Category Archives: Dogs & Other Animals

Kammie Comes Home

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

This is our foster girl Kammie the sheltie. She came to us in April. She ended up at a local shelter because her owner had died. A volunteer there took pity on her and took her home for a couple weeks because she was so sad and sickly, not adjusting to kennel life well. After a couple weeks on antibiotics for possible kennel cough, she was transferred to us at Northeast Ohio Shetland Sheepdog Rescue. A wonderful volunteer transported her to me since she was coming from a fair distance away.

Kammie is an easy dog to have around. She is 8 years old and quiet most of the time. She spends the majority of her time indoors curled up in a corner sleeping. She loves to spend time outside with our other dogs. She takes delight in barking at the others and playing referee during games of frisbee.

You may wonder why this beautiful girl is still here. First she needed more antibiotics for a respiratory problem, a possible relapse of the kennel cough. At the time Kammie arrived at the shelter, she weighed 59 lbs. She should probably weigh about 35 lbs. By the time we got her, she was down to 54 lbs. Now  she weighs in at 42 lbs! Yay Kammie! She was diagnosed with low thyroid. She receives pills for this twice a day, hence her new svelte shape . 

It was then discovered that Kammie had a bladder infection. She received antibiotics for this, to no avail. We tried a different antibiotic. Still no luck. At this point a culture was grown to see what antibiotic would work. There was only one oral kind that would work. After all of this, the poor girl still had blood in her urine. At this point the vet requested an ultrasound to look for another cause of these urinary troubles. It turns out that  Kammie has 3 tumors in her bladder. Two look to be malignant and the other is likely benign. So poor Kammie has terminal bladder cancer. She was not eating as well anymore and not as active.

She now takes a medicine made for humans that is an analgesic and has the side effect of slowing tumor growth. She was not eating as well and was more lethargic.  She has definitely perked up since she has been on this medication. She eats all her food again and is back to rowdy playing . 

The vet diagnosed her with a probable 3 to 6 more months. Kammie will live out the rest of her life with us and as a ward of NEOSSR. Even if we found someone who was willing to adopt her, we don’t think it would be fair for her to have to transition to another home at this late stage of her life. So this is Kammie’s last stop. She is home.

Good News for Nikki 

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings,

It turned out to be a good day for Nikki one day a couple of weeks ago .  I should say it turned out to be a good day for me. 

I thought Nikki was 11 years old now . She  is a failed foster. She  was  a foster dog but we decided to adopt her. I was going through my dog health records file and found Nikki ‘ s intake information from when she came into rescue. It turns out that she is only 9 years old! We get so many dogs into our rescue ,  at last count we have fostered over 45 just at our house,  I must have gotten her age confused with one of the other dogs .  She is one of the few dogs that we did get records with so we do know her age.

Just like Christmas ! We will get more years with Nikki than we thought ! 

Peace Be With You

Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life, ,

Dog-Greyhound, Friends

I was just reading something that was written by Jane Goodall, of whom I am a big fan. She stated that she was born loving animals. No wonder I am a big fan. I can relate to this and understand it completely.

One of the first tv shows that I can remember watching is Captain Kangaroo. My favorite character? Mr. Moose. My favorite Saturday morning cartoon? Tarzan. I didn’t want to be Jane, I wanted to be Tarzan because he could talk to the animals. My favorite superhero? Aquaman. Because he could summon the animals for help, under water no less! Seeing a theme here?

Growing up I always had my own dog, independent from my dad’s hunting dogs. I used to beg my mom to let me bring her in the house. My mom just told me that dogs didn’t belong inside and that when I grew up and had my own house, I could have all the dogs I wanted in it. I don’t think it is physically possible, or wise, for me to have as many as I want. But we do tend to vary between 4 to 6 or 7 dogs at any one time, depending on the number of foster and visiting dogs residing with us. Not to mention the cats, current count is four.

For years now, instead of killing spiders, moths, etc. in the house, I try to catch them and release them outside. We try to live trap destructive rodents and release them elsewhere. I don’t like to kill things or being responsible for killing them if there is another option.

I don’t remember ever not being this way. I don’t understand people who don’t like animals. Animals are fellow beings on this planet with us. I tend to look at these people with puzzlement and realize that we are never likely to more than acquaintances because they don’t “get” what is my biggest passion in life. I wouldn’t say that I love animals more than humans. We are all living beings and deserve respect. Loving one does not exclude the other. Although I must say, I am often more comfortable around animals than people.

Peace be with you. And all forms of life.

Cassius, Day 24

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

Dog, Greyhound, Cassius

Twenty four days in and I can’t imagine how we ever lived without this boy. He has added a tremendous amount of life back into our home.

He continues to learn our ways quickly.  He has progressed from “you have food, I will eat it”, to “maybe I can take this while they aren’t looking”.

It didn’t take long for him to discover the comforts of couches and chairs. Now we are working on “move over”.

Cassius is the goofiest dog we have ever had by far. If that big dopey grin doesn’t put a smile on your face, there’s no hope for you.

We are in love!

Greyhound, Dog, Cassius

A Visit  With Friends 

Dogs & Other Animals, ,

Baxter had his first visit to the nursing home last night.  It went well.  Of course it did,  this is Baxter we’re talking about. Our friends who normally  visit with us weren’t able to come so I thought it might be a good time to introduce Baxter. The folks we visit have heard all about him so I thought they might like to meet him. He was a hit. Our friend Bob said that’s my kind of dog.


Of course Shelby was a hit too. She’s the most reliable of my dogs on a visit. Always happy to work and spend time with mommy. 


And the ever popular Nikki is a crowd favorite. She’s so cute that sometimes I liken her to a stuffed toy.

All in all, a very good visit. We shall return. 

Fun Times

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings,

Day 7 of our life with Cassius. 

This is the face of a dog that just tried to pick up the TV remote. 

This is particularly funny because our last greyhound ate two TV remotes in her early days. This resulted in dog piles with numbers sticking out of them. 

We have been fortunate that our dogs always seem to have the constitution of goats. Putting remotes up now.

“I Try to Be Good! “

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, ,

Day 3. “I try to be good.”

Cassius was fascinated by the cat running through the living room this morning. He never touched the cat and I was there in seconds. He seemed surprised. “Oh, you want to chase the cat too? What? Oh, I’m not supposed to chase the cat? You guys are weird.”

So on went the muzzle until he was suitably calm. We had one more time where he got up from his bed to look at a cat. I told him no and said “no cats”. He looked at me in puzzlement and laid back down. There were several more instances where he looked at the cats as they went through the room. I calmly told him no cats and as he continued laying on the bed told him “good no cats”. He still thinks I’m weird but I could see the process of working things out in his head. I’m glad I the day off from work so we can start dealing with these things now.

Never fear. Cassius will not be unsupervised with cats anytime soon. If we must step outside or go in the basement he will wear a muzzle if no one else is home. And he will definitely be crated when we go away for the forsee able future. 

New Family Member! 

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings,

New dog is here! It has been 4 1/2 years since we’ve had a new dog. That’s a long time for us. 

His call name at the track was Tomm. That is my ex husband’s name so we’ve been working on a different one.  So far the one that seems to stick is Cassius, with a nickname of Cash. A Roman name for a boy with a Roman nose. We are starting by calling him Tomm Cash so we can get his attention. Soon we will drop the Tomm.

Cash is a retired racer that we adopted from Greyhound Adoption of Ohio. They have a website if you are interested in one of their wonderful dogs. There are also other groups across the country dedicated to saving these dogs. Cash was apparently fast. He ran many races and was at the track for quite a while as he will be 4 years old early next month.

We brought him home yesterday.  He is doing great with our other dogs and fine with our 4 cats as well. He is our fourth greyhound but the only one currently. Our other dogs are a doberman/black lab mix and the 3 shelties, one of which is a foster dog.  We are also watching another sheltie this week, while her family is away. 

Cash is totally clueless about life in a home, having lived at the track his whole life. I have never had a dog that seems so totally puzzled with the boundaries of life with a family. I’m sure this will make great fodder for future posts. Right now he is learning about what is not acceptable in regards to procuring food. His current attitude seems to be, “Oh, you have food? I also like food. I think I will have some.” It does not occur to him that food on your plate, or kitchen counter, might not be meant for him. And when you tell him no, he seems to be thoroughly confused by this concept. Stairs also confound him, which I understand is common for racing greyhounds. We only have 4 steps to go in and out so this is manageable. 

But I must say, we are loving having this big dog as a part of our family.  More tales to come! 

Miss Bossy Pants

Dogs & Other Animals,
Dog-Shelby
Shelby

This is the face of a confident dog. You would think that’s a good thing. And most of the time it is. I can take her anywhere. Shelby is good at dog events with hundreds of people present. Shelby is very good at her job visiting a local nursing home. She is good around new dogs because she is confident enough not to be afraid. She is also pretty obedient so she is easy to take places.

Shelby, exuding confidence
Shelby, exuding confidence

But sometimes her confidence crosses the line a little. She thinks she knows how the world should be. Such as on Monday mornings when I head out the door for the start of the work week. Shelby gives me the stink eye. She glares a dirty look at me for leaving the pack again. Maybe she does know how the world should be. It would be great to stay home.

Shelby also gets upset at heavy rains and thunderstorms. Not like any normal dog though. She is not afraid. She gets angry and barks at thunder and high winds to tell them off. I suspect she thinks that she is in control because the bad weather does go away after she voices her opinion for long enough. Sometimes we put her in her crate during bad weather so we can have some peace and quiet. This makes Shelby indignant because she can not do her job.

What a blessing to have a dog like Shelby with so much personality. Bossy dogs rule!

Tales of a Foster Dog

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings,

Foster Dog-Kammie

This is our foster dog Kammie. She is 8 years old and has been with us about 4 months now. She came from a large city kennel in our area to our sheltie rescue. Her owner died and she was taken to the kennel. Shelties generally do not kennel well because  most of them are too sensitive. Kammie went to one of the kennel’s foster homes so she could get out of that environment. With the stress of being there she had developed a green nasal discharge that she was being treated for as possible kennel cough. From the report I received, it sounded as if she did well in the foster home. She got along with another dog and a child. She was not eating well but I didn’t consider this to be much of a problem.  The kennel noted her weight upon arrival at 59 lbs. She was down to 53 lbs. when I got her. I estimate her ideal weight should be 35 lbs.

I actually have a potential home in mind for her. Kammie would be perfect for one of our previous adopters that is ready for another dog. She has had a string of annoying small things that keep going wrong with her that have prevented me from calling about her new home.

First she still had green discharge from her nose. I gave antibiotics for that. We are working on getting her thyroid hormone levels under control. They were too low which explains a few things. She gets pills twice a day for that. She has already lost a few more pounds so that is going well. Her blood work also showed problems with her liver. We ran it again a couple weeks later and it was better after her various treatments and time to de-stress.  Her blood work also showed abnormal kidney function. We discovered a urinary infection and got more antibiotics. They didn’t work so we did a culture and got different antibiotics. Thank goodness for my pill shooter gun.Things seem to be improving.

Kammie and Peonies

Soon we will retest the thyroid levels and check for kidney function again. The vet said it is possible that these kidney numbers are just normal for her. Then…if all goes well she can get a dental and have a benign cyst removed. And once she heals up… then she will be ready for her new home.

Luckily, Kammie is an easy dog. She barks a little but aside from that she mostly just lays around. She comes up to us for petting but if we don’t oblige, she just goes and finds a quiet corner. She does like to spend time outside with the other dogs. I am glad to have the pleasure of being a part of her life.