Our Newest Dog

Lady

I am not much of an animal person, but my children are!  Of course I have compassion for them.  

Most of you know that our dog Joy has required special care for 5-6 years now (I can't remember), because she had a dog version of a stroke kind of thing that left her paralyzed on one side. I had to feed her water with a syringe and spoon feed her softened dog food for quite a while.  She can go up and down our back porch steps because they are very low, but that is all!  She can't jump up on the couch or a bed, and when she is on a bed or a chair, she barks to get down.  We put that dog up and down all day long!  She likes to sit right beside me when I am reading to the children, and she barks at Clay whenever he eats near her--waiting for a snack!  She is really spoiled.

We have buried two of our beloved pets over the last few years, Lilly and Lucky, and I cried and mourned for those sweet dogs.

Our current pets besides Joy include three indoor cats--Marmalade who was scarred for life 5 years ago when we rescued 2 baby kittens from our yard and brought them into our home to play with (or torture!) Marmalade, who didn't know he was a cat.  The newer cats' names are Bo and Frisky, and all three cats are males.  Bo came to us with broken arm.  It healed sticking straight out from its body.  It is useless and has no feeling, so he gets around on three legs.  So living inside our house we have one crippled dog, one crippled cat, one psycho cat, and one normal cat.  I guess Frisky is normal!

Joy and one of the cats--not sure which one, because they all are orange.  When they are walking around I can tell--Bo has a front leg that sticks straight out!

Outside we have Ribsy, the dog who showed up, skin and bones, just as we were moving into our house nine years ago.  She was infected with heart worms, and she appeared to be about 6 months old.  We treated her conservatively for heart worms for eight years, and last year she was pronounced heart worms-free!  She is a very fat and happy dog now. 

Ribsy, coming home from the vet a few months ago after she had this weird thing on her ear---it's always something with these dogs!

And we have Pokey, the 5 pound puppy we rescued from the city park two and half years ago.  He had been hit by a car and had a broken leg (which healed just fine on its own), and he was infected with all kinds of intestinal parasites….maybe heart worms too, I can't remember!  But we dewormed him (fun times!) and now he weighs over 50 pounds and is the picture of health.  Pokey has always been a lively dog since he recovered from all of those worms, and he likes to chew everything!

About two weeks ago another dog showed up at our house.  It was freezing cold, and she came inside our garage.  She was so skinny, and just walked around slowly with her tail tucked between her legs.  Of course we fed her, and she has claimed us as her family!  I finally took her to the vet Wednesday.  I was really, really hoping that we would have a pet that had no health issues.  Please.  A healthy dog!

But, of course, all infirmed dogs and cats find their way to the Johnson Pet Rehabilitation Center…..and Lady (as we named her) was no exception.  Lady has heart worms, which we will begin a 6 month conservative treatment for on Monday, and she also has mammary cancer!  She will be scheduled for surgery to remove the mass in a couple of weeks.  The vet thinks that her prognosis will be good--but she is nine years old, and he can't make any promises.

I have on my to-do list to order Lady a shocking (I mean correction!) collar for our electric dog fence.  When pets join our family, they get spayed or neutered (Lady will get her surgery when she has her cancer removed), and the outside dogs also get a nice correction collar!  I can't have our pets getting in the highway!

So that's the latest update on our animals.