hanging around our house, sometimes we would not see him for a couple of months and then low & behold he would come around again. One time he showed up with obvious injuries & yet no matter what we did, we could not get close to him. We always left food & water out just in case we were the only source. He was content to lay on the porch, eat the food & watch us from afar, but he wanted nothing more. This went on for several years. About six months ago a female cat showed up with him & she was even more afraid of people than him. If you tried just to put your hand out, she would hiss at you; even if you were really far away. The cycle of setting the trap, trying to capture, hoping to befriend continued….. Not too long ago we could tell that the female cat was pregnant. We made a nice little “cat area” in our storage building in hopes that she would have the kittens there. We also amped up the efforts, with no luck. Before we knew it, she had given birth to the kittens. We looked all around the neighborhood  & could not find where she was keeping them. We actually thought that the kittens might not have survived. During all of this time, she still came to eat daily & Adolph stayed with her always. Several weeks passed & mama cat brought her kittens to eat at our house. Long story short, after a couple of days, we were able to get all of the kittens & during that time mama started to come closer & closer to us which in turn meant that Adolph did too. We had noticed that he had been looking to be in poor health lately & had lost a lot of his hair, but we were hoping that it was due to a flea allergy. Not too long after we got the kittens, Adolph finally stepped into the trap! Yes, we would actually be able to get him to the vet to be altered, apply flea meds & see what else this poor boy needed. I had visions of him suddenly realizing that we were his friends & we were going to make everything okay. I actually told him that even. Sadly, when we took him to the vet, we discovered that he had FIV (not in itself a death sentence, but he was very sick). The decision was made to end his suffering, but not until after he was shown kindness & had a belly full of extra special food. We really struggled with this decision & feel horrible that he never got the chance at happiness that he deserved. We do not even have a picture of him, but our vet's office so kindly made a paw print for us. I guess if we had been able to communicate with him through words, we would want him to know that he mattered & even though we were not able to show him in the traditional way, we loved him.

We are still in the process of catching mama cat. She is smarter than smart. We have witnessed her sticking her paws through the back of the trap & “scooping” food up & out to herself (fixed that by enclosing entire trap except for the entrance). We have watched her side step into the trap barely missing stepping on the trigger. We have tried luring her into a room(& separately a crate) by using her kittens as bait. We have tried everything. We have spoken with our vet about sedatives & any alternatives & basically we just have to keep trying what we are doing & hope that we are able to catch her before she gets too sick to help & before she has another litter of kittens. It is so sad to see her all alone now. I can only imagine that she fears us even more since we first took away her babies & then her companion.

Speaking of the kittens, we fostered them until they were able to leave for rescue. Needless to say, we were completely stressed out while waiting to see if the kittens would test negative for FIV. Thank God they were negative!!! From what we have read & also after speaking with our vet, there is a good chance that mama cat is FIV negative as usually kittens who come from a + mother will test + until 12-14 weeks of age even if they are not actually infected. All of our personal cats are seniors & we had forgotten how energetic young cats are! For the first couple of weeks we worked really hard on trying to rid them of their mama’s feral behavior. I even pulled the baby bed mattress into the room they were staying in & slept on it in order to speed the taming process up a little. What can we say, is there anything cuter than kittens?

Thank you to STAR for letting us list the kittens on Petfinder & thank you to Almost Home Dog Rescue for taking the kittens into your program & making sure that they will never have to fight to survive as their mama has.

Remember SPAY & NEUTER is the answer!!

Ms Sherry

Was anyone out there wondering where Ms. Sherry was while we were on vacation?

Our niece had agreed to stay at our house & take care of the cats, kittens (a story for another day) & Sherry, but a couple of days before we left, North Star Dog Rescue offered to take Sherry into their rescue program.

 
They have an awesome foster mom that has no other pets. Things could not have worked out more perfect if we had planned it! So off Sherry went to the vet for her health certificate. 

Sherry was adopted into her forever home within a week of going to VT!!! Not only does she now have her own human family, she also has 2 kitty siblings. She has already started training & enjoys going to work with her Mom! We could not have hoped for anything better for sweetie pie Sherry who is now known as Lucy (love it)!! Thank you to STAR, North Star Dog Rescue & all of the volunteers (drivers & fosters) that made it possible for her to find her family!!

My First Vacation Continued

The owner at our home away from home told us about an area where water wasn't so rough...The wind is INSANE there but the water is calm.  People do a lot of wind surfing there...

Annie loved it instantly.  Unlike me, she is not a fan of the BIG WAVES.  She is 15 years old but she was as active as a puppy when we reached the water's edge.

I still attacked the water as I always do.  I wish my people would move closer to this area...It's awesome!!!

Seeing the fish swimming blew my mind!  I want to be a fish...or a boat...or anything that stays in the ocean...seems like a good life...

WATER!!!  I got you.  I'm Pauley James from  KY & I can drink the ocean dry.

My Boy looks bored.  How can he be bored??? LOL---who cares?

Hey---is that my sister, Annie???

It is!  She swims very gracefully---unlike me...It was so cool to see her out in the water again. 

Still sporting my life jacket...

I need to apologize to My Boy!  I did not realize how much I was splashing him until I saw this picture. He was telling me stop drinking the water, too.  (I did not listen).

What's with humans and breaks?  They are kooky.  If there's water---let's swim...

ok, this is more like it.  I am back in the water but Mr. and Annie are back at the shore.  Oh well, more ocean for me!!!

I look pretty intense in the picture.

I love to make splashes!!!  I swim better than Olympic winner, Michael Phelps.  Seriously, I'll take him on anytime...

Another great shot of Annie.  Mr. and Annie found a big crab on the shore.  Annie wanted to eat it but Mr. walked her away.  Annie is not afraid of any animals!  She's super silly...

I am so TIRED!!!  I need a little rest.  Swimming sure tires you out. 

Another fantastic shot of Annie.  She's tougher than nails...

This was a long day but after a quick break---we went for a hike...YAY!

We were in North Carolina but it looks like we are entering a jungle here.  I love walking on new paths and trails.  Gotta mark some territories. 

Look at my smile!! 

Check me out...Chilling on a surfboard in front of the outside shower at our home away from home (Mr. and Mrs. loved the outside shower).  The BEACH sign is cool...showed me the way to heaven...

Holy smoke!  Look at the lighthouse.  It was really cool to see...

I wanted to walk to the top but NO DOGS ALLOWED!!! I think my family was actually relieved about this. I bet there are an awful lot of steps to get to the top.

That was a quick week! Hopefully we can all go back some day! Thanks for checking out my pics. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!!