The Pups 2+ Years Later....(May 18, 2012)
Here we are 2+ years later! we still have ALL of the dogs! Well, Sadie, the Sister of Stryker was fur-ever rehomed by a wonderful family in Jacksonville though!But we still have the little 3-legged Snaggle-toothed Chihuahua, Cesar, who has become an absolute Diva (is there a Male term for 'Diva'? LOL). We ended up keeping ALL of the dogs, Ranger (aka Buddy) and Rusty (aka Red) & Scout (the young guy who we didn't think would make it through the night) and they are ALL amazing. Each in their own way. Anyone who has animals knows the different personalities that each one possesses which make him different than another. They are funny, sweet, loveable, loyal, silly & smart. Though not a week goes by that I don't miss my Stryker - it has taken 3 to fill our home with all of what he had!There was point after all of the initial, very expensive vet bills, shots, licenses, medicines, heartworm treatments, special diets, etc that we considered possibly having to re-home 1 or 2, but HOW? How do you decide WHO you can let go to another home and HOW do you possibly EVER separate them? I think that they would be devastated! It was horrible enough the day we took Sadie away, they searched for her for days. So, knowing we cannot split them up - especially Rusty (Mr. Caretaker) from Ranger (Mr. Goofball) the chubby, silly, piggy guy who is now over 70 pounds and thinks he is a lap dog AND THEN you cannot separate Rusty from Cesar as they are so close and protect each other AND THEN you cannot ever re-home Scout probably because he is such a nervous wreck all of the time and needs special patience and attention and looks the most like Stryker and is truly, my little buddy. I believe that the cats would even miss them all!! So what does one do? - you keep them ALL!We did our 2nd stinit of vet visits through January and February and everyone is doing unbelievably well! Rusty is the only one who has turned out to be Heartworm positive and it is probably because he was out in the elements on that farm in Jacksonville with NO proper vet care at all for 5 years! But everyone else, thankfully, has come up negative!No more of any of the worms which they had all been Dx with every worm existing; hookworm, pinworm, etc. We are all great!Now the big part has arrived - which Daddy has argued against profusely - the neutering! Da da daaaaa!!! But it is truly healthier for them all and really a relatively simple procedure. I have spent months trying to procure Vouchers, FREE programs, Humane Society programs and various others which will not be named here. Scout and Ranger will be quite simple. Rusty, being HW+ will be a bit more costly as he needs more extensive labs and bloodwork and treatment to make sure that it goes safely for him.So, please, if you are able to, make a small donation to the pups it WILL be so greatly appreciated!!! Any money that is raised above and beyond the cost of neutering will be donated to Bradford County Paws in Jacksonville, where we originally obtained Stryker from Kristie & Cecil and Pet Pal Rescue here in St. Petersburg who will be performing the procedures!!THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO HELP US! CHRISSY & ZACH & THE GANG!!
(ORIGINAL STORY POSTED DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010)
The Story Behind It All- How We Ended Up With 4 deserted dogs and a 3-Legged Chihuahua! (oh, plus a cat and a kitten)
The Story Behind It All- How We Ended Up With 4 deserted dogs and a 3-Legged Chihuahua! (oh, plus a cat and a kitten)THIS IS THE STORY FRON DECEMBER 2010We lost our 2 ½ year old Border Collie/Aussie Shepherd, Stryker, at 6:30 AM on 11/26/10 to Cardiac Arrest after a day and a half fight. This day after Thanksgiving couldn't have been worse. He was THE BEST dog I ever had. Smart, funny, loyal, sweet, kind, gentle, cuddly, fun, talented, loveable, silly, shy, a true "gentleman". Stryker had thrown up a bit earlier in the week and his appetite had lessened and he looked a bit 'sulky'. On his way out the door to work Zach noticed at a quick glance that Stryker's eyes looked a bit yellowed, so he made plans for a visit to our vet later that day, Wednesday 11/24/10. The vet ran some bloodwork, gave him a shot of antibiotics, ran IV bag through him - didn't see anything crazy alarming but stated that he was definitely going through something so no food or water for 24 hours, rest. See how he is responding tomorrow, Thanksgiving day, re-visit Friday. If he gets worse, at all, take him to Emergency Vet Clinic. Needless to say thatâ??s where we ended up by 2 PM on 11/25/10. Bloodwork showed positive for a sever Pancreatitis attack which 95% of dogs make it through. However, X-rays showed that Stryker was born with an abnormally small liver. Due to this fact his body put up a heck of a battle but it just wasnâ??t enough to get him through the Pancreatitis attack. We learned a lot in this one night and we know that we did everything that we could to save him. We had given him an awesome 2 years since we adopted him. Perhaps, had we known about the smaller liver or had been aware of signs of Pancreatitis we could have done more so this never would have happened to him â?? we felt like we had let the poor guy down! Yet $2,000 laterâ?¦.the money saved up for our new tile flooringâ?¦we still had to look at burying our Best Buddy.We had adopted Stryker in December 2008 from Kristie at Bradford County Paws (www.bcpaws.org) . We had to put to sleep our Aussie Shepherd/Golden Retriever, Duke, that year after a bout with liver cancer. In November we started looking on-line on Petfinder.com deciding if we were ready to adopt a pup. Were we even ready to have another one? When we found him and read his story, we knew that he was the one. Timid, shy pup had been adopted out twice to families with small children and both families brought him back â?? he was weird, too shy. Well, he could come to us and we would give him all the space that he needed to open up to us and trust us. Stryker was living with his Foster Mom and his sister Sadie was there too but the Foster Mom could not keep both of them. Kristie from BCPaws and the Foster Mom brought him to us all of the way from Jacksonville and from that day forward he was the best, most talented, sweetest dog ever!!Since we had stayed in close contact with the foster family, the save group people and 2 of the other owners that had adopted Stryker's other 2 sisters we had to make the dreaded call about his dying, though some knew already thank you to Facebook. But more, we wanted to share our knowledge about the undersized liver and share what we had learned about the subtle signs of Pancreatitis. If we had let Stryker down by not being vigilant enough we at the least owed him THIS much, to spread the word to others and to the owners of his relatives.These contacts are specifically what led to the discovery of what was going on with the people who owned Strykerâ??s Mom and Dad. It was as if Stryker was sending messages to us through his dying. The save group in Jacksonville had contacted them to let them know and the horror rolled out from there. He had "lost the property to foreclosure", "they were not living there anymore", "he goes out and throws them dry food when he can", "he was going to call but couldn't find their number", he thought that "Animal Control was coming out to pick them up".to die. No, he left them there to die. And that is the story of how we ended up with Ranger, Sadie, Rusty & Scout. And we have a very long, expensive road ahead of us. But what were we supposed to say "no?" -please. Anyone that knows me or Zach knows THAT would NEVER happen.Add this to the fact that I just had a hysterectomy on 11/29/10 and am still recovering. Add this to the cat we adopted from Animal Services in 2005 and the kitten from the Save Our Strays just one month ago! (had we of known...)Add this to the year we are coming to an end of; in April our family's 13 year old Yorkie, Katie, was attacked on her leash in our own front yard (while standing right next to Stryker) by an unleashed Pitbull that someone had out for a walk. It ripped Katieâ??s chest cavity wide open and we had to have her put down. Zach had to fight off the Pitbull and got bit in the melee but he did manage to get Katie from the Pit's mouth so she wasn't ripped to shreds. He sat on the full grown Pit for an hour until help arrived, literally. We tried to spread the word then about the leash law here in Pinellas County, Florida and about people being more responsible for their pets. We even spent $150 to have a sign made about respecting the leash law and to raise awareness - someone stole it from our front yard. That Pitbull owner ended up getting HER dog back and has now moved away somewhere with it. We moved on....In May we rescued Cesar from a save group in Citrus County, Florida. Zach fell in love with him and he was a "little old soul". He is a 7 year old, snaggle-toothed, THREE-legged, long hair chihuahua - oh yeah, that cannot bark! He came from a puppy mill in Missouri somewhere. He was used as a breeder dog and had no dental care so he is missing half of his teeth and gets around great on his three legs! He can't bark because they shove steel rods down the throats of the "yappier" breeds so they don't have to listen to them bark! He had NEVER lived in a house, only a crate. But, he is a riot. We figured that we could at least give him a few more wonderful years to enjoy and love! Well, now he is spoiled and rules the house in his Argyle sweater! What amazes me is the brilliance, resilience and braveness of these animals! ALL of them. They have not lived in homes but yet they never have "accidents" in the house, they were neglected and starved but the are not ferocious or snapping the food out of our hands-they just take it gently, they were mistreated and abused by humans yet they show us love and kindness. SO, THIS IS HAS BEEN OUR YEAR & THIS IS HOW WE ARRIVED TO THE POINT WE ARE AT!!Much love to you all, my friends! Chrissy XO
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