OCTOBER WILL BE BUSY! ALL HANDS ON DECK!! VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

I had an opportunity to visit with the events coordinator at Cabella's.  They are having a couple of special weekend events that would be a wonder venue for showing off our dogs.  So, please save the dates and help when you can. The staff at Cabella's is very excited to have adoptions at the store and we greatly appreciate the opportunity.

We were also asked if we wanted to participate in the Home and Garden Show in Gonzales at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center.  Several groups are planning to attend.  Yelp, APAWS, and others will have dogs available.  This is a weekend event, but we will only participate on Saturday, Oct. 15th

Oct. 1 - Saturday - Cabella's - This is the Water Fowl Weekend.  There will be booths with duck callers, dog trainers, and everything you need for hunting.  They will also have special events for the kids.  We will be there most of the day on Saturday.   10 am to 3 pm   Volunteers are treated like vendors!  We will be given a free lunch, and you can buy at discounted prices!  Thank you Cabella's!!!

Oct. 7  - Friday  5 to 7 pm - Petco - Denham Springs

Oct. 8 -  Saturday  9 to 3 -Tractor Supply in Hammond.

Oct. 13 - Thursday 6:30 -  General Meeting - Springfield Library - Hwy 43 

Oct. 14 - Friday 5 to 7 pm - Petco - Denham Springs

Oct 15 - Saturday - Home and Garden Show  (times to be announced)

Oct. 21 - Friday - 5 to 7 pm - Petco -  Denham Springs

Oct. 28 - Friday - 5 to 7 pm - Petco - Denham Springs

Oct. 29  - Saturday - 10 - 3 Cabella's Fall Festival!  This should be a lot of fun.

Wow, with all these dates we should be able to find great homes for our dogs.  We really need to reduce the number of dogs before winter.  When it is really cold, I bring some of them inside and then we also put visqueen around the porch and heat it.  However, it will only hold 12 large crates.  So we have to reduce our numbers enough to make sure everyone is warm and cozy when the temperatures drop below 45 degrees.  Ofcourse the big labs and double coated dogs can stay in their dog houses unless the temps get below freezing.  Most of our current "guests" will need to be protected from the weather and a few of them will need to be inside.  Roman, our lab and Great Dane mix, has a steel plate in  his front leg.  If the temp fall below 50, I bring him inside.  He just doesn't have any fat to protect that leg.  My human friends that have plates or screws say cold weather can be painful.  So poor old Roman ,with a 4 inch plate and nearly a dozen screws, must be kept warm.

This past week has been very active. Six dogs were either spayed or neutered and I responded to a couple of cruelty cases.  Our senior Walker Hound, Lady, was scheduled for spaying but due to an elevated enzyme in her blood work the vet decided it was not in her best interest to put her under the knife!!  I wasn't even going to spay her because she has been here a year and hadn't had a heat cycle.  Then, suprise!!!  Coco, our only intact male dog, noticed that Lady was "available".  I don't think she is pregnant, but it was a wake up call.  Old dogs can still have a cycle.

  So Lady must have a special diet and her bloodwork repeated in 2 weeks.  This could be serious.  At her age, kidney failure is a possibility and we will have to monitor her closely. 

Our little German Shepherd mix puppy, Ebony, has a hip problem.  The ligaments holding her right hip in place are too lax and the hip keeps popping out of socket.  It is a bit painful for her and she doesn't use her back legs much.  To keep her muscle tone in her hind quarters, the vet has recommended swimming.  Poor little Ebony doesn't like it, but she has to exercise somehow.  We hope to get a video of her exercising in my tub!  When she is older she may need surgery to correct the problem. We just have to wait and see what happens as she grows.  If it continues to be a painful joint, some hard decisions will have to be made.  She cannot stay on anti inflammatory meds for her entire life.  We had two orthopedic surgeons give us an opinion and both say her hind leg may have to be removed if we cannot get the hip joint to work properly.  There is an alternative survery, called an FHO - they reduce the size of the femoral head to fit into the socket better, but it may not be successful.  So we will play a wait and see game with this ligament!!!  Keep little Ebony in your prayers.

I am technically challenged!

The family that is interested in the General asked me to send them a few more pictures or videos.  I take the videos and then Yahoo won't let me attach them.  Bummer...  No problem, I think I will upload on the blog and just send a link by email to the nice folks.  I have to say, I have never had this much trouble before.  Everything is taking sooo long.  Just to upload this 1 minute video it is taking over 10 minutes.  What am I doing wrong??? 

Thank You for Your Support!!!

Last night we had an adoption event at the Petco.  While we didn't move any dogs into permanent homes last night, we did have a few very serious prospects.  I really like it when people take the time to think about adopting.  Adding another dog to the household is like adding another child!  Our hope is that people seriously consider the commitment and then make a decision. 

But the big new of the night came from a wonderful lady who gave us a generous donation!  We certainly appreciate her help.  (I forgot to ask her if it was okay to use her name, so I won't publish it!) The 12 puppies we have had over the past few months have really added to our spay / neuter costs dramatically.  The money will be used to offset this expense. 

Another bit of good new is that we may have found a home for General.  The folks at American Lab Rescue have a potential home for him.  We have worked with them before and they do a fantastic job finding the right home for the dogs.  It seems as if there aren't many big dogs up East.  As soon as he is neutered, we will put him on a transport to Connecticut if the adoption is approved by them.  Thank you American Labs!

And a big thank you to Dezzi Falgout and Lilly Manuel for helping with the adoption event.  I couldn't do it without you!!!

Well, it is now daylight and I can start my day!  Kennels have to be cleaned, dogs feds, eggs gathered, goats, donkeys, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and rabbits tend to, fall veggies planted,  and the list goes on and on.........

Is this a dog or a pony?

Look at the size of this Great Dane!  His name is General, The General, that is....  He weighs 135 lbs. and is such a sweetie.  Yesterday afternoon I received a call from the Denham Springs Animal Shelter about a man at the gate with this huge dog.  Unfortunately since the man didn't live in Denham, they could not take the dog, so they called me.  Although we can't take any permanent residents now, we will be the temporary home for The General until he can be placed with another rescue group.  Not every facility or foster home has the space for such a large dog.  I put him in our 10' x 10' run, which seems very spacious for our large 85 pound lab/dane mix and this dog absolutely fills the space!  He can't get inside the dog house, so at night he will have to come inside.  Fortunately, he is housebroken and very well behaved.

What a Week!

I must admit I normally handle stress very well, but this week is trying my patience.  First the death of Daphne and the potential for other young dogs to get sick and now a tropical storm that has threatened to flood the kennels.  If the water comes up another 2 feet I will have to move the dogs to wire crates on my porch or other parts of the yard. I really prefer to keep them in the large kennel runs so lets pray for the wind to come out of the north and blow the water out of Lake Maurpas.  Then things will begin to drain properly.  Right now the water is draining away from the kennels, but it is close!  We made a few trenches to relieve the situation.  The back side of the big dog kennel is near a large drainage ditch. It is overflowing and beginning to creep up into the yard! 

If we get too much rain tonight, I will be moving dogs in the dark and in the rain.  I can put two or three medium size dogs in the 10 x 10's and just move two large dogs into wire crates on my porch.  Still, I'd prefer to leave them where they are.  Everyone is dry, and nobody is barking and carrying on about being locked up in a crate! 

To add to this misery, my condo on the Tickfaw River is probably going to get a few inches of water in it.   We have been through this before with Hurricane Ike.  Fortunately, I planned ahead and the cleanup will not be so bad this time.  When I remodeled, I knew we would get water again at some time.  We have vinyl wainscoating with no fiberglass insulation in the first 12" from the floor.  The floor is vinyl and can just be washed off!  The furniture is up on blocks so hopefully we will not have too much of a mess.

Stress, stress, stress,  thank goodness I can take a few minutes and pray.  God always seems to relieve my worries.  He reminds me it is just stuff!  He reminds me that family and furry friends are far more important!

Stay dry everyone!

IN LOVING MEMORY OF DAPHNE

My heart is heavy tonight.  A sweet little 13 week old puppy, Daphne, contracted Parvo a week ago and died tonight.  She was the best new friend to a wonderful family and now she is gone.  I feel so helpless and so responsible.  I could have waited to have her spayed. We did everything right. The moment she was listless the foster family called me and we rushed her to the emergency clinic. Their quick response to her decline in activity gave us a real sense of cautious optimism.  The recent spay surgery was not progressing as we had hoped.  She had developed a huge seroma and we were afraid of infection.  She was given antibiotics for the infection.  She ate well that night,  but the next morning she was throwing up.  We  took her back to the vet and  she was tested for parvo.  Unfortunately it came back positive. She had the best medical care and attendants 24 hours a day to monitor her.  This afternoon she was holding her own - no improvement, but no decline.  Then just hours later the doctor calls me to let me know she had crashed and they could not save her. Normally if they make it past the 3 day period, you begin to feel that they are going to make it.  But she fought hard for 4 days before she lost the battle.

She probably contracted the virus here.  This is the nightmare of every kennel, shelter or rescue group. This just shows how deadly this virus can be on young dogs.  She had two series of vaccines before she came down sick.  It just wasn't  enought to counter the infection from surgery and parvo.  So, to the family, I am so very sorry.  In her short time with you, she received much love and affection.  You are absolutely the best.  You gave a rescued dog a chance.

I can truly say I understand the feeling of losing a pet.  I've lost several over the years.  It is never easy.  We never get over it.  But time does heal and God is faithful to restore us.  Our memories of our lost friends are more precious as the years go by.  While Daphne's time on earth was short, she brought laughter and love into the lives of many. 

.  We had one other young adult dog that came down with parvo at the same time, but he was strong enough to fight it.  He spent one night in the hospital. It is possible he was shedding the virus before he exhibited any symptoms. He was an owner surrender and we were told he was fully vaccinated.  He never came in contact with Daphne.  So we presume we humans brought it into the house to her unknowingly.  My biggest fear now is that I have 5 other young dogs that have not finished all three vaccines that were in the house with Daphne.  None of them appear to be ill at this time.  We have one more week to go before we can say they are probably going to be okay.  The dogs in the kennels next to the young adult had all been fully vaccinated and those who had contact with him in the exercise yard had all been vaccinated so they will be fine.

Our rescue will be closed for adoptions for 2  months.  We will only take foster dogs who have not been on the property to Petco for the next month.  The following month we will only take adult dogs.  All the young dogs will remain here until they have had all three vaccines and have had time for them to work properly in their systems.

Thank you all for your understanding.  Please keep us in your prayers.