Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Kodiak spent his first day surveying his new domain from the Widget’s House porch.  (See previous post.)  His day started with some clean-up.  When I went over first thing this morning to let the dogs out, I found he had pooped overnight and fallen into it.  He was still laying on it … he hadn’t been able to get up on his own.  I lifted him up and off he went to go pee and explore.  Meanwhile I cleaned up the mess, turned the dogs out into their respective paddocks, and fed them. 

Kodiak came back to the porch and I positioned him on a new bed.  He gently lowered himself down and then eagerly waited for his breakfast.  Along with his food he got his second dose of prednisone.  He looks so engaged and expectant … it’s easy to love this boy. 

Alayne came over later and held him while I gently clipped his rear end.  He has such thick, absorbent fur that when he has accidents, it is very hard to get him completely clean.  Even with the power clippers shearing near ‘sensitive’ areas, he patiently and trustingly lay still so I could do it.  Now he looks a little odd at the rear, but it will be so much easier to keep him clean. 

When we went over to feed dinner this evening, he was sound asleep on the bed … just flat out on his side, snoozing, without a care in the world. 

When I thought earlier today about how I was going to write this post, it was going to be very different.  I was going to write about a dog who was scheduled to be euthanized at 4 p.m. this afternoon.  Instead, I brought the dog home to the ranch.

Missoula Animal Control had been called a week ago about an abandoned elderly Husky.  His family had simply moved away, leaving him behind in the yard.  They left him with no food or water or shelter.  Neighbors finally gave the dog water to drink … out of an old paint can with paint chips still floating in it.  The dog struggled to get up on his own … his hind legs just weren’t working well at all.  They picked up the dog and took him to the shelter.  He had no collar and no name.

The director of Missoula Animal Control, Ed Franceschina, e-mailed us and asked if we could take him.  Ed had spent time with this old boy, combing matts out of his thick fur, cleaning him, and trying to figure out what was wrong with his back legs.  Ed fell in love with this dog in the process.  But in the condition he was in, the dog wasn’t adoptable.  Hence the e-mail to us. 

Last Thursday … a week ago today … I went to the shelter to see the dog.  This big, sweet boy immediately licked me in the face and pushed his head into my hands to be petted.  He was so affectionate.  Yet it was clear he was having trouble.  He couldn’t get up on his own, and once up, couldn’t stay up very long.  His rear end was a mess from falling down into his poop. 

I agreed to take him, but I wanted a vet to evaluate him and see what, if anything, we could do for him.  On Monday this week, our awesome volunteer, Jerry Black, picked up the dog from the shelter and took him to a Missoula vet clinic for us. 

After two days of evaluation, the vet called us yesterday.  She didn’t think there was anything we could do for him.  His back legs weren’t working, and he was so big that his front legs were straining to compensate.  Even a wheelchair wouldn’t accommodate his needs.  She felt the best thing we could do would be to euthanize him.  In fact, she said, "If it were my dog I would put him to sleep."  I hung up the phone and cried.

I e-mailed Ed with the news.  He called right away.  Ed was as upset as I was.  But he wanted to be there when we euthanized him.  I scheduled an appointment for today and planned to arrive early to spend some time with him.

When I arrived at the vet clinic this afternoon, Ed and his wife Karen were already there. They had taken the dog outside on the grass.  I bent down in front of this big, old Husky … and he raised his head to lick my face.  He was smiling.  He was happy.  I looked at Ed and said, "He doesn’t look like he’s in pain.  He doesn’t look like he’s ready to go." 

Ed said, "We didn’t think so either."  We talked.  Minutes went by.  In the middle of all this we decided to give him a name:  Kodiak.  We tried to get the dog up … he did.  He walked around.  He peed.  He lay back down.  He wanted to be petted.  I took some photos of Ed and Karen with Kodiak. 

I had brought the camera because I was going to take his photo and give him a name and post him on our Web site.  I didn’t want him to die as an anonymous old dog with no name. 

Ed said, "It’s your decision."  I said, "No, it’s OUR decision.  That’s why you’re here." 

We decided it wasn’t the right thing to do.  We needed more time.  Kodiak needed more time.  We decided to have a specialist look at him.

At 4:08 p.m., I lifted this giant dog into the back of our truck and sped across town to our specialist, Dave Bostwick.  There, Dave diagnosed his hind leg weakness as a neurological problem in a specific set of vertebrae along the spinal cord.  X-rays didn’t reveal any tumor or mass.  So Dave recommended treating Kodiak with prednisone to see if that would reduce any possible inflammation.  If that doesn’t work, the next step would be a myelogram (injecting traceable fluid into the spine) to pinpoint the problem.  Surgery would follow.

But one step at a time.  Kodiak and I arrived back at the ranch about 8 p.m.  I unloaded this hefty boy (107 lbs!) at Widget’s House, our disabled dog building.  It has a massive 12′ covered porch in front, with dog beds strewn about.  I took the second photo of Kodiak on the grass right off the porch. 

I fixed his dinner, gave him his first dose of prednisone, and left him happily laying on a big, soft dog bed on the porch. 

Wish this old boy well.  He’s been through a lot. 

AND THEN ….

Barely 20 minutes after unloading Kodiak, Jerry Black … yes, the same awesome volunteer who took Kodiak to the vet for us … arrived at the ranch from Spokane with a blind and deaf dog we had agreed to take.  The folks at SpokAnimal, the Inland Northwest Humane Society, had called us last Sunday about this dog named Angel.  So Jerry drove to Spokane to pick her up.

Here’s a photo of Jerry and Angel this evening.  She has eyeballs but no cornea, iris or pupils … the eyeball is all white.  We thought we’d seen just about every eye condition, but not this one.  She is the sweetest little thing … rolls over to have her tummy scratched and loves to kiss, too.  She walks around the yard with her head pointed up in the air … being blind AND deaf, she must depend on that nose a lot!

So there you have it … a tale of two dogs in one day.

One of the many rewards we get from running an animal sanctuary is getting to meet the nicest people. We received an e-mail in mid-July from a girl in Seattle named Hannah B.  She wanted to come with her parents to visit the animals.  Well, one thing led to another and we scheduled a weekend for the visit.

We didn’t know it, but Hannah meanwhile was planning some neighborhood fundraisers to raise money for the animals.  She gathered some friends together, made cookies and other tasty treats to sell, and set up a table and display with posters printed from our Web site.  In the photo Hannah is the girl on the far right.

When Hannah and her wonderful parents, Rick and Diane, arrived last Saturday, she was carrying a container with $243 she had raised!  We were so touched by that.  Thank you, Hannah!

When Winchester came to us, he had been shot four times with a .22.  He had managed to survive outdoors on his own for weeks (or longer) with no medical care.  You can see his original story here. In this photo you’ll see his lip is puffed up in one corner … that’s where one bullet went in, then exited out his neck, just missing the jugular.

This incredibly sweet and affectionate cat immediately became a favorite of our volunteers and visitors.  Winchester is so affectionate, in fact, that whenever I cleaned the cat house, I’d have to put him in a crate so I could get the job done.  Otherwise he’d be curled around my feet, or trying to climb up on to my shoulder.  Even running the vacuum cleaner didn’t bother this guy.  "Love me! Love me! Love me!"

Well, one of our awesome volunteers, Laura B. from Helena, decided that blue-eyed Winchester was meant for her.  She adopted this handsome fellow on Sunday.  Laura e-mailed today to say, "I think you left out some information about Mr. Winchester … he is not really a cat … he is a rhesus monkey.  Last night Winchester … jumps on the dresser, up to the TV shelf, up to the top of the blinds, then he leaps off onto my bed … attacks me for rubs and scratches … then leaps up to the window sill above my bed … lays in the window for awhile, then leaps back onto my bed for more rubs and scratches….  All night long he was like a monkey, perching and leaping all around my room."

The Idaho Humane Society in Boise brought out to us today a blind mare named Radar.  She had been impounded several months ago in a cruelty case invoving dozens of horses.  When animal control officers found her, she was mired in manure up to her belly.  They basically had to dig her out of the mess. 

Following wonderful care at the Humane Society’s rescue ranch, she was ready for a new home.  When they e-mailed to ask if we could provide a home for this sweet blind mare, we gladly said ‘yes.’  Two nice ladies … Susan, who’s the volunteer manager of the rescue ranch, and Laurie, who works for the Humane Society, were kind enough to bring Radar out to us in Montana.  After a 550 mile drive from Boise, they arrived late this afternoon. 

Radar was ready to get out of the trailer as soon as we opened the door … and unloaded herself. I simply held on.  I led her to the new corral we set up this morning as her temporary quarters (we always try and quarantine new arrivals for two weeks, just in case of hidden health issues).  I walked her around the perimeter, tapping on the corral panels as we went, showing her the new boundaries.  Pretty soon she had settled in and was enjoying the hay we set out for her.  We took the photos this evening, in between her trips back to the feeder.

This didn’t take long.  The little Papillon mix who came from Spokane Animal Control last Tuesday … the dog whose owners dumped her and wrote on her card, "brain damage" … was adopted today! 

Mary S. from Phillipsburg, Montana, had seen our original post on this dog and e-mailed to say she’d be interested in adopting her.  After our specialist in Spokane ruled out any neurological problems with the tyke on Tuesday, we got in touch with Mary a couple of days ago.  She came up today to visit and immediately fell in love.  Here’s a photo we took of them. 

Mary has a small Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix who has wanted a friend for a while.  Even before she left, the two dogs were frolicking in the front seat.  Mary said the first thing she was going to do was go shopping for a silk pillow for her new pup.

One of our veterinary specialists in Spokane today examined the tiny dog with ‘brain damage.’  (See the original post below.)  A volunteer, Lee T., had picked up the little thing yesterday from the Spokane  Animal Control shelter, fostered it overnight, and then took it to the vet appointment this morning. 

The specialist could find no signs of neurological problems. Other than being blind, the dog was in good shape.  As we suspected, her circling behavor was most likely a function of her blindness.  Blind animals tend to circle in new environments to help them make a ‘mental map’ of their surroundings. 

With the good news from the specialist, Lee hopped in her car and drove straight out to Montana to bring the little girl to us.  She arrived about 4:30 p.m. this afternoon.  Thank you, Lee!

Lee brought the dog into the house in a crate and we opened the door to let her out.  And out she came … skittering across the floor, circling for a bit to get her bearings, then heading off to explore in a new direction.  She wandered around the house with a surprising amount of confidence. 

We bet what happened is this:  The little dog went blind and began circling.  Her family never took her to a vet, but instead assumed she had ‘brain damage’ … and didn’t want to deal with it.  So they dumped her at Animal Control to get rid of her.  As a final injustice, they wrote ‘brain damage’ on her card before driving off.

We now know the dog doesn’t have brain damage, but we can’t be sure about her family.