Aerie

Lauren - got your PM and replied. Thanks! My neighbor was supposed to find out more information on the puppies today, so I'll have a better understanding of what's going on when I get home from class today. From what I understand, the man is going to leave the puppies with Mom until they're old enough to wean (thank goodness), and then wants them gone immediately. Hopefully I'll be able to arrange something by then.

I seem to attract drama. Really. One of my neighbors came to tell me about a situation. Apparently someone he knows has a litter of border collie puppies. It was an "accidental" litter. The puppies are 3 or 4 weeks old now. I'm not sure how many there are, but the person who has them is giving them away "free to good homes" and if he doesn't "get rid" of them by the time they're weaned, he's going to drown them. My neighbors wife has called the humane society in his county, but they are unable to do anything since it's only a "threat" and so far the puppies and the dam are fed, dry, and in good health. Now, I don't really know if there's anything that I can do. My neighbor seems to think that this man is most definitely capable of drowning the puppies. Apparently a litter of kittens suffered a similar fate. I know nothing about the situation other than what i've presented here. What should I do? Is there anything I can do? I was thinking that, possibly, once they are weaned...I could take the whole litter. But I live in an apartment building. My landlady isn't exactly the sweetest. It would have to be a very, very short period of time here. The humane society in Gulfport is a no-kill facility now, I believe. But I'd hate to give them to a shelter. I just...don't know what my options are at this point. I need to find out some more information from my neighbor, but he's not really very informative. I might not have any options at all. This really sucks. I'll try to find out some more information from the guy tomorrow. Hopefully he'll have talked to the people. Ugh. I dislike people, really. Those poor puppies.

Thanks, Kristen. I guess sometimes I just need to hear a little encouragement. I've come so far in the last year - I went through the missing him part, the hating him part, and I'd moved on to the indifference part. But recently he's just been so hateful. And hearing how horrible of a wife I was and that he only picked me because he 'had to have a wife quick' just starts eating at me after a while. I know better than to let it get to me, but when he's being that mean to me, I worry that he's capable of just giving up on the dog, too. I miss Combat so much. Recon misses him. We can't even say his name around here without her getting thoroughly excited and searching through the house. It's sad. You're right, though. I gave him Combat because he's never shown any real hint of being anything other than good towards him. I'm letting my emotions get the better of me, and I do need to chill. Everything will be fine. Thank you again. And we don't have an official court date, yet. The papers are signed and with the lawyers, but nothing's moving forward yet. It's odd. Supposedly it'll be in the next few weeks.

As of right now, I'm operating under the assumption that Combat is ok and that he's still with Mike. But...I'm taking this all the way to court; I want Combat somewhere I can keep him safe. I don't like not knowing each day if Mike's feeding him good enough food or if he's keeping him exercised, if he's making sure not to overdo it with his hips being as bad as they are. Thank you everyone for the support. I'm still not comfortable, still paranoid, and still thinking something isn't quite right, but I've called every shelter and every person I know and can't find out anything so I'm going to just have to hope for the best until we get into court. Hopefully very soon this will all be over.

He still won't tell me anything, but I managed to find a picture on his girlfriend's myspace account that had Combat in it. The date was 1/13/07, so as of that date (assuming the date is correct), Mike still had Combat and he looked healthy. I feel much better after having seen that, but I still don't feel great. What I believe has happened is that Mike has Combat living with his girlfriend. At any rate, I'm going to take this to court and hopefully get Combat back. The divorce papers say that I get the dog, and Mike has already signed them, so it should go in my favor. I don't want to have to worry. I don't trust Mike, I thought I could trust him with the dog but I just can't. I'm scared to death he'll get tired of having to take care of him and give him away. In the meantime, I'm going to hope that Mike's trying to drive me flipping crazy. I will be -so glad- when all this is over. I really wish I could stop worrying, but now all I can picture is Combat held in some shelter somewhere not knowing what's going on or why we abandoned him. I hate that image, and I will do everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen.

I have a few friends left in Oklahoma, some very good ones, but the problem is - the friends that -I- kept are the ones that turns out didn't like Mike to begin with. (ie: the older, responsible, less idiotic ones) And he doesn't really associate with them anymore. I've sent emails and made a few phone calls to them, seeing if they can find out anything for me. I've also called the local shelters - they haven't had any border collies matching Combat's description turned in. I sent them a photo in an email and the lady said she'd call me if she saw him come through. I'm going insane with worry.

Recon loves wasabi. Plain, gooey, hot as heck wasabi. She'll lick it off my fingers, goes nuts if I put a little on a piece of kibble - she's insane. And pop rocks. You know, that candy? Loves it. We have a cat who eats anything and everything, though. Kitty2 is her name (yes, really). She was the lone survivor in a litter of 5 that happened when a random stray kitty showed up and adopted us (she gave birth in the middle of our driveway. she's a smart one.) anyway. Kitty2 eats mushrooms and green beans and candy corn and corn on the cob and cooked noodles and dried pasta and broccoli and sweet potato and...yeah, ok, if it's on your plate she wants it.

I sent my ex-husband (well, he will be as soon as the court date is set and the judge signs the papers) a text message yesterday to ask how Combat is doing. I've tried to regularly check on him and generally I get a "He's fine." response and that's it. I have to settle for that, because we (Mike and I) aren't exactly on speaking terms. Yesterday, I got nothing. No response. Today I've tried sending multiple messages and I'm getting nothing. I've tried to call - he won't answer. Now, he's military, so he might be in the field and just not able to answer his phone - but this has never happened before. He can at least get through a text message. I may be overreacting at this point but I'm scared to death. I don't know if Mike got him tested for heartworms after this fiasco with Recon, and the last I heard, Combat had torn up a set of mini-blinds in Mike's bathroom. Mike's not the patient sort. I sent Combat to him thinking the dog would be safe - Mike supposedly really loved him, wanted him, etc. The dog obviously loved him. And maybe it's ok. Maybe, like I said, i'm overreacting. But I have this horrible, awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. I am quite literally scared to death that he's done something with the dog. I'm going to start calling the local shelters in just a few minutes. I really just need to calm down, I think, but geez I'm scared. The divorce papers say I get the dogs, so I could make it a big deal if I wanted to. Dang it, why won't he just answer and let me know Combat is safe and healthy and ok??

Happy Gotcha Day, Riven!

Aww, poor little one. Believe me, I feel ya on the tired of cleaning up thing. Recon's only been down for a day, but I'm definitely ready to not have to clean up anymore. I'm glad your little lady is feeling better!

Wow, nice! Those really look great.

any basic image editing software will let you fiddle a bit with pictures to create one for your signature. I used Fireworks for mine, but of course, mine's pretty simple - just a resized and fluffed up picture of recon's eyes.

Thanks for the well-wishes folks, it must be helping - Recon's feeling much better today. She ate a tiny lunch and held it down, so I'm going to give her a full amount at dinner tonight and see how we go from there. She's not looking so tense, either, so that's good. Teresa (the friend looking for a BC) is willing to drive several hours if necessary. The last time I talked to her she was heading to some city near Mobile in Alabama to a humane society - a friend told her they'd just (a few days ago) picked up a border collie as a stray and its hold time was up and would be PTS soon. That was a few hours ago, and I haven't heard from her, so I don't know if she was able to get the dog out or what. She was worried, because he is apparently a senior dog and she's aware that not many people are willing to adopt the older guys. Anywho! I've emailed her the links from this thread and have asked her for an update on the Alabama pupper, so I"ll fill everyone in when I get some news. Thanks again, folks!

Oh great, thanks! I had tried to get on those boards a few days ago but it wasn't letting me. I don't know if the site was down or if my browser was acting up, but I can see them now. I'll give the link to Teresa and let her start looking through things. As for miss ReRe, she's not feeling so hot today. She tried eating breakfast but then vomited. I gave her some boiled chicken and rice for lunch and she kept that down. Will give that again for dinner and probably breakfast tomorrow. Poor baby I feel awful for her and super darn guilty. Vet said to just watch her and if she continues getting sick or stops drinking to bring her in, so we're just hanging out and waiting at this point. Anywho. Thanks for the link, Julie. I appreciate it!

First, I'd like to say that these boards are incredibly nifty - good job, admin-folk! And a quick update on my baby: Recon had her second heartworm treatment yesterday. I took her in the morning, picked her up in late afternoon, and she slept at home till this morning. Didn't really want to eat, but did drink...then tonight she ate a regular meal. She's feeling much better, though still seems like she just wants to sleep. That's fine, though. She did this after the first one, too - was really mellow for about a week afterwards, then bounced back. I figure as long as she's eating properly, drinking, doesn't act much differently (except for the obvious extended napping) and doesn't seem in distress, we're doing good. She has two more treatments in the following two months and then we'll be good to go. She's not got any scarring and the vet says she should bounce back good as new once this is all said and done. Lesson is most definitely learned - never ever ever trust anyone but yourself to give your dog its required medications and such. Because I 'trusted' my ex-husband and mother-in-law to help out, Recon missed several doses of her heartworm preventative. It won't happen again, and I can only thank God that it wasn't worse than this. On another note - I have a dear friend who is looking to adopt a border collie. She's had one for the past 9 years, but recently lost her to cancer. She wants to go through rescue (she adopted this last BC from the humane society here when Psycho was 10 weeks old) (Yes, the dog's name was Psycho. Yes, she deserved the name.) Anyway! I can't seem to find any border collie rescues close by. Or I'm just not searching hard enough or the internet hates me, or something. Both of us are keeping our eyes out for one to show up in the local humane society, but in the meantime I'd like to see if we can find something for her in a rescue. She did mention that she is willing to take in heartworm positive pups, or dogs with other special needs. She's looking for the "perfect dog for her" not the "perfect" dog, thank goodness. I'm trying to convince her that the next one needs a tame name - like Fred. Or Bob. Or...just not Psycho. Anyfluff. If any of you know of any close by, could you pop me a message or respond here? Thanks so much!

Lets see how this super-cool stuff works...hmmm...

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and for the list! I've found several things to do with her and it's working really nicely. She's still a bit under the weather - though she's much better than she was that first day after, but that's just making it so her rest times are longer in between our learning sessions. I think today we're going to re-learn the names of her toys. She had them down at one point but since we've moved and I sent all the old toys with Combat and got new ones for Recon - we have tons to learn. So, off I go! Again, thanks everyone!!

I mean activities that I can do with her or that she can do while confined to her crate. She's HW+ and undergoing treatment so I have to keep her quiet - the hide and seek thing would be great but I think she'd get a bit too excited. I'm thinking more along the lines of tricks or other things that can be done relatively slowly and nicely and just...not with lots of excitement.

I'm running out of ideas, folks! I have to keep Recon still and calm and all of that, but she's allowed "normal" daily activities. I decided to teach her to shake yesterday but that took all of 5 minutes and didn't entertain her for long. I've got kongs to fill with stuff and freeze but she doesn't seem altogether thrilled with those. We've learned several other tricks that don't require much movement...but she picks up on things so darn quick it's hard to keep up with her. So, anyway. Anyone have some ideas about what I can do to keep her mind stimulated but her body ... not? She's being really good so far - still doesn't have that much energy, but I know it's coming and I want to be prepared.

My poor baby is so sick She's got no energy and just sleeps on my feet and doesn't even want to play. And the cough seems like it's getting worse. I hate seeing her like this, it's killing me. I've been trying for two days to get Mike to take Combat in to be tested. I'll continue trying and if not, my divorce papers say that I get all the animals, so I'll go back to court and tell them I want the dog returned to me so that I can get him medical treatment if it's necessary. I am just so frustrated and feeling so helpless. I guess it's good that she's not feeling like playing - just means less likely to have to keep her in a kennel for extended periods. Blah Thanks for all the kind words, folks.

Well, I took Recon in today. The test was positive; Recon has heartworms. We started treatment today. One treatment a month for four months and no hard play - no play at all. Have to keep her calm and quiet. I feel like I have completely and utterly failed this dog. I did ask the vet how she could have gotten them with such a small window and he told me she must have missed more than just those months, earlier in the year. All I can think of is when the dogs were living with Tammy because we were doing renovations on our house she didn't give the medicine. But when I asked her about it today, she said she did. I got in contact with Mike to have him test Combat but he didn't seem interested in hearing what I had to say. One thing after another after another. I feel so dang helpless and like I don't deserve to have Recon. I don't know what I would do if she doesn't make it through this treatment. The only thing making me feel even slightly optimistic is that we apparently caught it early enough that there hasn't been any lasting damage done to the tissues. Thank God for that. Please pray for her, or say a good word for her, or whatever it is that you do.

Thanks everyone. I feel -slightly- better, but not much. I didn't know about the window, I just tend to give them to her on the 2nd or 3rd of the month every month. I think maybe I'm just so used to stressing about things at this point that I can't help but stress about this. I hope that things smooth out soon. And...my husband told my mother in law not to give them the pills because his sweet girlfriend doesn't believe in "infecting" dogs with harsh chemicals. I'm angry about that, but - it's my own fault. I shouldn't have relied on someone else to give the medicine to my dogs. That part is my fault and I feel bad about it. Bah, well. Tomorrow we go to the vet and we'll know an answer soon after.

Can a dog get heartworms if he/she has been on heartworm medicine every month for years except for approximately two months? I'm concerned. For November and December both Combat and Recon were "visiting" for a few days each month at my mother-in-laws house. They were there both times on the 2nd-5th of the month and that is when I give the heartworm meds. Tammy assured me that she gave them to them (i left the pills with her), but after an argument with the husband last week I found out that she hadn't given them to them because dear sweet hubby told her not to. I know she got hers in Jan, because I gave it to her. But for the last several weeks she's been making these dry coughing type sounds. Almost like she's got something stuck in her throat, but i've checked... She doesn't appear lethargic, or anyting really other than the "cough" but I'm concerned. I'm taking her to have a heartworm test on Thursday to be sure. What do you guys think, is it possible she has heartworms? I am so worried and I feel like, on top of everything, I've failed Recon once again.

Thanks, you two. I feel better already. I guess sometimes I just get stressy and start overthinking. She's probably picking up on that, too. I'll just chill out and let her have all the time she needs. I guess I should just feel lucky that she hasn't gone in the house yet.

So we finally officially moved into the apartment on Saturday. We took Recon outside to potty right before we got into the car to drive up. It's an hour drive. When we got to the apartment, I took her for a walk, played with her a bit, let her roam...she wouldn't potty. Fine, i thought, i'll take her upstairs, let her settle down, try later. I took her out once an hour for the rest of the night. She didn't go till around midnight (approximately 12 hours after we got in the car to drive up). She only piddled, no bowel movement. The next morning she did both, thankfully. Since then, she's piddled when I take her out with no problem but she's barely eating anything and I guess because of that, no bowel movements... i've been putting her food (chicken soup) down for 20 minutes, then taking it up till next feeding time. Finally tonight I only gave her half a feeding (half a cup) - poured a little fish oil over it and put a few chunks of chicken on top. She ate it all and then about 1/8 of another cup of plain. I guess that's a start, right? She still wouldn't 'go' when I took her outside, but hopefully by morning she'll need to. I'm trying to get her on a schedule so that when classes start it's not so much of a fight, but...am I doing the right thing? I'm concerned. I don't know if she's hating it here and is just not settling in well or if it's just that things are so new that she's having trouble dealing with the excitement.