♡The Animal Pad: Rescued Shelter Dogs♡: March 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Updating

Hey all. Over the next week we're going to try to get as many of our rescues up here as possible. Right now they're here, on Facebook, and everywhere in between. I'm also going to try and give this thing a mild facelift, too. Pardon any abnormally large text, images, or anything else that may look out of place or funky. I estimate this to be done within a week, a more realistic ETA would be 2 weeks. :)

Thanks for reading!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Florence

Meet Miss Florence (now known as "Tipsy")

HERE is her original thread on Friends of Freddie and HERE is her thread on Carol's page.

Below is her intake picture at the shelter.

This is Florence. She's a beagle and she weighs 15lbs. She messed my head up bad after I saw her last week. She was in shock and outside curled up in a ball while other dogs walked all over her. I was sick to my stomach. The week I had to wait before I could go to Devore and pull her was the longest week of my life. She was in awful condition, so much that I started to cry (well, the crying part is normal - but I was distraught). I immediately went inside to tell the shelter staff, and they were also upset, kindly brought her inside and kept her there until the following week when I saved her. I'm so grateful for that and feel like they actually saved her life in doing so (I know..odd).

Florence defines why I think dogs are so wonderful. At a glance, it seems as if she's been tortured for longer than I'd ever want to imagine. My vet thinks she was likely a bait dog, also abused by humans. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with bait dogs, if not, I'll just say bad things happened to her and leave it at that. I knew she had a potential head injury, was thin, and was sick. Once I got her I realized it was much, much worse. First thing I noticed was she probably never had a bath her entire life. The next was the fact she was infested with fleas and ticks. So badly that you could stand 10' away and see bugs crawling all over her. Her skin was bright pink and irritated. Then I noticed she didn't have just a head injury (with an abscess that formed); she had old and new wounds all over her body. Her mouth didn't close completely and seemed "off", as did the overall look of her face. She spent her first night of freedom in my bathroom, and was really happy to be there, too. Upon sitting her down I immediately realized that there was a great chance she had suffered some neurological damage. She couldn't walk like a 'normal' dog, she ran into things, tripped, stumbled, and fell over; she walked much like a heavily intoxicated person would. Somehow after the hell she has been through, she is still trusting. She isn't afraid of dogs at all, and just the same for humans. She loves to be loved on.

I loaded her up on some Clavamox and Codeine (for dogs), gave her some Critical Care food, and tucked her in for the night. I doubt she's had a bed before, because she was overly happy to have hers. She'd get up, clumsily run and flop down in it over and over, until finally the codeine kicked in and she was out for the count. On several occasions when checking in on her I woke her up because I thought she was dead, when she was actually just passed the heck out!

The morning came and I heard a series of thuds on the door, which was her head-butting it. She made a scene and was super happy to see me, and I was super happy the vet was open so I could get her in there immediately.

She spent the entire day at the vet, and was also there overnight. I've brought some pretty bad cases to my vet before, and I'm sure she's seen others as a colleague of mine takes her rescues there, too. Florence shook my vet up bad enough to make her cry. She said she can't imagine how long or what all this dog has been put through, but it makes her sick to see the marks left behind.

Her abusers shaved her teeth down, which according to Google is common practice for dog-fighters to do to their bait dogs. Her jaw was also broken at some point in time and healed crooked, which explains why her mouth doesn't completely close and why it appears to be crooked. There's a slight chance the oddities with her teeth could have been done by her, it's hard to tell, really. It would explain her jaw being broken if it were done by the hands of humans, though. Her tail has also been broken, and much like her jaw, has healed crooked. Her eyes aren't exactly symmetrical, but I personally think it makes her even cuter!

Her body is covered in scars from head to tail, most of them being on her pretty little head. There's no way to know if her lack of coordination is permanent or not, but for now, it appears that is the only thing outside of visible scarring, that may be a lasting reminder of her past. At a glance, she does look a bit "off" - yet in an adorable way; she is still a bright little girl and overwhelmingly loving. She immediately picked up on using her potty pads!

She was given injections, fluids, and all sorts of other stuff at the vet. My favorite and hers...she got a damn near two hour oatmeal medicated bath along with flea and tick removal (and one dose of capstar). They said she had a huge smile the entire time she was being bathed. Her skin was bright pink from the fleas eating her up, so I was most excited for her to get that bath. I knew she'd feel so much better and she sure did.

She's in a foster home now with Valerie Ashton of Upward Dog Rescue. She is now available for adoption! Please send me an email at theanimalpad@gmail.com if you're interested in giving this uniquely wonderful little girl a forever home.

First evening home from the shelter and very, very happy...even being quarantined in the bathroom, she had a blast.

On her way to her foster home! She was riding with Stephanie Nisan...she ate her designer sunglasses, used her arm as a chew toy, and pooped in the car. :)

And here is the gorgeous little girl, now known as Tipsy, adjusting very well in her foster home!!!!

If you'd like to donate to help us save more dogs like Florence aka Tipsy, please click the chipin below!

>>>>PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD<<<<
The Animal Pad will pay a REWARD to anyone who can provide information leading to the identity of the person or persons who have abused or neglected dogs like Florence, Valentino, Hobie, and Almira.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Binky

HERE is Binky's original thread.

Binky is a sweet and quiet little boy. My vet estimated him to be 7-10 months of age.

I rescued Binky the same day I rescued Florence (who I will be posting soon, too). Since I rescued her after signing a Medical Waiver, she came home that day. Stephanie Nisan picked Binks up the following day and brought him to me. I think that was on the 6th or 7th. Things have been bananas, and I haven't been sleeping much. Between the dogs and my my plan to save the (dog) world, I'm excited if I remember to eat most days.

I've been slacking on blogs, so for now things will be short and have pictures. Rest assured, I'm busy with dogs so I have a great excuse for not posting their blogs. :)

I'm so sorry to add such a graphic picture, but I want this to be seen. Binky was neutered at Loma Linda. The picture doesn't even do the damage justice, or show how unnecessarily large his incision was. But the rest is very telling. The skin all around the area was bright red, and had two scratches on it. This was not a gentle surgery, it was rough and sloppy. His incision was too large and his FOUR sutures were too deep, pinching the skin between them so tight that his penis swelled up. His scrotum -- well, I don't need to explain what you see.

Murphy was neutered at my vet and had 1/2" incision which was glued, no sutures. He had not even a tiny bruise or red spot. I cannot wait until we can pull as a rescue and use our vets always, because this is awful. Binky ended up sick after this, and had a terrible URI that exceeded classic KC symptoms. He could barely breathe. After trial and error and going to the strongest abx and pain medicine every 3 hours, he recovered.

This is during the time he was sick. :( My poor sweet "Stinky Binky" was always lethargic. I hate when my babies are sick. It's the most helpless feeling ever.

He had a bite puncture wound on top of his head from a rude kennel-mate at Devore, and also got bit on his foot. I was able to put antibiotic ointment on his head (by his ear) that he couldn't reach, but he kept licking his foot so I made a bootie real fast to cover it up.

I miss having my buddies here with me. He's been at his new place for a day now, gone since Tuesday (transport..and a nightmare). I'm not sure I'll ever transport again. It was my first time and probably my last. I'm half tempted to save up to bring them back, lol. I know they'll all be in wonderful homes. But the comfort of placing locally is something I'm not sure I can do without. I feel so sad without them here or knowing they're even close to me for that matter.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Lonely Lori

There's a sense of calm in my home now...and I don't like it!

Today four of my babies left on transport to begin their journey 'home'. It's always an emotionally draining experience for me. I love all of my rescues, I consider them my dogs. I always want to keep them, but for each dog I keep, it's one less dog I can save. It's bittersweet. Each dog has an impact on my life, and every single one of them remind me why I do this and why I love this. In the trying times I'm at the shelter, and my heart is breaking because I have to "pick" who gets to live, and even in the times people forget how damaging words spoke in anger can truly be (those things I plan to discuss further once I've actually slept).

Florence hit me the hardest. She's had such a terrible life, probably never knowing anything but cruelty....torture. Yet she's so trusting, she has no fear of dogs or humans, she's just full of love and life. I'd wondered if the most recent head injury she had worked in her favor, possibly giving her amnesia which would explain why she was so outgoing. Many of my rescues would duck or cower when you go to pet them, but not her. She was so trusting it's like she had no reflexes or something. When I think I'm having a 'bad day', or find myself putting up walls because I don't want to risk being hurt by someone, I will remember her and think twice about my actions/reactions. Maybe it wasn't amnesia, maybe she just knew that I came to save her, and the others in her life thereafter also meant well for her.

As usual, I'm rambling. I have a tendency to do that when I'm tired. Since I haven't slept at all, it's not pretty!

OK...I'll shut up now and get to the fun stuff. Pictures of Christie and I (and a special appearance by my #1 helper who happens to be my wonderful son, Gaige).

Before I post them, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who helped make these rescues possible. If I weren't typing this with one arm and one eye open, I'd list off all of your names. I'll get pictures of the other dogs uploaded after I've had some sleep. Christie needed pictures of her HAPPY posted, no-one has seen that gorgeous smile of hers. So I had to post those now. I'm uploading a whole lot of pictures, and not checking them first to see if I look like shit or not. I'm too tired to edit anything anyway.

Christie & Lori Saying Goodbye Before Transport, 3/20/12

HI MOM!!