David’s parents were so excited to have Anna out at their house in Boulder! They secured a crib, high chair, and some other necessities (and a few not-so-necessities) and had a little room set up for Anna.
Granddad and Anna enjoying the view from the deck:
In my 16 years of living in Conway, I have somehow never been to the little Faulkner County Fair until today. I took Anna this morning (and met up with our friends Rae Lyn and Elizabeth) to see the dog obedience demonstration and walk through the barns with all the animals. She loved it! She’s good at recognizing farm animals in her little storybooks and making their sounds, so I wanted to give her some real-life experience. We saw the cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and rabbits. (The pigs were blocked off, perhaps because they seemed a bit temperamental.*) The goats were so friendly! They were our favorite and made me want one for the backyard. (Don’t worry; I know better.)
*Update: David just informed me that the pigs were probably blocked off because of the swine flu. I asked if he was serious. Yes, he said, it’s happening in county fairs all over the country. They don’t want the pigs catching it from people.
Update again: Our friend Jennifer got to see and even pet the pigs this evening, so I guess it was just a temporary closing.
There were lots of school kids there to see the dogs:
The goats—so sweet and cute!
It was a mere 2 1/2 months ago that we took Russ, a dog we had helped rescue, into our home. I had to look back and see how long it had been, and that doesn’t sound long at all.
He was in the care of All About Labs Rescue; the plan was for us to foster him while he went through his heartworm treatment and got healthy, then he would be listed for adoption and go to his forever home. Many of our friends and family were skeptical and hinted that we were his forever home. No, we assured them, he would probably be happier in a home without the constant activity of little children, and we would be able to let him go when the time came. I guess we won’t ever know who was right, because the time never came.
Apparently, Russ had contracted distemper sometime in his earlier life. Normally dogs begin showing symptoms very soon after contracting the virus, but in rare cases, it can lie dormant for years until a later time in life. He was vaccinated against distemper in May when he was rescued, but the vaccination does nothing if the disease is already present. There was no way to know it was there, and by the time his symptoms began to be severe enough to suspect distemper, it was way too late to do anything about it. (Even if caught early, there is no cure; you can only treat the symptoms and hope for the best.) Our Russ-boy had to be put down today because the neurological damage had progressed to the point where there was no way to restore a decent quality of life.
Putting down a dog is an experience I’ve never had until today. We were afraid it would come to that point with Sasha, but God spared us from that. Today, with Russ, it was clear that it was the right thing to do, so fortunately the decision-making part was easy for us. The experience itself was what was hard. We were so thankful to have Donna from the rescue with us. Her presence helped us tremendously. And the doctors and staff at Hillcrest Animal Hospital were absolutely wonderful. The quality of care and the understanding and support we received from them were amazing.
This dog rescue thing is a dangerous business. The more you love, the more you can get hurt. I guess we rescued Russ in more ways than one. Our intent was to rescue him (and his companions) from a life of hunger and abandonment. We did that; Russ was well-loved and well-cared for, and I know he felt safe and happy with us. But, in the end, he required a second rescue—a rescue from his fear, frustration, and pain. Thank God he wasn’t alone in the woods when this happened. He was with people who loved him and who could deliver him from the state he was in.
This isn’t at all what I had in mind when we got involved in dog rescue, but unfortunately it is a necessary part sometimes, and a part we have to be willing to do.
(You can read some more about our experience on David’s blog.)
Today would have been Sasha’s “birthday” as we called it; we don’t know her real birthday so we just used the day we adopted her. She came into our lives four years ago today, and she left way too soon. David wrote an excellent post that ties together our recent doggie adventures, our love for Sasha, and our passion for animal rescue.
Ok, this is honestly the most calm, laid-back dog I have ever seen in my life. We’ve actually forgotten he’s here a few times, and he’s only been here 24 hours! He just lies there, in the same spot, indefinitely, until you coax him somewhere else. It’s almost like not having a dog, except you have to step over him sometimes.
That may just be his personality, or the heartworms may be making it hard for him to exert much energy, or he may still be scared of his new surroundings. He’s very submissive and holds his head down a lot, but he also seems happy to be around us and wants plenty of lovin’. I hope, as he gets more comfortable with us, that he’ll come out of his shell a little bit.
This is Russ.
Look familiar? Yep, he’s one of the dogs we helped rescue, along with Jennifer M., from the Lake Conway area a few weeks ago:
Russ is heartworm positive and needs to be treated, but since the AAL ranch is outside, he needs to be fostered in an air-conditioned home during the treatment (heartworm treatment can be very hard on dogs). So we’re going to be taking care of him for a little bit until he’s healthy and ready for adoption.
This morning we all headed down to the ranch to pick him up. We brought him back and let him explore the backyard, then the house, then David gave him a bath, and now he is resting in his crate. He didn’t know what to think at first about being inside; he’ll have to get used to that. He’s probably never been inside before except at his recent vet visit.
The two younger pups (the black one and the smaller black & white one) were heartworm negative and are ready to be listed for adoption now. The Golden is in Memphis at MAGRR awaiting a foster home; I don’t know her heartworm status. Unfortunately, we never caught Mr. Skittish.
UPDATE: Just found out that the Golden, named Maie, is available for adoption! So she’s heartworm negative and in good health. Check out her page.
UPDATE 2: The two younger pups, Ryder and Rover, have their own pages on Petfinder now.
As I mentioned in my first story about the great dog rescue adventure, we were unable to get one of the five dogs that Saturday. He is very skittish around people (thereby earning himself the name Mr. Skittish in our blog posts). So picking up where I left off last… between Jennifer M. and us, we checked the lake on Saturday night and twice on Sunday with no sign of Mr. Skittish, but some folks camping there said they had seen him, so we weren’t giving up yet.
On Monday night, David and I were on our way to celebrate our anniversary but stopped by the lake first, just in case he was there (after a difficult decision of what to wear that is appropriate for both catching filthy dogs and having a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday). And he was! But that’s not all… he had teamed up with a new pack! There was a momma dog and three puppies with him. And, let me tell you, they were CUTE!!! All 5 dogs were very hungry. The momma and puppies were very sweet and loveable; in fact, after she had had enough to eat, the momma was a bit of an attention hog. We set up the crate to try to catch Mr. Skittish, but we were unsuccessful. When we left, David talked to Donna (with All About Labs, who took the first batch) about the new additions to see what could be done about them. Between Donna and her friend Judy, who runs a rescue in Malvern, they had places for them!
Tuesday we didn’t see them, but we theorized that maybe they wander around and re-appear at that spot around 7 PM, since they had been seen at that time twice. So Wednesday night, the three of us showed up around 7, and they were there. (more…)
Wow, it’s been quite a week.
Last Saturday, a quick Facebook check of people’s status updates turned into a week-long drama when I read that one of my friends (also named Jennifer) was “making an emotional plea for her friends to go rescue 5 dogs that were dumped at Lake Conway. Very sweet, but very skinny and tick-laden.”
Oh boy. Well, we couldn’t just ignore that, now could we?
There is so much I could write about this past week’s experience that I hardly know where to start, and if I wrote it all at once it would be way too long. There are several topics floating around in my head:
I think I’ll start with the happy ending and work my way backwards, because it’s late, and posting pictures and writing about them is the easiest kind of blog post.
To give proper credit to the happy ending: first of all God, who reminded us that He works things out just when we think they’re crumbling apart, and His instruments: Lynda from Memphis Area Golden Retriever Rescue (Lynda is a local contact), and Donna from All About Labs.
Here are the dogs at the lake:
I ran my first 5K last Saturday. I ran my second 5K today.
A lot happened between them. A lot I’d rather have not happened. But I don’t get to decide these things.
The first was on Tuesday. Our pastor, his wife, and their teenage son lost their 20-year-old son/brother to suicide. From my very limited knowledge of the situation, they knew he was having a hard time this year, but this was still completely unexpected and none of his family or friends saw it coming. Our church is grieving hard for this sweet family.
And then our own tragedy hit Thursday—one that was much smaller in the grand scheme of things, but one that has consumed my focus because it affected me personally. Our sweet Sasha died around 7:00 Thursday morning. We were expecting her death at some point because of her cancer, but we were not expecting it that day. In fact, she had been doing great the few days preceding her death and seemed so healthy and full of life, just like our old Sasha. I didn’t know until afterwards about the “final rally” before death that happens in many cancer patients. I’m glad I didn’t know. If you want to read more about what happened, you can read David’s post here.
It’s day 3, and it’s not getting any easier yet. I wonder how long it takes? A week? Two weeks? A month?
I had already registered for the Paws on the Pavement 5K, which benefits CARE (Central Arkansas Rescue Effort) for Animals. Had this been any other 5K, I probably would have ditched it. But it seemed like an appropriate thing to do to go ahead and run it, given the cause. I could run this one for Sasha. And I did.
I don’t know why I did this to myself, but I just kept imagining she was there at the finish line waiting for me, the way she did when she was separated from one of us and would watch anxiously until we returned, wagging her whole body at the long-awaited (even if it had only been 2 minutes) reunion. Ok, maybe that was the wrong thing to do, because it was all I could do to keep from bawling after it was over and she wasn’t really there, and wouldn’t ever be there, except in my head. (Don’t worry—I let myself cry on the car ride home.)
But I finished in 29 minutes 2 seconds. That’s the best time I’ve ever done. Last week, I was running for me. This week, I was running for her. I guess it made a difference.
It’s been a while since I posted about Sasha. If you read David‘s blog, you’ve read some updates lately, but if not, I’ll give you the condensed version. Over the past few months, we’ve basically been removing tumors as we find them. She’s had melanomas on her tongue and osteosarcomas under her skin removed. There was no sign of spread to her lymph nodes, lungs, or anywhere else, so we just kept removing tumors. It had been pretty much one at a time, but a couple of weeks ago she suddenly had an eruption of 7 all at once. Yesterday the vet removed 2 more, and one of them was deep and she thinks it may have gotten into her lymph system. We won’t know until we get the lab report back in a few more days. We of course have lots of questions about what exactly this means, but we’re waiting to ask them until we know for sure.
Sometimes I think, “I can’t stand this; I just wish I knew how long this was going to go on.” But really, when I think about it, I’m probably glad I don’t know. If our time with her is limited, would I really want to know a date and have it looming in the future and casting a dark shadow on our days with her? Absolutely not! I’m a planner, but this time, I need to take it one day at a time and cherish our Sasha and the blessing she is to our family.
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