Saturday, October 17, 2015

10/17/2015

BILL ANNOUNCES: Straydog Radio Show covering the events of Saturday, October 17, 2015. Bill and Juana here a few days later with the Saturday report.

JUANA: As we’ve done every morning for years, we take all of our dogs to the park. H1 dogs go to the big park and H2 dogs go to the Beemer park, which is the new park 2. We do that before we walk our outside dogs. It’s usually easier to walk everybody else and leave the H1 Gang (Noble’s gang) for last. The Chihuahuas all go outside and it takes about 30 minutes to take them out. We have to change their beds daily and change their water bowls. Tinkerbelle poops in her bed and pees and sometimes Bitty does too. It’s just easier to walk everybody else and leave the gang for last. It takes us about 30 minutes to clean up their crates and they get to stay in the park.

When David Ford turned over the night shift to us, he said that Noble didn’t finish his food. David and I have been noticing that Noble hasn’t finished his food lately. And Brandy, our overnight person, suggested that we stop buying green beans, because Noble wouldn’t eat the green beans on Wednesday morning at 5:00. She picked out all of the green beans and then he ate his food. That was strange to us, because Noble has never been a picky eater and he loved green beans.

We’ve noticed that Noble has been going downhill since September. A month ago, I took him to the vet and Dr. James said that his liver enzymes were elevated. He suggested that we do a biopsy. I didn’t want to do a biopsy, because Noble is diabetic and I didn’t want to put him under anesthesia. I was afraid that he wouldn’t wake up. I’ve been thinking about taking him to see Dr. Lay, so he could do a scope. But we didn’t have the money and Noble seemed okay. Now he is starting to go downhill and he wouldn’t eat all of his food. That’s a red flag to us. Brandy said that he wouldn’t eat on Wednesday and on Thursday David Ford said that Noble wouldn’t eat all of his food. So we started hand feeding Noble and he ate and he walked okay. His sugar levels were in the 300s. They weren’t sky high or very low. Then on Friday, David suggested that we try some dry food. When he won’t eat, we try feeding him chicken dry food, which is light dog food. It doesn’t have any sugar in it. Noble was picking at his food. After Noble ate at 5:00 on Friday afternoon, he seemed bloated. That was odd, because he didn’t eat that much. I walked him and he seemed okay.

On Saturday, when David turned the night shift over to us, he said that Noble wouldn’t eat and he was still bloated. He was so bloated and his stomach was so hard. He was lying on his bed and he wouldn’t get up. We coaxed him up and Maci was talking to him. We were about to take the H1 Gang out and he didn’t seem to feel well. We thought that it was a sign that his liver wasn’t functioning well. We didn’t know how really bad it was.

Maci spends some time with Noble.

When we took him out to the park, he walked to the park and then he lay down. He was just lying there. He’s never done that. He also had diarrhea. When we got him up, he started stumbling. I brought him inside and checked his sugar and it was 300 and something. I thought that was odd because, when he stumbled, I thought his sugar was low. But it wasn’t his sugar.

On Saturday, the clinic opens at 8:00. I texted the doctor at 7:30, to see if they would answer me, and I didn’t hear anything. I decided that I would call at 8:00. Jessica answered and said that Dr. James was going to be there and they were slammed. She said that we should bring Noble in and they would work him in. They know that he’s our diabetic dog and Straydog’s mascot. We walked him out to our car. There’s Noble’s face. He’s usually serious. But this wasn’t a serious look; it was a sad look. He wasn’t feeling well.

Bill walks Noble to the car so they can go to Morton Clinic.

Noble does not feel well and it shows in his eyes.

BILL: We had to wait for a long time at the clinic and I got lots of pictures. He got on my lap at the clinic and then he was lying on the floor. Jessica took him in the back to draw blood and she asked me to stay in the waiting room.

Bill is worried as he holds Noble waiting for the doctor.

Noble wanted to lie on the floor, you can see his stomach is very bloated.

Jessica takes Noble to the back to get a blood sample.

JUANA: Then Bill came back to Straydog and brought the camera back. Bill said that Dr. James got the blood work results. His liver enzymes were sky high (off the chart) and his BUN to creatinine ratio (his kidneys) was high, not very high but high, and his platelets were low. The doctor wanted to keep him, because they were so busy at the clinic, and they could start him on an IV right away and they could do a sonogram later in the day. Dr. James was the only vet there and they were so busy. He wanted us to leave him and he planned to call us back later and we could pick him up, because he’s on a special diet. I thought he was just having a spell, where they would flush his liver and kidneys with IVs and they would put him on antibiotics and he’d be ready to go. He’s always up and down.

At our shelter, we moved our dogs around. I really missed Portia being in front. I know that Bill says that she barks a lot, but I love her. She barks at Bill. We put her in the back, because she had such bad ringworm and she’s finally clear. We’ve been taking her to the Beemer park and she’s been so good. Every time, I go back there, I see her and she looks sad and I told Wayne that we have to move my girl to the front.

Wayne moves Portia back to the front kennel where she was before getting the ringworm fungus.

Mr. Handsome has been doing so well and I wanted to bring him inside. He’s such a good boy and I’ve been working on putting Teddy and Wendy outside. Mr. Jessie, Teddy’s kennelmate, passed away on Wednesday. Oh my goodness, it’s been a horrible week. Teddy and Wendy have been together since the night we let Jessie go and I don’t know if we reported about that. Teddy was just bawling and crying and waiting for Jessie to come back. I didn’t know what to do with him and we didn’t have an outside kennel available. I asked Brandy to take him outside to the park and we could bring Wendy to the park. She’s just a puppy and Teddy loves everybody. They got along so well and it really helped Teddy to handle his grief. There is no reason to keep them inside. They should go outside, because Teddy has gained a lot of weight being indoors. He looks like a butterball. He always wants to be outside and he loves the water and so does puppy Wendy. That made me think about which dog we could bring inside, so we would have an outside kennel for Teddy and Wendy.

So we brought Handsome inside and we put Portia in to the front. We also wanted to introduce the new dog Sally to somebody. There was a lot of moving and we needed a lot of help and we took a lot of pictures. I know I am confusing everybody. It isn’t as bad as it seems.

BILL: Where is Sally now?

JUANA: Sally is back inside, but I’ll get to that.

Purtis is another dog, who is always in my heart and in my prayers. We thought that he might have cancer. He’s doing okay and he’s hanging in there. He doesn’t have cancer. He just has swollen knots in the muscles of his back legs.

Shelby and Purtis during care-giving.

We know that Sally came to Straydog, because she couldn’t get along with the two little dogs that her family had. Sally beat up one of the dogs and almost killed her. I knew that we had to be very careful. Since we’ve had her, she seems okay. She hasn’t been aggressive and she behaves. She is a very sweet dog and she loves people. I thought that the best dog to introduce Sally to would be a dog that is male and her size and her equal, who could put up a fight and not kill her. Copper has had so many girlfriends and they’ve all been adopted. He hasn’t been adopted yet, bless his heart. I thought he would be the best choice and would let us know if Sally could get along with someone. We took her to the Golf Tournament on Friday and she was so good. We never heard her bark or growl. So we introduced her to Copper. He wanted to play. He’s super friendly. She was growling and showing her teeth. She didn’t seem aggressive or mad. I thought that she thought he was too big. We walked them and walked them and as soon as he got close to her, she would show her teeth. I thought she was just afraid. If they got into a fight, I thought it would be too much for Shelby and me. I called Wayne and he was ready to intervene and he had the water hose ready. We let them off leash, because sometimes dogs are more tense on a leash. They started running and playing. He is such a sweet, sweet boy and so was she. We moved Pinky and Lucy and we made all kinds of movement to put Copper back where he was with Liz and then Sandy. We let them run and play and let them be. On her walks, Sally wanted to pull me and fight with all of the other dogs, but she didn’t want to fight with Copper. We walked them to Copper’s kennel and we left them there. She wouldn’t eat at feeding time, but there was no aggression at all. All afternoon, she didn’t do anything but lie beside the gate. It was dark and I stayed at the shelter and she never moved from the gate. When she saw me, she started crying and getting up on the gate. She didn’t want to stay outside. I know that she was an inside dog, so I felt badly. I told David that I couldn’t do that to her and I brought her inside. We can always let them go to the park together and they can run and play. She’s just an inside dog.

Sally and Copper meet. Things seem ok so far.

Off for a walk they go.

We took off the leashes to see how they would do. Wayne is there in case things go south.

Copper wants to play but Sally is not sure she wants to.

A play chase begins but Sally did not like it and growled a little bit.

Sally is a very pretty girl.

Next we go to see how they do in the kennel together.

Things went well but later on during the day we could tell Sally was not happy and wanted to go back inside.

I put big puppy Cadet back with Copper. I had intended to put Cadet with Teddy and Wendy in that big kennel. Teddy and Wendy are so very sweet and they get along with everybody. I thought Cadet would accept them, but she was being a little witch. She was afraid. She would only sit by the gate and she was snapping at them and she wouldn’t play with them. They were running and playing and trying to engage her. She was snapping at them and they weren’t attacking her. Cadet ran over there and lay down near the fence with C-Stat and Jet. She had spent most of her life with C-Stat and Jet. I moved her out of there, because they were constantly beating her up. Then she wanted to go back with them. She wasn’t happy with Wendy and Teddy. They were having so much fun in the pool and in the water. Shelby and I decided that Cadet wasn’t going to be happy, so we put her back with C-Stat, Mackenzie and Jet. She was fine in there. She acted like she told them to leave her alone and she was happy. So we finally put her back with Copper. She didn’t want to be with Teddy and Wendy. She wanted to go back with her brother, Mackenzie and Jet. After two days, Copper was sad and we moved Cadet back with Copper. Everything was then okay.

Cadet meets Wendy but does not like her.

Next, Cadet meets Teddy and does not like him either.

Cadet sees his brother C-Stat, Jet and McKenzie next door and want to be with them.

So Shelby takes Cadet over to be with her old gang.

They are all happy to see Cadet and greet her with lots of love.

I don’t know if we mentioned this little girl yet. The staff at Morton named her Autumn. We call her Cutest. She doesn’t have an official name yet. She’s a little tiny Chihuahua and she’s about 10 weeks old. Someone left her in a box at Morton Clinic with a note that said they couldn’t take care of her. She gets along with everybody and she’s very, very sweet. Pepito liked her. He wanted to play with her and he was protecting her and they were best buddies. He was covering her and hugging her. Everybody said that it looked like I was going to have another baby, but I told them Bill would kill me if I brought another dog home.

BILL: We have six here already and a cat!

Pepito introduces himself to the new girl Autumn.

JUANA: Then I had a very nice visit from my son and Dr. Dumeyer. Dr. Dumeyer works at Morton Clinic and this was the second time that she came to visit us and volunteer. She wanted to volunteer and see what we do at feeding time. She said that we are very organized and she wanted to come and volunteer. She wanted to get to know more of our dogs. I told Gordie to teach the doctor how to feed the dogs and I put her to work. She was so impressed with how our dogs know the routine.

Gordie shows Dr. Dumeyer from Morton Clinic how the feeding is done around here.

Dr. Dumeyer is very impressed on how organized it is.

BILL: In the pictures you will see that Gordie is wearing his sister’s Army t-shirt that we got for him.

Fatso, Ms. B and Colt say hi to Gordie and the doctor.

JUANA: I have one too and I love it. I put Dr. Erica Dumeyer to work. We walked around, when we finished feeding the dogs, and I asked her to check some of our dogs. A free vet, when we are so short on funds, was a wonderful thing. I had to take advantage. Dr. Erica checked on Erika-dog, because she was limping. Erika was barking and the doctor didn’t want to go in her kennel, so Gordie took her in. Erika just barks and we know that she won’t do anything. Junior was limping too and they checked him too. They said that their legs were fine. They must have just strained them digging or running. The doctor said to give them Rimadyl for a few days and they should be fine.

Erika and Junior get checked out to see if their limping is serious.

I told her that I was very concerned about Friendly. Friendly had a big knot. Dr. Erica said that it was just a big old growth and it wasn’t attached to his muscle. She said that we could bring him to the clinic, if we wanted to remove it. She said it wasn’t a big deal.

Next, Dr. Dumeyer checks out Mr. Friendly's knot on his leg.

She said that we could bring him to the clinic if we wanted to remove it but that it wasn’t a big deal.

There’s Polly-dog with Dr. Erica. Polly is just so sweet.

Polly gets a check up too.

Polly loves the doctor.

We got some pictures of Luis. We moved Luis to where Portia was. He used to live with Soullie. Soullie lives in H2 now. When we bring Soullie to the Beemer park to go potty, we can bring Luis to play with her too. They run and play. They are siblings. We had to move Soullie, because she was an escape artist and she would jump. We had to bring her inside. Luis loves Soullie and he doesn’t like anyone else. Now that they live so close to each other, they can play together. Then Luis goes back to his kennel and Soullie goes back inside.

Louis and Soullie are enjoying the big new park running around all over the place.

And sniffing all the smells too.

It was around 3:30 and Dr. Erica and Gordie had just left, when Dr. James texted me. He asked me to please call him, because he wanted to talk to me about Noble. My heart sank. I knew it was going to be bad and it was. I called him right away. He said that we was sorry, but he had very bad news. He said that Noble wasn’t doing well. He was much sicker than I thought. He said that he is just such a tough dog and he isn’t going to let you know how bad he’s doing. All of the bloating that you see is blood and he is bleeding. He has a mass in his liver and it’s very, very large. It’s cancer. He said that the best thing to do would be to let him go. I couldn’t let him go right then. I asked if I could bring him home. He said that we could bring him home, but he might not make it through the night. It would depend on how badly he was bleeding and that’s how quickly we would lose him. I just wanted to have a day or night with him, before we let him go.

We brought him home and we were all crying. We took him to the park and we got some good pictures of him. He didn’t seem to be suffering. He was eating and he was kissing us. We gave him meat, chicken, barbecue and whatever he wanted. I didn’t want to be selfish. I wanted to stay with Noble that night. David Ford, our overnight crewmember, was crying and he said that he couldn’t do it with Noble. He lost Zack and Shep and he said that he couldn’t lose Noble. I told him not to worry that Bill and I would stay with Noble. We took him to the trailer. If he wasn’t comfortable there, I planned to bring him back to H1. But he was fine in the trailer. I sent a long text to our employees and family and invited them to come and say goodbye to Noble, in case he had a bad night. We didn’t know what was going to happen. You can see Shelby kissing him in the kitchen of H1. We had barbecue left over from the Golf Tournament the day before and we gave him that. There’s Noble and Bill. We also brought Noble a Subway sandwich.

Juana spends some time with Noble in the park.

Shelby treats Noble to some BBQ.

Taylor used to work with us. She now lives in Tyler and works as a vet. She has always told me that, if anything ever happened to Noble, she wanted to know. She drove all the way from Tyler to see Noble. Noble recognized her right away and had a very pleasant visit with her.

One of our old employees Taylor came to say goodbye to Noble. Pepito is there too, he knows something is wrong.

Then Maci and George Jr. came to spend time with Noble. George and my sister Esther came to see Noble. Overnight crewmember Brandy and Wayne came too. We put a big bed in the living room and he slept for a while. It was about 12:30 in the morning, when my sister, George and Sebastian left and we brought Noble into the bedroom. He slept in the bed with us for about 30 minutes and then he started feeling sick. He got down from our bed and went into his bed right beside us. He was fine through the night, but he vomited a few times. I think it was from all of the food that he ate. My sister brought him chicken. He had a good appetite. He was getting to eat all of the food that he had missed, because he’s always had diabetes. He was really enjoying all of the care and the attention. He felt so special.