Our regular group of dedicated volunteers plus a couple of newbies, met up today at the Beaverton Petsmart so we could show some of our great rescued dogs who are available for adoption. We meet every other Saturday at Petsmart from noon to 4pm. All things considered, everyone was pretty well behaved (I’m referring to the dogs, of course).

We got a couple of good applications and sent people home to think about whether they are up for the commitment of adopting one of our dogs. The last thing we want to do is send a dog home with someone sho is reactionary and smitten with the look of a dog. It’s far too important of decision than that!

So, Kenai, Vince, Tawnee and Elwood all got applications. Fingers crossed for some really good adoptions!

Kenai the Dancing Malamute!

Vince, who came to us a year ago hit by a car, with a badly broken hip.

Tawnee, who is the sweetest, most gentle, loving Pit bull ever!

And cutie-patootie, Elwood!

First, he isn’t a ‘he’,  he’s a ‘she’! ;o )

Second, she’s having a bad day today. She started vomiting and coughing this morning so we ran a parvo test…and it was negative (whew!) but she does have kennel cough, so we’re giving her some Pepcid for her upset stomach, and cherry flavored Umcka for the kennel cough. Dr. Mark took another set of x-rays, and said the break is so bad and her little bones are so small, that it will be best to see if it will heal on its own as an “unaligned fracture”. We’ll wait three weeks and check it out again.

Dr. Mark in his anti-radiation lead suit…

We’ve decided to name this sweet little girl who has so many problems but still tries to give you kisses, Calamity Jane )

So now she’s resting…

And incidentally, she weighs about 2.5 lbs (3lbs including her cast).

We finally got the results from the spinal fluid sample from Elijah Blu. There is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that Elijah’s condition is not surgical and he does not have any inflammatory process going on. So he won’t need surgery and he won’t need to take meds for the rest of his life.

The bad news is that Dr. Skinner believes that Elijah Blu had a hemmorhage in his spinal cord at some point. This happens in 3-5% of dogs and they do not know why or what causes it. The outcome is permanent damage, although they generally improve some over a period of 3-6 months following the incident. We don’t know how long ago this may have happened to Elijah so we don’t know whether he has already been through that time period, but we have decided the fight isn’t over yet! We want to get Elijah Blu as close as we can to walking and playing like a normal dog. Now we are going to try a laser treatment that replicates acupuncture without the needles.

Elijah’s laser treatment will begin next Monday and will go a few times per week for three to four weeks. We will, of course, keep you all up to date on his progress…

Can you believe it?! He had his second spinal tap on Monday and the results were supposed to be back by Wednesday. Tomorrow is Friday! Sigh…

I’ll put in another call to the specialist tomorrow.

Everyone who deals with us on a regular basis knows that we don’t get very many puppies in rescue. For one thing, we are here to help the dogs who aren’t going to otherwise have a chance at getting a new home, and puppies generally fly off the shelf (so to speak).

An example of a special circumstance where we might get a puppy, is when they come in with medical issues, such as broken bones. Last week we got the little “Trooper” with a broken front left leg, and tonight we got…

Another broken little Chihuahua puppy. This little guy is probably 12 weeks old, and weighs a whopping 3lbs. He has the same broken front left leg, but his leg is broken worse than Trooper’s, and may need surgery to place pins and try to hold the bones together.

Ouchy! That’s got to hurt…

I swear these little guys get stepped on by their owners, who can’t afford or don’t want to pay a vet bill, so they drop them off at the shelter. Seriously, this guy was supposedly a stray…really? I’m kinda doubting it.

Here he is warming up in my jacket.

And before you all start emailing me about wanting to adopt him, here’s an icky thing we’ve already discovered about the little guy. He eats his own poop, and tries really hard to get a sneak kiss in by shooting his tongue in your mouth french kiss style. Oy! ;o )

We’ve also figured out he’s got a pretty good set of lungs on him and does NOT want you to leave him alone. He sounds like a dying duck. Okay, all of that aside, he’s still the cutest, tiny little guy, who just wants to be held. We’ll have Dr Mark decide about surgery tomorrow. More details to follow.

I picked the little Min Pin up at the shelter today and just dropped the little guy off at his new foster home tonight and he did great! He was instantly friendly and playful with their two little Chihuahua’s and raced around with them, leaping up on the sofa then off the sofa, then on to the foster’s lap, then on to my lap! Absolutely gleeful, and finally settling in for a rest…

My hope is that his history of re-direct biting has been based on fearful behavior that wasn’t managed by a very savvy person. I believe he’s just a sensitive guy who needs people to respect his boundaries. We’ll share more as we learn about him, but for now, he’s sure glad to be free and a very happy guy. Good for him!

There’s a description of fostering for Indigo Rescue posted on the Indigo website under Volunteer. Ask any of our diehard fosters, who have fostered many, many dogs for us, and they will tell you, fostering isn’t easy, but it sure can be rewarding knowing that your part in providing a foster home is what saves a dogs life.

We have successfully placed Raven the Rottie, and the little Min Pin (later today)  into foster homes, but Jada, the beautiful Black Lab/Boxer mix, and the little Eskie-Pom mix, Shasta, still need somewhere to go, and there are several more dogs we are working on finding fosters for. First in line are two new dogs who need to find a foster home!  These two are three year old siblings, a boy and a girl. They’re Wire Haired Dachshunds. These are their shelter pics so they aren’t great, but you can tell they’re really cute dogs. The shelter say’s they’re sweet but shy, moreso the female than the male…

Help! Lets give these guys a chance to recover from the fear and trauma of whatever tragic history they have had, so they can find a new home. Meet Muriel and Devon!

We decided to name the little broken Miniature Pinscher, or Dachshund/Chihuahua or whatever he is, Trooper. Cuz that’s definitely what he is! This little guy truly doesn’t ever feel sorry for himself! He just marches on as if he doesn’t have a badly broken leg and a HUGE cast! Here he is today with his new cast, complete with a cute little bandaid Perry made for him : o )

I deliberated over whether it was a good idea to share some of my personal loss on the blog, but in the spirit of sharing what it’s like to live the life of animal rescue, it seemed appropriate to share more than just the actual Indigo Rescue work.

The following is an obituary of sorts. I wrote it as part of my own healing and to help me find closure:

I lost my 20 year old kitty, Schautzie on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Schautzie was my first rescue following moving to Oregon. He and an identical sibling who another neighbor adopted, were abandoned in the apartment complex I was living in. We estimated they were six months old.

He was such a good natured kitty. He never hissed or grumbled at any of the other cats, just did his own thing and sorta rolled with the punches…and there were a lot of those. After all, the cats who live with me see a lot of canine and feline traffic, and that can be really hard on a cat.

When I bought my first home, Schautzie was in heaven because he could go outside. I installed Cat fencing to keep everyone in my backyard and safe, but Schautzie enjoyed his independence and wanted to be out in front of my house in his own kingdom, and he never did wander past my driveway, so I allowed it. He was the only one I allowed to go out the front door, rather than the back.

Over the past few years, the only age related issue Schautzie developed was some arthritis in his rear legs. He would limp a little, but never, ever missed a meal. He loved to eat! I had started having his long hair shaved for the summer, because he didn’t do much grooming any longer and his hair would get mattes.

On Saturday, when I returned from our tag sale, Schautzie was hiding in a cat house (like a dogloo) and cried out for me. I found him and he was already failing to the point where I knew he was in grave condition. He had been fine and wandering around the yard two days before, so the failing part happened really quickly.

I warmed him up with heat lamps and a heating pad, gave him sub q fluids (under the skin), gave him some water with colloidal silver (anti-viral) orally to wet his throat, gave him pain meds, Rescue Remedy and antibiotics, and hoped for the best.

I could tell he was feeling better as he warmed up because he was stretching his arms out and responsive to all of the things I did for him, but he was so weak, I knew he just needed to rest. I asked him not to purr (which he did constantly) because it took too much energy.

I spoke with Dr Mark and we agreed there was nothing more I could do for him. I checked on him every hour so I could monitor his temperature and at 1:45am when I checked on him, he seemed restless and was moving around, but I quickly realized he was dying. I sat with him and reassured him and he died quietly within the next two minutes. He did not appear to be suffering at all.

The first picture is Schautzie from about 1998. The second was taken in 2007 (Schautzie loved to sunbathe). The last picture  is from August of this year. You can’t miss those beautiful eyes. Schautzie was with me for 19.5 years of my life. It’s a long, long time. The entire time I have lived in Oregon. My life has changed a lot over those years and Schautzie was a constant. I will miss his sweet face and bright green eyes, but mostly, his sweet demeanor…

I picked up the mail today, and there was a donation from someone who learned about us in the Oregonian. The envelope was hand written with a postmark from Pacific City. There was a cashiers check for $1000 enclosed, along with a hand written note, below

THANK YOU!: