Willikers

D'Elle, so sorry. By then they are perfectly polished jewels and it makes goodbye all the harder, I think. I have a lot of tips for using the Balance-It site and recipes. At one point I was making 3 different recipes for my dogs, who all had different needs. Please feel free to ask if you need any help. I really credit the availability of Balance It with helping my dogs live through poisoning and subsequent kidney failure of my whole pack. Two of them lived to be 15 and the last one over 17, and nobody died of kidney failure.

I just laid my 17 year 3 month old sweetheart to rest in March. He was tired. But I credit his longevity to the fact that I was able to stay home through his senescent years and the lengths I was willing to go to make sure that he could age in place and still be included in life as his faculties and abilities downshifted and downshifted. We adapted. We moved our bedroom downstairs for the last 3 years. We covered the house in runners. He didn't go deaf until about 16. He still had some vision at the end, but it was low. He needed help walking and was very easily fatigued, so to keep him out and about I bought him a Help Em Up harness until he could only walk about 6 blocks, then I bought him a fancy Dutch Dog rolly cart so we could roll him to his favorite old fields and parks and let him walk his 6 blocks worth someplace more interesting and that kicked him into gear! He was able to walk a lot more when he wasn't using up his precious energy trudging around our boring block. I made his food using the Balance-It website and his appetite was good until the last week when he started to say it was time. He had no sign of cognitive problems at the end but he was incontinent and he really didn't like that. He hated the belly band. He was embarrassed to have to lay on a piddle pad. Here is a photo of him at 16 and 3/4 years in his new rolly cart. Some people thought he was a mix, some thought he was a self-blue merle bc. It never mattered to me. Everything I did for him was worth it.

Hi Aschlemm. My dog Parker had repeated bouts of vestibular syndrome. The first was the worst. He was a vigorous super active 14 year old and that first attack was horrible. He had it on the left side and it took about 4 weeks of me working with him daily for him to be able to walk without me and he had a head tilt for at least 9 months. Then he had a second attack and it seemed to be on the right, because he developed a head tilt to the right and that one was not as bad as the first but still pretty bad, requiring Cerenia and crate rest for about a week and leaving him with a head tilt for 6 months. Then he had one more minor attack on each side in the next year and then last year of his life he had no signs and no head tilt. Vestibular syndrome sucks!

That looks like a brilliant, soulful, grateful dog! Get off the computer and go play! I'm going to go play with MY shelter dogs now!

Gosh but this makes me happy! A person comes seeking advice, they get excellent advice, they take the advice and then find their new dog in the best possible way! It should always work this way. Congratulations to Neo, and a BIG CONGRATS to Fade!

Well, I am a total control freak when it comes to my dogs. When I got married I refused to board them and passed on a honeymoon in Sweden in favor of renting an RV and lumbering around the pacific NW with them. 2 are shelter dogs and 2 are abandoned dogs, so none of them are happy go lucky adaptable dogs who would fare well in a boarding situation. I simply went NO PLACE for years unless I could take my dogs. I finally broke free and hired a petsitter to stay overnights and come by midday for potty breaks, and had my first vacation in years ( I only took one dog and am screwing up the nerve to leave him home too on the next weekend getaway).

I don't think there is anything wrong with people who are being asked for aid voicing misgivings about the wisdom or timing about plunging ahead with a venture that doesn't seem to be coming together. Asking whether it is wise to push forward in light of financial shortfall is PRUDENT, not judgemental. In my work I get calls at least once a week from folks who proudly tell me how much their purebred puppies cost while in the very next breath confess that they don't have any money left to get VACCINATIONS, or spay/neuter, or to pay for treatment of the parvo their pup just came down with. If a person cannot even afford a crate for shipping a new pup, there is nothing wrong or unsupportive with the community questioning the wisdom/timing of this new pup acquisition. Raising the question is in the best interest of everyone. Being short the money for a shipping crate is the very least thing that could go wrong and it isn't judgemental to point that out.

Sigh...If you ever want to waste your breath, just ask someone to call their dog. If it wasn't usually a borderline serious situation, it would be funny. I never ever ask people to call their dog. I TELL them to COME GET THEIR DOG. It is very clear and the majority of fools will actually reflexively trundle over and make an effort.

I wait until I see flea dirt or a flea. We have no carpets in the house and only just had to dose all the critters last week for the first time this summer.

www.help-a-pet.org www.thepetfund.org http://www.aahahelpingpets.org/root/index.htm Unfortunately, I don't think that any of these groups are set up to deal with emergencies. They all have backlogs of requests, and some have complicated applications. The help-a-pet fund has the simplest app. The AHAA site needs surgeries or treatment to be done in an AHAA vet hospital. THe Pet Fund does a rigorous screening process to ensure that the owner is a good risk-that is to say, a good owner. They don't hand out money to people who have a history of poor vet care, stupid mistakes, who have shown inability to follow treatment instructions, etc. From this owner's email to you, saying essentially, that they would rather dump this animal on someone else, than put him to sleep, I am not sure that the pet fund would help them. Liver shunts suck, and from what I understand, it takes a committed owner to get over it, if getting over it is even possible. Poor dog.

Honestly, if my vet were that poorly informed about something as simple as mange, I'd change vets.

Nancy, It gave me a wonderful laugh as well! Hoo! That was rich! In fact, it was so funny that I've been re-reading it for the past 2 days whenever I need a giggle. Which is often.

That is why you coat the capsules in soft butter! That is my motto: Coat it in butter.

Ipecac is not appropriate if what was ingested is corrosive, and should only be used with the guidance of poison control, but it is a useful tool to have in the medecine chest.

Yes, I do. I'm a worry wart, so I have an extensive emergency kit including activated charcoal, ipecac, hydrogen peroxide for vomiting and wounds, hemostats, Sterile saline for wound and eye flushes, betadine, bandages, gauze, blunt tweezers,surgical scissors, honey stix for shock, a mylar thermal blanket, benadryl, surgical tape, thermomter, KY jelly, and probably a bunch of other stuff, plus a dog emergency guide with instructions on how and when to use this stuff. I feel prepared. I found all this stuff at the drug store and I am glad i have it on hand. I have already used it on several occasions for minor issues like beestings, foreign object in eye, lacerations and bite wounds.

Katz's writing skills are average and he publishes his screwups with no humility, no apology, and no real sense that he has learned from his mistakes. He relates his episodes of boobery with a kind of hubris and it galls me. Yes we all do stupid things, but the humble and insightful ones among us learn from those mistakes, accept that mistakes were actually made, and endeavor to not make the same mistakes again. We do not make a career out of it.

Perhaps picketing is the wrong word. I do think that Border Collie Rescue, as a presence on site at theaters as folks come out the door lusting after a brilliant border collie of their very own, could make use of a teachable moment. It might bring more attention to the film, but I have a feeling that the attention will come whether we are there to educate or not-I think this is going to be a popular film. I'd rather get our perspective out there and make the media work for our purposes too. So if by our efforts we inadvertently bring him more attention, at least rescue and BC education would get SOME notice and air time, which is more than we have now. Sigh. I just have this crazy idea that if possible, I'd like to influence the course of events rather than sit helplessly by as "Babe" happens all over again. Maybe my naivete is showing. Well, at least I can apply for a kennel permit!

I hope Border Collie Rescue pickets the premieres of this movie. Count me in. When is the release date? I can't stand the thought of what this is going to do to rescue. Everybody make some extra room, because the canine refugees are coming.

I can't abide terriers, and don't prefer spaniels, although if someone walked up and handed me any breed in need, I would take it in and then go from there, so long as it was safe and I had space. From here on out, I can only imagine sharing my life with Border Collies, Aussies, and Cattle Dogs. Any other dog that comes my way through no fault of its own (rescue) I am likely to lovingly rehome with someone who appreciates it for its own special qualities. Oh, and we like Corgis too.

In my geographic area rescue dog adoption fees tend to be in the $150-$200 range, so this does seem high to me. If the dog had to be treated for heartworm or had some large medical expenses, it could be why they are asking for a higher fee. I have mixed feelings regarding fluctuating or generally high adoption fees. On one hand, you want rescue dogs to be adopted and high adoption fees may be discouraging for some good adopters. On the other hand, you do want to recoup some of the expenses associated with preparing a dog for adoption. On the OTHER other hand, I would be concerned with a rescue that depends upon adoption fees to recoup expenses on the dogs. There should be other fundraising in place. With the group I worked with most, we set the fees to remain constant, regardless of how much it cost to get each dog adoption ready. Some dogs came in with heartworm or needing dentals or other pricey procedures on top of spay or neuter. Others came in ready to go, already spayed or neutered and in great shape. They still were adopted out at the regular fee even if they only wound up needing a rabies and distemper shot. Also, the dogs with sad medical stories were good fundraising dogs, frequently their stories would build up the medical fund in excess of their treatment costs and the excess helped other animals. When adopting out a dog that had racked up the expenses, we would advise the adopter of it and invite them to donate at a higher level, but it was optional. Some folks did, some didn't. I personally don't think sticking it to the adopter is the best way to handle the money issue. More assertive or inventive fundraising is better.

It would depend on which of my dogs it was, what the offense was, who was attempting the correction, and what the correction consisted of. I have had a trainer give my difficult dog a harsh prong collar correction. I didn't like that. (He no longer wears a prong, ever.) For my softer dogs, I wouldn't mind an "Ah!" type verbal correction, but I prefer to correct my own dogs. I definitely do not want anyone correcting my Border Collie but me, I don't even like my husband to do it, becuase he tends to over-correct, and my BC needs only a gentle verbal correction, not having his name yelled and NO! yelled.

Aussie Cocker X was my immediate impression.

A little story: Once, when I was having some conflicted authority issues,sick of being buried in dogs every night but too soft to outright ban them, I announced that we would make a "dog annex" to the bed and the dogs would sleep there. I took a massage table and lowered it to bed height, made it up all cushy and put it between our bed and the wall. Basically our entire room was a bed. What happened? The cats staked claim to the Dog Annex, the dogs dared not challenge the cats, the Dog Annex became the Cat Annex and all the dogs still slept on me! I was really peeved that my brilliant solution to being smothered and paralyzed by dogs was ruined by CATS. So the Annex was decommissioned and I stopped being conflicted. The dogs sleep in their own beds on the floor, welcome to come up and visit, but not to stay through the night. The cats, however, do as they please. And it pleases them to perch atop me and ride out my defensive nighttime thrashings like surfers. Damn cats.

I live in Olympia-if you come out my way, drop me a line, I'll try to squire you around to the dog-relevant stuff. I'm a recent transplant, here less than a year. It is true I have found it tough to make friends. So, do you pronounce your handle "Ar-tee-poke-ee"? Willow

I'm so sorry. It must have been a profound comfort to him to know his dogs would remain with a trusted family member. That is a wonderful testament of your love for him. Willow