Rolling Dog Farm Blog

We always love getting updates about the animals we’ve adopted out, and we were thrilled to receive an email from Heather H. with a report on blind Cookie. 

Heather adopted Cookie from us in May 2005 and took her home to the Seattle area, where Heather was in the Navy.  Cookie was a shy, soft, and sensitive soul, and one of our all-time favorites.  These are photos I took when Cookie was still with us.

To be honest, we’re always hesitant to do long-distance adoptions for our disabled animals (and never more than a day’s drive from Montana, just in case something goes wrong and we have to go pick them up).  But we knew Heather’s mom Kate, and she had adopted another dog from us, Chelsea.  So we knew Heather would give Cookie the same kind of wonderful, loving home that Kate gave Chelsea.

Here’s the note we just got from Heather about Cookie:

"I just thought that I would give you an update on Cookie.  She is once again a resident of Montana!  I am getting out of the Navy and she and I are currently living with my mom in Elliston.  Cookie is enjoying herself here as much as she did in Washington.

We are taking her for walks here (although not on a beach) and she is loving every one of them.  She has come so far.  She is extremely trusting on a leash and just takes off.  She tracks back and forth across in front of whoever is holding the leash and makes wide, never-ending circles around us. 

If she happens to run into someone, well that’s okay with her.  She just sits down and waits for the petting to begin.  She is all clipped up and looks extremely pretty with the pink bows in her ears, her pink bandana, and her pink collar.  She has been a special dog and I thank you again for letting me adopt her."

That kind of note just makes us feel so good, you know?  Thank you, Heather!

The Helena Independent Record newspaper carried a prominent story in today’s edition on blind Stoney coming to the ranch.  The reporter and photographer went to the Lewis & Clark Humane Society to see Stoney on Friday morning, before Leanne brought her out to us.  The reporter interviewed Alayne yesterday for the story.

You can read the article on the Independent Record’s Web site here.

Here’s little Wilbur, who arrived at the ranch late yesterday evening.  He came to us from a rescue group in Salt Lake City.  Our awesome volunteer, Jerry Black, drove down to Idaho to pick Wilbur up for us.  Jerry met Kim J. from the rescue group in Dubois, Idaho, which we reckoned was about halfway between Salt Lake City and Missoula.

Wilbur has cerebellar hypoplasia, which makes him wobble and flop when he walks, just like Allie.  Wilbur’s a toy Poodle/Jack Russell mix (uh oh) and only about 14 weeks old (double uh oh).  In the two weeks Kim had him, Wilbur had already improved his balance and coordination.

This is consistent with what we’ve seen in our other cerebellar hypoplasia animals, who have all come to us as puppies or kittens.  As they grow older, their brains learn to compensate for the lack of fine motor skills.  For example, they learn to adopt a wider stance — particularly with their front feet — for increased stability when standing still.  And standing still is the hardest thing for them to do, ironically. 

Thus eating is a challenge, so we often need to hold them while they eat.  When they’re very young, like Wilbur, we also need to hold their heads still so they can get to the food.  One of the odd things about cerebellar hypoplasia is that when the body is kept still — for instance, if you pick the animal up and hold it — the head starts bobbing.  It’s almost as if the brain has to transfer the motion somewhere else.  That makes eating even more problematic!  With Wilbur tonight, I held his body in place with one hand and gently held his head still with my other hand.  That allowed him to concentrate on just putting his head down and into the bowl.

After dinner, this little tyke followed me all the way out to the pasture on a long walk and back again.  He wasn’t on a leash but never left my side.  He was absolutely intrepid.  Wilbur was ready for a post-dinner puppy nap by the time we returned!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

The Lewis & Clark Humane Society in Helena, Montana, called us last week about Stoney, a blind dog a fellow had dropped off at the shelter.  The next day the man’s wife went to the shelter, picked up the dog and took her back home.  Turns out they were going through a divorce.  Well, a few days later they brought Stoney back to the shelter.  The shelter called us again.  We said "yes," again.

So today Leanne Kurtz, who is on our board of directors and who lives in Helena, brought Stoney out to the ranch for us.  I took this photo of Leanne and Stoney in our welcome center this afternoon.  Stoney had her right eye removed earlier because of glaucoma, and her left eye went blind from a detached retina.  She is a very sweet, ‘kiss-first-ask-questions-later’ kind of girl.

Incidentally, we first met Leanne when she adopted a three-legged dog from us a few years ago.  Originally named Cassie, now Dani, she went on to became a certified pet therapy dog.  Leanne and Dani made the rounds at the local hospital and nursing homes, where Dani’s disability helped her make an even stronger connection to some of the human patients.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Beth took this photo today of Travis, our dog with a fused jaw, playing with blind Pepper the German Shepherd.  Because Travis can’t open his mouth, he’s at a bite I mean a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to roughhousing.  He makes up for it, though, with creative use of his lips.  He’ll grab the other dog with his lips, then he runs his front teeth back and forth rapidly against their skin, cutting like a saw.  He’s done this to me when I’ve roughhoused with him, and it really gets my attention!

This is what he’s doing to Pepper, one his best friends at Widget’s House.  If this doesn’t succeed, his next tactic is what we calling "chinning" — he’ll use his chin as a combination hammer and crowbar to subdue his opponent.  You’d be surprised how much force he can exert with one scrawny chin!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Yes, it’s only mid-May, but it sure feels like summer already!  As I write this, at 4:30 in the afternoon, it’s 86 degrees in the shade.  Our average max temperature for Ovando in May is 63 degrees.  Missoula yesterday hit 90 degrees, breaking a record set in 1905.  The animals, of course, love the warm, sunny mornings … here’s blind and deaf Spinner, sleeping on a cot by our back door in the morning sun … but by early afternoon they are ready for a nap indoors!

For a lot of reasons — drought, fire season, pasture grass — we need a return to cool, wet weather as soon as possible. 

Here’s a photo I took last week but didn’t have time to post.  I had hauled this crew in to our equine vet, Bill Brown, for various "issues." 

That’s blind Luna on the left of the trailer, wearing a flymask.  We had to remove her eyes a few weeks ago, and then she developed a sinus infection.  So on this visit Bill drilled a hole into her sinus cavity and inserted a catheter so we could flush her sinuses.  (We’re doing it every day right now.)

Behind Luna is blind Chance, who was in for an abscess on his left front foot.  Bill opened it up and drained it.  Chance is still holding up remarkably well in his battle with lymphoma — we’re almost a year after the initial diagnosis.

On the right side of the trailer in the foreground is old Crazy Horse — 30 years + — who is sighted.  We had taken him in several years ago as a ‘seeing eye’ horse for one of our blind ones.  He has not been doing well, limping and acting lame.  Earlier treatments with injectable joint medications (first Legend, then Adequan) had not worked.  On this visit Bill injected his joints with cortisone.  The next day, little old Crazy was a new horse … walking without a limp!  We were relieved, because if this hadn’t worked, we would have had to euthanize him because of the pain he was in.

Behind Crazy Horse on the right is blind Hawk, who also had an abscess in a front foot.  Bill drained that one, too.

Caring for horses is expensive.  For the month of April alone, we just wrote Bill a check for $6,299.  This covered the herd health day, Luna’s surgery, a week in the hospital for Lonesome George, medications, and several other medical visits, including chemotherapy treatments for Chance and George.  (It didn’t cover any expenses in May, like the group visit above.)

When we agree to take an animal, we know it’s a major — often lifetime — commitment we’re making.  And that includes providing whatever medical care the animal needs.  It’s all thanks to the sanctuary’s generous supporters, who make this possible. 

It was 9 p.m. tonight and Alayne and I were sitting on the front steps of the house, enjoying the cool evening air after an unusually hot spring day (in the 80s!).  We had just finished dinner, the sun had dipped below the horizon, and we were relishing a few minutes of quiet time in the fading light.  I was enjoying a cold beer called, appropriately enough, Black Dog Ale, when our blind black Lab Evelyn walked around the corner from the other side of the house.  She must have heard us talking and came around for some loving.  I made all over her for a few minutes and then she walked off.

The next thing I knew, Evelyn was standing in front of me again, holding a tennis ball in her mouth.  She dropped it at my feet, then stepped back about ten feet and stood there staring at me, bouncing up and down with anticipation.  I picked up the ball and tossed it towards her.  The ball rattled around between her feet, she grabbed it with her mouth, and brought it right back to me.  She flipped it at me with her mouth, then jumped back several feet, waiting for the next toss.

Because we see these animals every day, we usually don’t even notice their disabilities.  To us, each of them in their own way seems perfectly ‘normal.’  But tonight, watching this sweet black Lab with no eyes in her head still want to play a game of fetch … well, it gave Alayne and me a lump in our throats.  This was something Evelyn had obviously done countless times before when she was younger and could see.  She clearly loved this game, and it didn’t occur to her that because she was now totally blind she couldn’t play it any longer.

So Evelyn and I played fetch with the tennis ball dozens of times tonight.  She never wanted to quit.  I was the one who finally said, "Honey, it’s time to go in!"  Bless her little heart.

The light outside was too dim to take a photo while we were playing fetch, so I brought Evelyn into my office afterwards and took this picture. 

Regular readers of the blog may remember a post from several weeks ago about Sammy, a diabetic Jack Russell/Fox Terrier mix who came to us from the Humane Society of the U.S. in Billings.  This little scamp is doing just great and continues to entertain us with his antics.  He clearly has the potential to be a star agility dog. 

We did have to take Sammy to our vets for a 10-hour glucose curve test to determine if we needed to change his dose of insulin; he had started drinking copious amounts of water and almost became obsessive/compulsive about it.  That’s one of the signs something could be out of whack for a diabetic animal, so off to the hospital he went.  It turns out he was on the right dose but we needed to change the type of insulin he was getting, and that did the trick.

Although he’ll need to have his glucose levels checked periodically, he’s in fine shape.  We’re now planning on making him available for adoption soon.  In the meantime, here’s a quick video clip of Sammy in my office:

http://www.dropshots.com/dropshotsplayer.swf

This was Nikki’s REALLY big day … she was ridden for the first time!  After doing some more ground work with Nikki in the round pen this evening, our trainer Nichole Zupan decided Nikki was ready for her first ride.  We put a halter on Nikki underneath the bridle so Alayne could help lead her from the ground while Nichole rode her.

In the video, Nichole has one foot in the stirrup and is lifting herself up to put weight on Nikki to get her used to this and also to see how she responds.  Nichole had done this in the last couple of sessions so this was more of a refresher for Nikki.  Then, as Alayne starts walking Nikki, Nichole swings herself into the saddle.  No bucking and rearing here, folks — just one calm blind filly and one talented young trainer.  In just seven training sessions, Nikki is being ridden.  I find that remarkable.

After riding her in the round pen for awhile, Nichole finally climbed off and said, "She’s doing better than most horses do on their 5th ride!"

(Note:  We had a breeze this evening, which the microphone picked up and amplified on the audiotrack.  Sorry about that.)

http://www.dropshots.com/dropshotsplayer.swf