Thursday, March 9, 2017

We Have a New Dog

Just what we needed! Another dog.

When we came home from camping last Saturday, a brown dog was at our house. He was happy to see us! He had made himself right at home with our other three outside dogs, Ribsy, Pokey, and Lady.
We spent a couple of days trying to decide if he would make our home his new home. I called my neighbor down the road to see if she knew of anyone who was missing a brown dog. She did not. I waited to see if he would go back where he came from. He did not.

On Monday, he injured himself trying to jump over a fence to get to where Leah was. He got hung, but Clay promptly rescued him. He immediately began limping.....I kept waiting for him to get better, but no. Yesterday we could not find him at all until about 2:00. Clay found him on one of our trails, and he was not moving. So, I called the vet to see if I could bring "Brown Dog" in for assessment. Since we only welcome dogs with infirmities to the Johnson Rehabilitation Center, I knew that he would most likely have health issues.

And he did. The vet's report included a spinal sprain (treated by pain meds and anti-inflammatory medication), heart worms (all of our dogs come with heart worms!), and a variety of intestinal worms. Of course. They began treatment for all of that plus scheduled surgery to neuter him this morning. I ordered him a shocking collar (all dogs who live on our land have to have their surgery and wear a shocking collar so they won't get hit by a car), and we will pick him up tomorrow morning.

We still haven't named Brown Dog. The kids are trying to decide on the perfect name.

In case you're counting, that brings our pet population to a total of 8. Three inside cats, one inside dog, and four outside dogs. And I'm really not an animal person!

8 comments:

  1. What a lucky brown dog! Your story warmed my heart :) Such a kind family :) (And "Brown Dog" sounds like a pretty good name to me, lol!)

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    1. We ended up naming him Buddy, and he is doing just fine!

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  2. When we moved to North Idaho, we were shocked to find out that people here don't do heart worm prevention--because there are virtually no bugs up here! Dogs don't get a lot of the normal diseases because there are no carriers. (Now I understand why--it's so cold all winter long that nothing can survive.) It was a lucky day for Brown Dog when he showed up at your house :)

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    1. Brown Dog's name is now Buddy. Most of our dogs have come to us with heart worms and all kinds of intestinal worms and parasites. Yuk! Buddy is on a regimen of medication until December! (Some monthly, some weekly later on.)

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  4. Sorry meant to say this sounded familiar for our house :) and so sweet that you guys rescued him :)

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    1. Hopefully, the outside dogs will not accept anymore boarders for a while! LOL. We cannot afford another sick pet right now! :) Buddy (his new name) is doing fine! He seems to be so happy living here.

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    2. OH my goodness - one of ours is named Buddy too :). That's so funny. I know the feeling - my husband is not a pet person and yet all of them LOVE him :) They will sit so close and cuddle up to him. Which I think is so funny :)

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