Here’s the elderly lady who arrived yesterday evening — little Miss Duchess, an old blind-and-deaf girl from Carlsbad, California.  Alayne took the photo of me holding Duchess this afternoon.  We had agreed to take her last week, after a vet tech at the vet hospital emailed us about her. The vet tech, Mina S., wrote…

I know it looks like Alayne and I are choking the daylights out of this poor dog, but honest, we’re not!  This is Twist, the other half of the Oliver and Twist Dachshund duo who arrived just before last Christmas.  I was in the isolation cottage about 8 a.m. this morning, giving deaf Snowball his…

So after yesterday’s heartbreaking news about Oscar, here’s something that will hopefully bring a smile to all of us!  Alayne got this photo of wobbly Noodle sitting in the tire we use to hold the dogs’ outdoor water bucket.  This was the first time we’ve seen her do this, and she seemed quite happy there. …

Of all our losses in recent years, this one hit us the hardest. I have never known a dog more devoted to a person than Oscar was to Alayne, nor a person more devoted to a dog than she was to Oscar.  And now he’s gone. Alayne’s "best little dog buddy ever," as she called…

After several less than happy blog posts over the past couple of weeks, I thought we should start out the week with something light and cheery … like Mr. Orangutan’s adventures at the ranch.  A wonderful friend of the animals, Sue R. in Colorado, had sent Franz the Orangutan just before Christmas to help cheer…

I had a call last Thursday evening from Dr. Fred Wininger, the neurologist at Washington State University’s veterinary teaching hospital, with some more answers about what happened to our blind Shepherd Pepper.  It was exactly a week after Pepper died, and the information he gave us helped shed some more light on her disease.  I…

After two weeks in the hospital, I finally brought blind Bo back to the ranch today.  I had taken him in for head X-rays and a neurological evaluation because of sudden and unexplained episodes of nystagmus and loss of balance.  Our equine vet, Dr. Erin Taylor, had asked me to leave him at the hospital…

Our vet Dr. Brenda Culver called last night to say that Briggs’ initial bloodwork showed low protein levels.  After further tests and evaluation today, Brenda told me this afternoon that she and Britt determined that Briggs has a kidney disease called glomerulonephritis.  The filters in his kidneys aren’t working properly, and protein — rather than…

This is why we do this. The eye exam today made clear that Briggs was definitely a dog in pain.  He has been suffering for a long time.  And now he’s finally going to get help. First, a brief explanation of glaucoma. The eye is constantly producing an internal fluid called the ‘aqueous humor,’ which…

Our new arrival, little blind Briggs, is having a terrible flare-up with his eyes today.  We had noticed yesterday that he was sleeping a lot, more so than the other dogs, but we thought it was probably just because of the trip.  Yet this morning it was clear his eyes were suddenly very painful.  He…