Day 26-Another Vet Visit

[sorry this post is up late!]

Day 26, another vet visit for Dos.

I think she's associating the car with things that she doesn't like, so she was being pretty stubborn when it was time to go. I tried to coax her in. I tried to bribe her in. I got in the car and patted the seat next to me.
Nothing. She's not terribly heavy (65 pounds at the vet-a 6lb gain!) but she made herself dead weight as I picked her up to get in the car.

I realized I left my keys in the house, so I ran back in to get them. Not even thirty seconds later I return to the car, and she is halfway out the driver's side window, stuck. Her big ol' belly was holding her up and her short legs weren't even touching the seat. She looked like a dog teeter-totter. She looked up at me and scoot-scoot-scooted right back into the car, and rested her face in the window, wagging her tail, like she was the most innocent thing in the world.

Yup, nothin' goin on HERE.;)

Once in the car, Dos settled in and perked up. She actually really likes riding in the car. She's the kind of dog that looks out the windows the whole time and takes it all in.

Once at the vet, she hopped out of the car (which I tried to prevent, as her bum right leg has been acting up all day.) She sniffed around and very willingly followed me into the APA office. 

The gave her a skin scrape, gave her another round of DHLPPC, and palpated for pregnancy.

THEY DON'T THINK SHE IS PREGNANT!! Just "filling in". Yay! She looks like such a large dog in pictures, but a LOT of the bulk on her is skin, and considering how low on nutrients she was a few weeks ago, she packed on the pounds in the past couple of weeks. 

Her skin scrape came back clear again, but they gave her something for it just in case, and sent us on our way. 

It was in-and-out, positive, great visit.  She's done with the cough medicines and the antibiotics are almost gone! Now, we just maintain her level of healthiness, keep an eye on her , and at some point her heartworm treatments can begin.

Ready to go home!

She's feeling SO much better. I feel like she's a different dog than what came to me 26 days ago. Her personality is showing more and more each day. DOS IS ORNERY!

Today was the first time I have had to scold her, and she did NOT take it well.

I was in the other room, and I hear a THUD come from the kitchen. In the kitchen I find Dos surrounded by the recycling, and chewing on foil that at one time had meatloaf inside.

All I had to say was, "OHHH, Dos, this is no," and she looked at me with those sad puppy eyes, looked at me like I had committed a cardinal sin, put her tail down, ducked her shoulders, whimpered a little, and scurried to her kennel where she hid while I cleaned up the knocked over recycling.

I have never seen a dog that sad, and I didn't even scold her in that stern of a voice. She's incredibly sensitive.

About half an hour later though, when I was going to bed, she followed me and the rest of the dogs into our room, crawled onto the bed and made herself comfortable, with her head on my shoulder. 

Day 25!

Today, while Dos waited for her lunch to be cooked (which was bulk homemade dog food - the smelliest, meatiest, squishy mess only a dog would love) Dos  had a visitor! 

Kim, the woman who won the name-it-win-it contest with Lucky Fiona collars, came over to meet Dos and even brought Dos a goody bag-a big bottle of fish oil, and two of the handmade collars-all of which had belonged to her late dog, 13 year old lab/retriever mix Bailey.  

Bailey passed on three months ago-On the day before the birth of her son, William. Bailey's sickness had been sudden- as was the birth of William, who was born early. I couldn't even imagine what an emotional week that must have been.

To pass on Bailey's collars to Dos, and the unused portion of a bottle of fish oil that also belonged to Bailey must have been both sad and cathartic. What a wonderful legacy to pass on. Dog people know how personal collars are...and she brought those collars to Dos, who is already way more comfortable in them-not to mention adorable. 

Dos loved Kim. She hasn't been overly interested or overtly friendly to strangers until today, but she required no warming up. She accepted love and pets the second Kim walked through the door. Kim was obviously a dog person-I feel like she might be one of those people that dogs just feel the energy from..even blind Francis, who has taken to shying away from strangers in the last couple of years wouldn't leave her alone. I think that with Francis being so comfortable made Dos even more comfortable, and it was a great great meeting people experience for Dos. 

And look at that baby!!!!!! Squee!

Dos was a happy girl all day, between meeting nice people that wanted to pet and love her to smelling meat cooking all day to taking a walk with her buddy Francis, I would say Dos has had a great day 25! 

I wonder if Dos knows the amount of people who have come together to root her on. Dogs are intuitive-so if she feels even a fraction of that love, that will keep her going. 

Tomorrow is Dos' next check up ..and that pregnancy test...wish the ol' girl luck..:)

Rest in peace, sweet Bailey. Thank you so much for passing your collars on to Dos.<3

Day 24!

Lucky Fiona Collars -"TIC-TAC-DOS", named by Kim of Austin, Texas.
Lucky Fiona Collars & Kim are donating a dollar per collar to Dos'  APA! medical fund for every Tic Tac Dos Collar sold.

Today Dos has been extra cuddly. To a point of being clingy. I don't know why today she just can't stand to leave my side-but every time I've left her in a room by herself she has frantically trotted after me. I fell asleep on the couch for half an hour ..and I woke up to her laying on me. 

Not only heavy, but stubborn..I was stuck like this for a while....


Something I have noticed  the past three or four days is that Dos seems to be filling out..a lot. That, and her mammary glands have thickened up. I am reallllllly hoping that it's just that she's gaining weight/maybe retaining water, maybe her doggy metabolism was slowed and her body is holding onto the nutrients .....I am just hoping she is not pregnant.

She has a vet appointment on Wednesday, where she will have a routine check up,second round of shots, another skin scrape.....and a doggy pregnancy test...


Ohhhhh my.

Day 23/homemade dog food & treats recipe

By Request: dog food and treats recipe: I have a local butcher who I have a 20 cents a pound deal with on his scraps. I had told him that after a LOT of research, I was interested in making my own dog food. Not only will my recipe for dog food benefit Dos, who of course has a lot of nutritional catching up to do, but the other four have their own needs. Francis, who is almost 14, has seizures, hot spots bad joints, and missing a lot if teeth will benefit from the softness and extra vitamins and proteins. Walter, who is 1 1/2, has joint problems due to being a large breed and, my vet speculates, some physical trauma before he made it to the shelter. He also has a very sensitive GI tract. Owen has allergies, and Ira just compulsively overexerts himself-so we have great candidates for a high-protein freshly made dog food. 

I came home this morning with  a lot of meat "byproducts" (fishbones, hearts, livers, meat scraps not pretty enough to sell-beef, chicken and fish) a bag of brown rice, a bag of carrots, a bag of frozen peas, potatoes and flax seeds. 

This is what I did, and I think it will be about enough to feed all five dogs dinner for a week.  

Boil the meat products. I had about three pounds of the various meats. The only bones in it were fishbones, that once cooked were soft enough to smash up.

I boiled everything until it was thoroughly cooked. I put the meat aside and used the water to cook the bag of rice. Throwing in the bag of carrots, cut into smaller pieces, the bag of peas, and four diced potatoes, I let it simmer until it was a big pot of mush and the water was almost nonexistent. 

I stirred the mush in with the meat and a half cup if flax seeds, and put it into a gallon bucket and put it in the fridge with a lid on. 

For a calcium supplement, I made "eggshell powder" by taking egg shells, boiling them just to make sure they were clean, and once dry, running them through a coffee grinder to make a powder. (And I used the eggs themselves to make the doggy treats).

I put the powder in a jar, and plan on giving them a half a tea spoon on top of their dinners. Dos, because of her previous breedings, will get a whole teaspoon with her dinner.

So! The doggy treats.. 

2cups rolled oats

3 eggs

1.5 c peanut butter 

1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt 

1 cup oat flour (I know that none of the dogs have a wheat allergy but this is what I had on hand. If your dog has a wheat allergy try oat flour instead)

Mixed it all up in a bowl, rolled it in tiny balls, and baked it at 350 for about 10 minutes. I think it made 30 treats.

I did try one......ugh. At least the dogs love them.

MY HOUSE SMELLED FUNKY during this whole process. Fish smell and peanut butter are a weird combination.

Dos was more interested in all of the kitchen smells than any of the other dogs. Her eyes got huge and she hopped a little each time she smelled a new smell. I gave her a piece of meat whole I was cooking and literally heard her gobble it. Like a piggy. I have never heard that much enthusiasm in my entire life.

This is the ravenous crazed pig-walrus look she gets in her eye when she knows it's little Dos' mealtime:)

And when I gave her the first cup of fresh dog food and one of the treats in her bowl, she ate so wholeheartedly that she pushed the bowl around the floor by licking it for 20 minutes after.

I think it was a success..

Dos was rearing to go for her walk tonight..another 10 minutes of sniffs.  I can't wait till she completes the heartworm treatment and we can go on little adventures..something tells me that she would really like to go play in some water or go camping..but she hasn't even started her treatment, so..all in due time..

Time is going by quickly..day 23! Are we really almost to a whole month? Wow.

Tomorrow, when I get to a real computer, I will post a super awesome special thing a collar company is doing for Dos. On my phone won't do it justice. 

Day 24, we are headed your way.

Day 22-Dos' Happiest Day So Far

Today was by far the happiest day for Dos so far. She had her chicken and cottage cheese breakfast on the porch, and she had a small bit of interaction with the kids next door to start off her day.

She is very interested in kids. She watches the neighbor kids play and doesn't take her eyes off them.

I haven't wanted them to have too much interaction with her until now, as I was unsure if it would stress her out too much given that she's still sick, regardless of how much better she is feeling. That, and  I wouldn't want them getting any mange mite bites. Being that her mange is gone and she's been in a generally chipper mood, I let the kids come say hi. They were a little afraid of her, kind if like they would be afraid of an elderly person in a nursing home. They sat near her but arent ready to pet her just yet. She sensed that, and after a few tail wags and sniffs, she backed up and just sat down and watched them. 

I think in her old life, the only attention she got was from a child-so it would be only natural for her to be drawn to them. 

Today, Dos had her first "real" walk. She kept wanting to go outside, and after going to the bathroom would pull towards the street a bit. I definitely didn't want her to get sunburnt, being as she has no fur, so around 8PM when the Texas sun wasnt so brutal, we went out for a short walk.

Dos can't have too much physical activity due to the heartworms, so we went on a slowwww 10 minute walk. 

She was like a new dog. Every time we would pass a house, she would bury her face in their grass and just breathe giant doggie breaths. She sniffed poles, she sniffed curbs, she sniffed the street-all in the same way. 

She saw a cat- and while she was Interested in sniffing at it, she didn't really seem to want to chase it or anything. 

The first few seconds into our dusk walk and she has found something really interesting in the grass to sniff.

Dos was exhausted from even her 10 minute walk..so those will have to be sparing. She's taking a nap right now, in her little house she loves so much-but Im sure she'll have energy again when she smells her dinner cooking:)9

(Ill try in a bit to upload the video-doesnt seem to be working.)

Day 21!

Technical difficulties didn't allow me to post yesterday-the day 21 update will be posted shortly :)

Day 20-and by popular request..Dos Facebook Page

As a precursor to Day 20 (which will be posted a little later...)
By popular request...a Dos Facebook Page.

Sadly, I just typed out a whole post on my phone and it froze up.
Ahhh.

Today, Dos surprised me in a few ways. 

One, she was nonstop playing with one if my dogs, Ira. 

Secondly-when we were sitting on the porch and a friend walked up the driveway, she alerted us with a huge bark and howl! Then, she trotted to him and wagged her tail and waited patiently to be pet-which shows an alertness and a little guarding instinct but also nonaggression toward strangers. That, and a growing trust in men in general, and a growing amount of energy. 

The best suprise of the day is that I've noticed that not only is she alread learning her name-but she is becoming very responsive to hand signals. She consistently responded to "go in your house," "lay down" and "go" and stay. Each time she did, I praised her like crazy and she just glowed with a sense of confidence in the fact that age was a 'good girl'.

Only one more day till the three week mark! How crazy!

Look at that tail go! Dinner is cooking-she knows.

Family dinner. 

Till tomorrow, folks. :)