Rolling Dog Farm Blog

I walked out of my office yesterday afternoon and saw this scene in the living room … blind Briggs and blind Austin, tucked in side-by-side on the cot.  I’m not sure it would be possible for two dogs to get any closer than this.  I particularly like how the two tails come right together at the end, tip to tip.

Neither dog woke up as I walked around the cot, taking photos.  Briggs looks like he’s awake but his eyes still bulge enough that his lids don’t always close when he sleeps.  And when you’re blind, I guess that’s not really a problem because it doesn’t keep you awake!

Here’s the top-down view:

Now that the weather is changing, little Bailey the Dachshund is resuming his habit of wrapping himself deep in various blankets and bedding.  I got this shot the other evening in our living room.  Bear in mind that he manages to get wrapped up like this without any help from us.  Some day I need to be ready with the video camera to capture the Whirling Dervish routine when he starts winding the bedding all around himself.  It’s hard to explain exactly how he does it, but in the end, he is always totally buried … until he wants to come up for air, as he did here.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about blind Goldie having a second round of cancer surgery to remove a mast cell tumor.  The surgery went fine, but the biopsy results came back with both good news and bad news.  The good news was the tumor was a moderate Grade 2.  The bad news was that we didn’t have clean margins, meaning that some of the cancerous tissue might still be there.  These kinds of tumors are basically impossible to see during surgery, so the surgeon removes as much tissue around the suspect area as possible and hopes he or she gets it all.  The biopsy gives the answer.

In Goldie’s case, our internal medicine specialist in Missoula, Dr. Dave Bostwick, had taken out a big chunk of her tissue during surgery, right down to the abdominal wall.  He had warned us about the possibility of not getting it all, so we were prepared for the news when he called with the biopsy results.  Dave said we had three options:  more surgery; chemotherapy; or do nothing further, since it was a slow-growing Grade 2, Goldie is 11 years old, and we had a reasonable chance of the tumor not becoming lethal before she died of old age.

Our natural inclination is to be very aggressive and intervene medically, but we didn’t want to put her through another surgery.  It just seems that the more surgeries an animal goes through, the higher the risk for post-operative complications — and Birdie’s tragic death still haunts us.  And Dave had already removed so much of her chest tissue in the initial surgery we hated to think how much more he’d have to take out. 

Doing nothing did not sit well with us either, since she’s already had two bouts of cancer this year alone, so it seemed to us she had a fairly high risk of this tumor rebounding aggressively.  Moreover, who knows how long she may live?  We’re going to plan on — we’re going to will it — for her to live to 17.

I talked with Dave last week about the chemotherapy option.  The chemo drug is called vinblastine, and Dave said he has never had a dog get sick from it.  He said it’s commonly used for this purpose — "margin clean-up" for mast cell tumors.  She would get one intravenous injection each week for four weeks, then every other week for four weeks … a total of eight rounds of treatment. 

That’s the option Alayne and I selected, and today I took Goldie in to see Dave for her first round of chemo.  In these photos Dave’s vet tech Tracy is holding Goldie still while Dave administers the drug. 

A few hours later, back at the ranch, Goldie is doing great and just happy to be home — though she liked riding around Missoula in the truck, too!

(Speaking of these photos, please notice the nice arrangement of yellow-ish pastel colors — shirts, hair, walls, floor and the dog, too.  Clearly there was a theme today.)

Just before the long holiday weekend, blind Willie and his family came back for a wonderful visit with us.  Katie G. adopted Willie the Beagle in June 2007, a few days after getting married.  She and her new husband, Greg, picked up Willie on their way to Twentynine Palms, California, where Greg was stationed with the U.S. Marine Corps.  Katie had been a volunteer at the ranch and that’s how she came to know Willie, who was a very timid soul at the time.

In the past year, Katie and Greg had an adorable baby girl, Jacky, who you see on Katie’s lap in the photo.  (Greg is currently serving in Iraq and hasn’t seen his daughter yet!)  Also in the photo is Zeus, a dog who Greg rescued a few years ago.  Another soldier had owned Zeus and was trying to turn him into a fighting dog — by beating him and then starving him.  Greg saved Zeus from this terrible situation, although it took a long time for Zeus to even trust Greg.  Katie said that for the first few months, Zeus would hide in the bedroom and whenever Greg would walk by the door, Zeus would begin urinating submissively out of fear. 

To this day Zeus is afraid of other men, Katie says, though she was surprised to see Zeus immediately warm up to me.  While I was sitting on the floor in the welcome center, Zeus walked right over, licked me in the face, and then laid down next to me.  Katie was astonished and said, "I’ve never seen him do that!"  (It’s the beard, I tell you.)

Interestingly enough, that’s how it was with Willie and Katie.  Willie would slink from most people, but whenever he would hear Katie’s voice on our volunteer days, his tail would go up and he would start running in circles, baying.  It was if he were announcing, "Katie’s coming!  Katie’s coming!" 

Willie has blossomed into the perfect family pet and has really come out of his shell.  In fact, he’s become the family protector of sorts!  When big Zeus gets afraid, he goes and hides behind Willie.  Katie says that whenever Jacky is upset and cries, Willie starts baying to let Katie know something’s wrong with the baby.  And when Jacky is getting her bath, Willie whines and barks as if something isn’t quite right about that, either — maybe it’s how he feels about getting his own bath?

Willie’s favorite thing, Katie reports, is going for a ride in the baby stroller!  While Jacky rides up above in the main compartment, Willie loves to sit underneath in the sling.  And that’s how Katie takes them all for a walk … Zeus on a leash and Jacky and Willie in the baby stroller.

Willie has come a long way, and bless Katie and Greg for taking this boy into their lives.  We’re wishing for Greg’s safe and speedy return home to his family!

So far we have enjoyed a cooler summer than in recent years, and last week we even had two full days of constant, soaking rain … something we had rarely if ever seen in August.  Our first ‘near-frost’ was actually two weeks ago — we woke up one morning and our LaCrosse weather station reported 32.8 degrees F (0.4 C).

[Yes, that .8 would suggest someone here at the ranch is a bit of a weather nerd, but let’s not reflect further on that.]

Our first real frosts are usually in late August, and always by the end of the first week in September, and though we haven’t had it yet, the past couple of days have been unusually cool and fall-like.  Yesterday was just a raw day … cold and wet and windy.  More like late October than August.  With the temperature never getting above the 50s and the wind howling at 15 mph, the house had become uncomfortably cool by early evening — and that meant a cold night ahead.  So for the first time Alayne or I could remember, I fired up the wood stove in August.

Never far from the warmth of a wood stove is blind-and-deaf Spinner, and I took her photo yesterday evening not long after I got the fire started.  This morning when we got up the house was warm and toasty. 

We’re supposed to return to the 70s Friday and Saturday, but be back into the 50s by Sunday … and with a high of only 53 degrees (11.6 C) forecast for Labor Day on Monday.  I think I’d better get started splitting some more wood for the stove!

I was taking photos for our fall print newsletter the other evening over at Widget’s House when I got these shots of Molly the blind Poodle.  Molly and her sister blind Priscilla are going to be our "cover models" on this next issue.  Actually, there will be three models in the cover photo, since I have Alayne in the center, holding both girls.  (Um, trying to get two dogs to sit perfectly still and looking at the camera at the same time … when neither one can see … is, shall we say, a real challenge.)

Molly is one happy girl, always smiling like this.  Priscilla is more reserved and shy around people.  Priscilla really comes alive when playing with the other dogs, especially her boyfriend Trooper.  (It turns out, though, that in the past month Molly has made it official — she’s dating that no-good hound dog, too.)

Molly has this little fluffy bob on the end of her tail, and she gets so excited whenever she sees us that her tail-bob (bobtail?) starts whirling around in a circle.  You can kind of see it in motion in this photo: 

Last week we had a scary moment with blind Briggs, who suddenly couldn’t use his rear legs.  Yet he had deep pain sensation in his feet and could move his legs, pulling them back if we extended them … but he couldn’t stand up to walk.  His lower back was painful in one area, suggesting that something was definitely out of whack.  Our vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, had us start Briggs on prednisone to reduce inflammation in the spine, and over the course of 24 hours he began to regain the use of his legs.

The little guy is so wobbly to begin with, because of the neurological damage from his Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, that this was a real struggle.

Fortunately, within 48 hours he was almost back to his old self, except that we could tell — this may sound odd — that his wobble wasn’t exactly "normal."  (Is there such a thing as a normal wobble?)  It’s a little hard to do a neuro assessment on a dog who wobbles on all four legs, but his rear legs weren’t wobbling the way they typically did.  There was something in how he moved them, and how his stance was, that told us his back was still out.

For all the bad rap that prednisone gets, we frankly consider it a miracle drug.  This steroid has brought more relief to more animals, in a faster amount of time, than anything else we’ve ever used.  And while it is known to have side effects, we have rarely experienced any problems in treating our animals with it. 

But it’s also true that depending on the condition, prednisone — like many medications — can treat the symptoms or provide temporary relief while not "solving" the underlying problem.  In Briggs’ case, it appeared he still had a back out of whack.  And for that sort of thing, we use chiropractic care.

So I scheduled a visit today with our personal chiropractor, Dr. Scott Matz in Missoula, who also practices on small animals for his clients at no cost.  After Scott worked on my sore back, he adjusted Briggs.  In the photo above Scott is examining Briggs’ lower spine, having already adjusted his neck vertebrae with the device you see on the floor.

Briggs was the model patient, sitting very still for Scott the entire time.  Briggs seemed to enjoy it — though I’m not sure whether it was the adjustment or just the extra attention from someone new — because he danced wobbled a little jig after his session!

One of the myths about blind or deaf dogs is that they are more likely to snap if startled, and thus might not be a good fit for children.  This, like the typical myth, is simply not true.  By that definition, a blind and deaf dog would be twice as likely to be snappy, but we have never seen such behavior here.  If a dog is snappish, or not good with children, it’s because of his or her personality, not because of a disability.

If anything, from what we’ve seen disabled animals are unusually easy-going and able to "go with the flow" … I think because they’ve already learned how to adapt to the world around them without having vision or hearing or, in some cases, both. 

So I was delighted to get these photos in an email last week from Wendy M., who adopted blind-and-deaf Baron and blind Stoney a few months ago.  Wendy wrote,

"Here are some picture taken yesterday of my two nieces (3 & 5 yrs) Logann and Sydney.  If anyone needs proof disabled dogs do well with kids, show them these!  Sydney rolled all over Stoney, sat on her, reclined on her and gave her big hugs, all while Stoney patiently chewed on her bone.  Wow!  Baron was picked up, carried around, squished and squeezed and loved every minute of it. He would race all around the yard until he found one of the girls and would beg to be picked up again!  I think both dogs are going to be a little sad when the girls go back to Washington."

The photo at the top is Baron getting squished by Sydney.  Here she is making over blind Stoney:

And here is a very happy child with a very content dog:

It was a good thing I devoted a post to beautiful Bunny just before taking my summer "blog vacation," because this special three-legged girl was adopted last week!  Long-time supporters of the ranch, Karl and Tia M. from the Spokane, Washington area, visited us earlier in the summer and fell in love with Bunny.  They couldn’t stop thinking about her, and asked if they could come back to adopt her.  We can’t think of a better home for this adorable cat than with Karl and Tia, so that was a definite "yes!" 

Now, having said that, I will admit that Bunny was a hard one to let go.  She was a real favorite of mine, and as I wrote in that earlier blog post, she is "one of the nicest, sweetest, and prettiest cats I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing."  But Karl and Tia will shower her with love and affection and provide anything Bunny will ever need, and I knew this was clearly the best thing for this little girl.  Alayne took the photo above of Tia with Bunny just before they left the ranch.

Ironically, Bunny had come to us from the Spokane County animal control shelter, so she ended up going back to her hometown!

Judging from this photo that Tia sent, it would appear that Bunny is settling in just fine in her new home:

Thank you, Karl and Tia!

I’ve posted before about how blind Widget loves to pester us at meal time.  She’ll stand up on her little hind legs, put her paws on our laps, and cock her adorable head with an expression that says, unmistakeably, "Where’s mine?"  She is, dare I say it, a serial beggar.

As a result of her bout with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis back in March, plump Widget lost some much-needed weight, and my efforts to keep the weight off have succeeded in keeping her svelte.  I refer to the new dietary regime as Daddy’s Diet Plan, or DDP for short, but Widget calls it "Dastardly Daddy’s Punishment."  Well, the new, sleek Widget is much more agile and athletic, and she’s learned she can now do things she couldn’t do before.  We have been surprised at what she can accomplish.  Perhaps because of the new diet plan, she’s become even more insistent — you might call it ‘opportunistic’ — at meal time.

On Tuesday night we were having dinner, and as part of the meal I had served up corn on the cob.  We had the plate of corn at the edge of the table, parked right between Alayne and me.  As usual, Widget came over to check out our dinner and see what she could score.  She went first to me, then to Alayne, and back again a few times, this being the usual routine.  We were watching CNN while we ate.  Suddenly we heard a "thud!", and looked down to see Widget pouncing on a freshly buttered ear of corn. 

She had, right under our noses and without either one of us seeing it, managed to reach up with her little mouth, grab the ear of corn from the plate and flip it off the table and onto the ground.  And she did this silently, without moving the plate or disturbing any of the other ears of corn laying on it.  We didn’t see or a hear a thing until the corn hit the floor.

This was an entirely new dimension in culinary robbery.

Thus last night I decided to photograph her in action.  In the photo at top is her M.O. … pretending to be interested in what Alayne might be offering her, but meanwhile scanning the table with her nose for some self-service opportunities.  You can see that if the plate were at the edge of the table, all she’d have to do is reach over another inch or so and she’d get it.

Yes, I know this is a bad Widget, and yes, we scolded her for the corn heist.  Begging for food is one thing, stealing food from the table is another thing.

But then again, how can you stay mad at a face that looks like this?

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I’m going to be taking a summer ‘blog vacation’ next week, so I’ll resume posting on Monday, August 25th.

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A quick update on blind Goldie:  She is doing well and bouncing back from her surgery, and we are cautiously optimistic that she will make a full recovery.  Thanks to everyone for their best wishes for our golden girl!