Rolling Dog Farm Blog

I took this photo of Widget as we were leaving Vermont Veterinary Internal Medicine on Monday afternoon. That's the "nest" that Alayne fixes up for her in the front seat of the truck. As if the seat isn't big enough already, Alayne puts a box on the floor, adds a few beds to raise it to seat level, covers the now lengthy expanse with a big dog bed, and then tops it with a fleece blanket … for one very big bed. It's how Widget expects to travel. In spacious, comfortable style.

Our internal medicine specialist, Dr. Bryan Harnett, was waiting on Widget's other lab test results to come in before deciding on what to do for heart medications. During his echocardiogram of Widget's heart on Monday, he noticed enough changes in the valves that he thought it was probably time to start her on some meds. Dr. Harnett wasn't alarmed by what he saw, because the changes were the type you might expect in an older dog, but he thought it was time to put Widget on medication to help her overall heart function. We think she's about 10 or 11 years old.

The results came in on Tuesday, and both her blood work and urinanalysis were terrific — presenting no obstacles to the heart medication he wanted to begin prescribing, which is Enalapril. (That's a drug we have seen a lot of over the years!)

Blind Avery, by the way, is doing great, too. He's now completed his heartworm treatment. In a couple of more months, he'll get a different kind of "treatment" — neutering! The delay is to allow all the dead heartworms to exit his body before putting him through anesthesia again.

Just before writing this post, I was downstairs having lunch … where Widget was, as usual, relentless in pestering me for some of my meal. She was, as usual, successful. Widget says, "There's no need to teach an old dog new tricks when the old tricks work so well!"

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The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this current Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who posted such heartfelt condolences on losing little Bailey last week. Alayne and I really appreciated all the wonderful comments, and it means a lot to us to know he touched so many people along the way.  Some of the most disabled animals we've had over the years have had the biggest personalities — almost, it seems, as a way to compensate for the severe handicap they live with. Bailey was definitely one of those.

After that sad news, it was time for a happy blog post — and so I wanted to share an email and some terrific photos that Kathy K. and Chris T., who adopted the blind Poodle sisters a few weeks ago, just sent us. Kathy wrote:

"The girls are doing great. They know they are home. 🙂 They know the whole house very well and the routine. They play very often and encourage Franky to play with them. They love to go for walks and when they hear me taking the leashes, they go crazy. They follow Franky in the backyard everywhere and do whatever he does, so when Franky digs holes … they dig holes too! They brought so much into our lives. We love them very much.

Thank you very much for all the good you are doing in this world. Hope to see you soon."

I will tell you, I was jealous when I saw the photos Kathy attached, because I have tried for years to get this exact set of shots of the girls roughhousing with each other. But whenever I'd see them playing like this and try to sneak outside with the camera, they'd inevitably hear me — either a footstep, a door squeak, or something — and stop to turn and "look" at me.  Alayne has also tried on a number of occasions, with the same result. Somehow Kathy has already managed to get the photos that eluded us so many times. 

Here's Priscilla's play-bow to get things started … keep in mind both girls are blind, but they still use body language to communicate with each other:

A good old-fashioned left-hook:

More like fighting stallions than Poodles in this one:

Looks pretty fierce, doesn't it?

In a quieter moment, here's Priscilla hanging out with one of Kathy and Chris' other dogs:

That giant boulder, dear reader, is why they call New Hampshire "the Granite State."  We have some of those lying around here, too.  Since you can't move them short of dynamiting them, you learn to include them as part of your landscaping. It's the authentic New Hampshire look.

Kathy and Chris, thank you so much!

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The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this current Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!

Our sweet and delightful little Bailey died yesterday morning. His heart finally gave out. Even when we knew the end was coming — he was very old and had really deteriorated in the past couple of months — it was still one of the most painful losses we've ever had. Bailey had an outsized personality, and he had been one of the touchstones of our life since he first arrived from an animal hoarder court case back in 2006.

He had been through a lot before coming to us, and you can read about the conditions he was living in here. It was only because a determined group of neighbors kept pressing local law enforcement to do something about this awful place that Bailey and many other animals were eventually rescued.

Through it all, he had survived — and we were blessed to have him spend his final years with us.

He had always been one of the most physically compromised animals we've ever had the privilege of caring for — his lower back was bent, his rear legs skewed sideways, and yet while it looked like it was difficult for him to walk, he loved to go roaming around the yard. He had a get-up-and-go drive that absolutely defied how his tiny body looked.

And despite the appearance of his back and legs, he wasn't in any pain. We learned after we first got him that there was nothing our veterinary surgeons in Spokane could do for him, but it was clear from watching him that he was very mobile and enjoyed going everywhere and anywhere. Indeed, on the day he came to us in, the first thing he did was take off down the drive, and we had to go running after him to scoop him up.

Because of his spinal problem, he had no control over his bladder or bowels, and yet nothing bothered him more than not being able to go outside to do his business. Bailey never wanted to go inside the house, but he wouldn't know he needed to poop until it started coming out … and then he would make a mad dash to the front door. The effort to get outside always made a bigger mess across the floor for us to clean up, of course, but we admired how he tried so hard to to avoid going inside. Let's just say it was an example we hoped some other dogs could learn from!

Bailey had an irrepressible spirit and energy — bossy, playful, loving, and full of antics. Over the years he accounted for more blog posts than any other animal, including even Widget. He relished being outside when it was hot, sleeping under one of his favorite shade trees. When he was inside, he was forever playing with toys, like Mr. Caterpillar … when he wasn't using a toy as a head rest while he slept … or using a friend for the same purpose. Every dog was a friend to Bailey, as well as a potential head rest.

He loved exploring, even when the snow was deep. One of our favorite Bailey blog posts was his wind meter one. Since this is such a sad post, you may really want to see this video clip of him playing with toys called "45 Seconds of Pure Joy."

But you get the idea:  this tiny dog with a giant personality gave us lots of unforgettable memories over the years. Just type "Bailey" in the search box on this blog (on the left) and you'll see what I mean.

In recent months as his body began wearing out, Alayne would baby him even more. She carried him around the house with her on "road trips" so he could see what was going on, and would sit at her computer holding him. In the past few weeks she set up a special bed in a laundry basket so he could be with us wherever we were. His incontinence became worse, and she was bathing him three or four times a day now. We always knew when his bedding needed to be changed, because he'd start barking insistently. We joked that this was Bailey's way of saying, "Housekeeping! Housekeeping! Bedding change needed in Basket 1!" In his last few days his voice became noticeably weaker, but he was just as bossy as ever.

He was in his basket-bed in my office yesterday morning, sleeping just a few feet behind me while I responded to emails. At some point I realized I didn't hear any sound coming from the basket and I turned around to look. I pulled his blanket back. He was no longer breathing and was absolutely still. I knew he had just slipped away. I called down to Alayne who was in the kitchen, and she came running up the stairs.

I picked up his little body, wrapped it in his fleece, and handed him to her.  She cradled him and cried. Sitting on the floor, she rocked back and forth, tears streaming down her face, hugging him tightly. She said, "I loved caring for him. He was just so special. He was my little boy." Alayne handed him to me and I sat on the floor, cradling him and crying, too. Dang, and now I'm crying again writing this and reliving it. 

[Following a brief pause for tissue…]

After we grieved and cried for quite a while together, Alayne went to get his last bedding change — what we would wrap him in for burial. It was a Winnie the Pooh sheet that Alayne always reserved for Bailey's bed. She had already decided where we were going to bury him. Since he loved being under trees so much, his final resting place will be under a beautiful birch tree just below the house.

Goodbye, sweetheart. We miss you so much.

Our local supplier of potatoes has run out of their stored supply from last year's harvest, and the new crop won't be ready until October. So we're now switching to rice as the carbohydrate source for the dogs' home-cooked meals. I took that photo this evening of a fresh batch of rice for their dinner tonight. 

In truth, it was time for a change anyway. The dogs — just like people — like variety in their diet.  And Alayne, a.k.a. the Potato Lady, was more than ready for a change from washing, trimming and cooking hundreds of pounds of potatoes every week for the past several months. In that time she also had become known as "Spuds 'n Suds," and in more affectionate moments I have taken to calling her "Tater Tot."  Alas, with the change to rice, I will need to get to work on coming up with appropriate substitutions (if I live long enough after posting this blog).

We're currently going through a 50 pound bag of white rice from Costco, but have 100 pounds of whole brown rice coming from our local food coop in Littleton next week. Because of the change in carbohydrates, we're using different recipes from the veterinary nutritionists at DVM Consulting's BalanceIT.com website. People keep asking us to share our recipes, but they're really customized for individual animals (age, weight, breed, activity level, etc.), so the best thing to do is download a recipe based on your protein and carbohydrate choices for your own pet.

Anyway, out with the potatoes, in with the rice!

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The current Shelter Challenge started on Monday, April 4th, and ends at midnight on Sunday, June 19th. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.

And remember, you can vote every day, so consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.

You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.

Please note:  Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.

Because of your votes, we just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in this current Shelter Challenge. Please help us win more money for the animals here by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!