Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Well, exactly one week after he arrived, on Friday afternoon, Sunny came out of hiding. Alayne walked into the dog room and found him lying on a bed in the sun. He looked at her, got a worried look on his face, glanced nervously over at his crate as if he was going to make a run for it … but stayed on the bed. Alayne didn't approach him but went about cleaning and tidying things up in the room. Holly, Cap and Bugsy were all swirling about her.

And then, as if he was taking his cue from the other dogs — which he was, in fact — he got up and walked towards her. Tentatively, shyly, but nevertheless wiggling his little tail. She bent down to love him up.

That was that.

He's been out ever since. By Saturday afternoon he'd made it down the hallway to the living room. That's when I took these photos. He's a cute fellow, not as chunky as he first appeared when hunched in his crate all the time.

He's definitely more comfortable with Alayne than me, but all I have to do to get him to come to me is get down on the floor with a couple of other dogs and start making all over them. He can't stand it, and heads on over for his own share.

At one point on Saturday, Alayne even saw him happily rolling around on his back in the sun in the dog room. (That solarium is wonderful on sunny winter days!)

Here he is meeting Wilbur, with Holly behind them:

(Looks like someone's diaper has slipped down.)

We joke to Holly that Sunny looks like her long lost son she left behind in Shreveport. She's not amused.

Here's the problem with his leg — the lower part is bent, as if there's no ankle, and the foot is split in two sections:

Another view, showing how that long singular section folds under the rest of the foot:

When he does try to use that leg, he ends up walking on the edge of the turned over foot. Much of the time he is hopping around, holding the leg up in the air. When he tries to walk on it, he kind of throws the foot down on the ground. It's a very awkward gait. It looks like a cross between a hop and a shuffle.

I'll take Sunny to see our surgeon, Dr. Kurt Schulz, and our internist, Dr. Marielle Goossens, for an evaluation. I'll wait until Sunny's a bit more comfortable with his new world, though — we don't want to overwhelm him. He's still not too sure of things, and doesn't have any confidence … despite his venturing out, we'd still describe him as fearful. But what a change from a week earlier!

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This is the little guy who arrived with Cap. The Arkansas shelter had heard about him at a rescue group in Shreveport and asked if we could take him. You can't tell from the photo, but he was born with a deformed right front leg. We will need to get it evaluated by our veterinarians.

His name is Sunny, and if ever there was a mismatch between a dog's name and his personality, this is it. This poor guy is scared and wants nothing to do with us or the other dogs. He is everything Cap is not. 

I had to take the photo of him in the crate because he basically hasn't left it since coming here last Friday. No, really. When we get too close, he growls. We leave the door open, but the only time he's actually come out is to go potty on a nearby towel or bed on the floor. That's it. And he only does that when we aren't around.

He was turned into a shelter with the rest of his litter a year or so ago. His brothers and sisters were all euthanized. The shelter staff felt sorry for him because of his deformity and decided not to euthanize him. That may be the first time we've heard of a disability saving an animal rather than being the reason to put him or her down. 

Sunny was described to us as a Chihuahua mix, but he's a lot bigger than any Chihuahua, so we aren't sure what the other part of that mix is. It had to have been a good size dog. I mean, Sunny is still a small guy, but not in that Chihuahua type class of dogs.

Fortunately, he's not at all like Bugsy was when he first came, so we're hoping this process won't take nearly as long. As you know, Bugsy turned completely around and is now a total love-bug. We can only hope Sunny will too.

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What weighs 5 pounds and cruises at 500 mph?  

If you guessed a new, super-secret drone of some sort, you'd be mistaken.

If you guessed a tiny, wire-haired Dachshund mix puppy of some sort, you'd be correct.

His name is Cap, and he arrived on Friday from the same Arkansas shelter where Tanner came from. The animal control officer there had seen this one-eyed puppy offered on Facebook in a "free-to-good-home" ad, and immediately worried that he could end up as pitbull bait for a dogfighting ring. The ACO contacted the owner and picked up the puppy, and then asked if we could take him.

We've heard a couple of different versions about what happened to his left eye. The animal control people were told he had the eye scratched by a cat when he was just a few weeks old and the vet removed it. When we got the vet records that came with him, however, we noticed the paperwork said he had been "born blind" in that eye, and the vet had done an enucleation. I called the clinic on Friday to ask for a clarification. A staff member told me he had been born with a left eye that was small and shrunken, which is why the vet removed it. He can see just fine with his right eye.

Another discrepancy: Cap was supposed to be 5 months old, but after animal control got him they found out he was … drum roll please … only 8 weeks. So he is pure puppy. And yes, that means we are working on housetraining. 

Cap is one of the friendliest, happiest, most sociable and outgoing little characters we've ever seen. Just a sweet, loving tyke who enjoys meeting people, dogs, shoes, computer cords, toys and anything else along the way. Even his own tail is good for a chase every now and then. He zooms everywhere. He's so light we often don't even hear him, but see a small dark shape streaking across the floor. He's smaller than he seems in these photos — you could put him in a coat pocket and still have room for a beer.

Of course, the other dogs are looking at us as if to say, "Who let him in the house?" Cap doesn't understand why all of his new uncles and aunts aren't thrilled to have him jumping up and down on them, and he is learning boundaries from his elders. Here he is with Holly:

Holly promptly growls at him, getting this look in response:

(Click on photo for larger image to see how big that tiny one eye can get.)

Here he is with blind Sophie:

We decided he may start thinking that growling here is just everyone's way of saying "Hey, nice to meet you, kid."

Well, there is someone who not only doesn't growl at him, but plays with him:

Yes, Tanner! He loves this little guy, and they like to play tug-of-war over soft chew toys:

And even when a chew toy isn't involved, Tanner doesn't seem to mind having a puppy hanging off his face:

Cap is just a doll, and we don't see any reason he can't be available for adoption right away. So if you're interested in adopting this little guy Alayne calls "Pop Top," please send an email to steve[at]rollingdogfarm.org. All the usuals apply — potential adopters need to come out to meet us and the dog, we'll need a vet reference, etc. We'll do the initial screening via email.

There was one other dog who also arrived on the same transport as Cap. We wish he had a fraction of Cap's personality, but alas, he doesn't. He's shy and scared and prefers hiding to socializing. Hopefully I can get a photo of him for the next blog post!

Final photo of the munchkin:

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In the previous post I said that the leg in the photo belonged to Tanner. Well, here's what was going on just before Wilbur stood up and Alayne took the photo. Both boys were enjoying some winter sunshine coming through the storm door. We use towels by the doors instead of door mats because of all the foot traffic — two, three and four-feet at a time — coming through, usually with snow attached. They get tossed in the wash as needed. But, when they're fresh and dry and happen to occupy a sunny spot, it's a nice place to snooze, too.

Tanner does not like having his photo taken, which is why you see that vaguely suspicious expression. We've had a number of really cute things to photograph — like him playing with Bugsy (adorable!), or him playing with Darla (yes!) — but as soon as the camera comes out, he breaks off the activity. So we'll keep trying.

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Yep, there he is sporting his new diapers. He couldn't believe we were taking his photo to post on the blog. We told him not to be embarrassed — about 25 million adult Americans have urinary incontinence, and in Japan the sales of adult diapers are set to overtake infant diapers. (No, really.) We don't know how many adult dogs are incontinent, but we've sure had quite a few over the years.

In Wilbur's case, his newly developed incontinence seemed to be a complication from his bladder stone surgery. Fortunately, the diapers work very well on him. We haven't had such luck on some other incontinent dogs — generally because they manage to chew or pull their diapers off. But now Wilbur is back to skittering around the house at will, happy and leak-proof!

(In case you're wondering, the leg in the foreground of that photo belongs to Tanner.)

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That's Tanner on a bed in the living room, enjoying one of Holly's favorite toys. (We didn't tell her.) This is what he does when he makes it past the security guard out front — i.e., Darla — and scampers into the house.

Tanner's hip is completely healed up and he enjoys racing around the yard on three very fast legs these days. A couple of days ago we had put the dogs out while we were having lunch, and I could look out the window and see Tanner joyfully sprinting back and forth along the fence — just because he could. I marveled to Alayne, "Look at that boy go!"

Barb R. asked whether Travis' mouth is staying open after his surgery. Yes, it is so far, though we still have him on a very small dose (2.5 mg every other day) of prednisone. We're waiting a bit longer to do the final taper. Travis feels great, too — he sprints out the door with Tanner every morning, and together they race to the spruce tree at the other end of the yard.

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