Saturday, June 8, 2013

Sammy is just fat



The DVM called Kevin on Friday to let us know that Sammy does not have hypothyroidism. He's simply fat and needs to be exercised more. Eric and I have been walking him daily since Thursday, taking him on either a .8 route, a 2-mile route or the 3-mile route. I walked him both mornings with Sara, his favorite companion, before the heat of the day gets to everyone.

But now Sara is also showing signs of old age. Sitting on the back porch yesterday, she started peeing while sitting down. She thus licked herself dry but then I noticed today she was peeing while walking. Looks like another vet visit for Sara in the near future! She doesn't appear in any pain and walks fine, but this is something new. Sara will be 11 years old on June 23rd.

Meanwhile Sadie continues to improve. She can almost run again.

I am leaving later today for my road trip to Indiana. I should be on the road in the early afternoon. I won't go any farther than Albuquerque as I want to see the Raton Pass during the day and spend some time in Trinidad, CO before heading east via US160. I've always wanted to see that part of the country.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Check-ups for Sammy and Zeke

Yesterday went well for all the pets. Even Sadie was back to being alert and responding to stimuli although her walk was slow and her right ear hung low. Looks like Minnie gave her a big gash at the base of the ear that hurts her.

I had a vet appointment for Sammy, Zeke and cats Pache and Bobby on post for their routine shots at 1pm. The prices for the post vet are still the cheapest around and I just wanted to make sure all the pets' vaccines were up-to-date should something happen to them while I was away. Sammy needed his three-year parvo/distemper shot, Zeke needed his rabies, and the cats were post past-due on everything.

Taking two dogs and two cats to the vet is not fun. Bobby meowed loudly the entire way, panting and bug-eyed the entire drive. Eric took him out of his small carrier during the drive, to hold and pet him and put him at ease. At least Eric helped me here. He carried the cats in the carriers (they needed separate ones as Pache can't stand Bobby) while I had the dogs on long leashes. We were late for our 1pm appointment because I had to turn around near the front gate because I had forgotten my military ID card! Our wait was only 30 minutes as we sat in an empty waiting room.

To my surprise Sammy continues to gain weight. Last year he weighed in at 83 pounds, yesterday he weighed in at 95 pounds! What gives? The vet tech thinks Sammy may have a thyroid condition, and I agreed to have his blood taken to see the cause of his weight gain. He should be 70 pounds, not 95! Results should be back in today and we will be notified. Sammy took the poking like a champ, getting his shots in three different areas of his body.

Zeke, who had been hyperactive in the office, was also a little champ during his exam and vaccines, never flinching or growling during the process. He weighed in at 49.6 pounds, having gained almost three pounds since last year.

Pache and Bobby were also well-behaved. I expected Pache to hiss at the vet tech but he was just very scared, shaking in fear during the exam and vaccine part but being under control. He weighed in at 13 pounds and Bobby at ten pounds.

The entire vet visit was 30 minutes long and cost me $202. What a savings! I need to make the routine visits for the pets at the post vet more often. The only pet that now still needs updated vaccines is Mo, but he doesn't go outside and is at lower risk of being infected by a contagious disease.

Eric and I had S'more blizzards from Dairy Queen on the way home.

We also spotted Willie outside in our front yard. I hadn't spotted him in a few days and it's always nice to see him among the living. He sauntered across the street and disappeared into the neighbor's yard.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

No improvement

Once Kevin went to work this morning Sadie slept soundly in the bedroom on the floor. At times she breathed heavily, but she stayed in the bedroom while the other dogs were outside.

I went to get the Ford Escape's oil changed; the truck badly needed it. When I returned Sadie was sleeping on the shower tiles again.

Sadie had another seizure sometime between noon and 1:30pm when Eric and I left to go into town and when we returned she was lying on the garage floor near the door, catatonic. Her ears felt warm and she was wet on one side from having knocked over her water dish. She remained in the garage until Kevin came home around 4:30pm, when she got up and walked around outside. Kevin's arrival always got Sadie energized and today was no different.

But today Sadie didn't regain normalcy. After all her other 24-hour episodes she normally calmed down within 24 hours. It's now been close to 30 and she's still out of it, walking jerkily and staring into space. Her neck hurts where Minnie bit her, but we don't see any puncture wounds around the neck.

This is scary. Even Kevin said "If she doesn't get any better soon it's best we put her down."

No way.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Another episode for Sadie

This is my last week to get things ready for my road trip. While not necessary, I took the Ford Escape and had the cracked windshield replaced this afternoon. Eric came with me (he's the primary driver for the truck while I'm driving the van) and while we waited for the work to get done, had lunch at Texas Roadhouse. We were the first customers at 3pm when it opened!

We had a nice lunch together. I ordered a Caesar's Chicken salad and he had a cheeseburger and fries. He talked about his two years in JROTC with a very strict Marine Major; the reason he quit that program and now shuns the military lifestyle. He also told me some things about his senior year in high school that I never knew before, and revealed some things why he doesn't get along well with his father's new wife. While I don't like asking questions about his father, I had to today because I could tell that some of the things that woman said and did to Eric still traumatize him today. He doesn't normally get very animated but today some old hurt resurfaced.

Eric's not the first person to tell me the woman has a drinking and gambling problem. Erin has mentioned several things about her as well that are similar. The woman's a violent drunk and last April was pulled over for drunk driving after she left her management job at the Chesterton (IN) Applebee's. She is now the sole breadwinner while Eric's father is still unemployed. Ironically, said Eric, his father spent a week in Las Vegas again despite not having a steady paycheck.

I enjoy these mother-son lunches and it's probably one of the last ones with Eric before I leave this weekend.

We got back to the house at 4:30pm. "Sadie's head is wet!" said Eric, and right away I knew why: she was coming out of another seizure. Luckily she was in the house while all the other dogs were outside. Thank goodness, or the younger females could have attacked Sadie while she was down. I quickly gave her her afternoon dosage of phenobarbital and then placed her in the bedroom, where she quickly got on the cool shower tiles.

Today I think I know why she had a seizure. I was vacuuming earlier in the dining area. The other dogs were outside but Sara and Sadie were in the bedroom. None of the dogs like the vacuum cleaner and run as far from it as soon as they see me touch the cord for it. She probably panicked since she couldn't run outside and in a panic had a seizure. Stress of any kind get to that dog. Luckily it was an isolated case.

Kevin babied Sadie right away when he came home minutes later, retreating to the bedroom and closing the door behind all the other dogs. Sadie got one-on-one time with "dad" and both were snuggled together and asleep, hours later when I came back to check on them.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

The animal shelter is closed

Oh, the ironies of ironies! How things change so drastically in six weeks. After Brittany left the group on April 15th, then asked to be let back in, she and Robin and Laura instead went to a pit bull advocacy group in Tucson with cell phone photos they took of the sick or dying puppies that were taken under BAR. One of the photos was one I took of a dog's prolapse, not knowing at the time what it was and asking the vet techs in the group for clarification. I posted a graphic photo in our private group, but Kelli or Brittany took that one as proof that the animals were neglected and abused.

The thing is, that allegation isn't true. At least while the volunteers were there we took care of all the animals, both cat and dog. The dog with the prolapse was taken by Carol to her personal vet the next morning and operated on. The dog convalesced at Carol's house for several weeks, but the dog was cat aggressive. No one else in the group stepped in to take care of the dog so the dog went to the Tombstone Small Animal Shelter, a no-kill shelter. Then the "dog advocates" accused Carol of dumping her at the shelter rather than looking for a new home for the dog. We did advertise the dog; no one stepped forward. No rescue took her, either, and certainly not Robin or Kelli who were then accusing Carol of dumping the dog at a shelter.

None of the others helped financially, either. Denise had created an online fundraiser to recoup the $250 for the vet bill. I donated $48 and the rest came from supporters for the shelter. My total donations to the shelter since I started volunteering has gone up to $771 now and that includes vet visits, treats, food, laundry, gas money for transport, etc. I need to stop that.

It all got uglier after Brittany was refused readmission into the private group. Robin quit the group after Brittany left, after she got mad at me for blowing up at Brittany for wanting to change the Facebook page to showing more graphic photos of the animals and for "screaming" at her in front of the other ten group members online. By the time Robin quit she hadn't been very active with the group anyway. I simply did not want the Facebook page to turn into a very negative page showing every possible suffering dog at the shelter. I am glad I refused to cater to Brittany.

The "rogue" group then got together with Smiling Dog Rescue (SDR)from Tucson, who then got their lawyer to fire back a rather nasty letter to the Huachuca City mayor for having an abusive shelter manager in charge. This lawyer either was told things by Brittany that Brittany got from a county ACO who was out to have Scott fired anyway. (The rescue founder also wanted to make sure Scott was fired as she stated that on her Facebook page May 20th.)

On May 17th the Sierra Vista Herald wrote a detailed front-page article about the abuse allegations and that Scott, the ACO, was placed on administrative leave until the results were in. We had to scramble for placements for the dogs and cats and then the shelter was closed for renovations. We don't know when it will reopen now. June 15th is the date that the new manager, a LT from the HCPD, is striving for. This LT is not a trained animal control officer. He's strictly law enforcement.

A public meeting was held the following Monday with the entire city council. The mayor, Bryon Robertson, said he was unaware of the shelter conditions (he'd never been to it in his four years as mayor!) and neither was anyone else on the council. He and the town clerk Louie Valdez promised the crowd (Brooke, Lisa and I sat up front; Laura, Brittany and Kelli two rows behind us) massive changes at the shelter. Only the police chief Dennis Grey seemed pessimistic about having a no-kill shelter. I agree that a no-kill shelter is a hard goal; I'm happy with a low-kill shelter because some animals will be so badly injured or sick that the most humane thing to do at that point is to humanely euthanize them.

Meanwhile, Brittany, Laura, Kelli and Robin are now fully supporting Smiling Dog Rescue. They have all labeled us the volunteers who "stood around and did nothing" and even the SDR founder posted that we were "ignorant and complacent to the atrocities at the Huachuca City shelter," a post she wrote on her SDR page but which she removed a few days later. If she or any of her other rescue members had actually ever been to the shelter and seen what we volunteers did with all the animals, often without ANY support from the city or its police department, they would hang their heads in shame. None of us merely stood by. We were there for the animals every day. The only thing that kept us from stepping forward sooner was that we knew there would be a new mayor elected, and this new mayor, Ken Taylor, has yet to tell the town what his plans for the shelter are. He may realize that he's inheriting a rather large debt he promised his citizens he would take care of.