Dayzee & Mason

Dayzee is a petite Manchester terrier mix with a wavy black coat and shiny copper brown legs and a topknot that we got from a local kill shelter. We knew of someone who wanted a small terrier with some spit, so we immediately contacted the lady, and she came out to meet her.

This woman had adopted a border terrier mix from us a couple of months earlier. Mason had been bitten by another dog when we got him, so when he developed a couple of "hot spots" no one thought too much about it. The vet treated him and he was healing nicely when she took him home. Unfortunately, the infection proved to be puppy strangles. It is rare, and it cost him his life.

Anyway, Dayzee got spayed and went home with her. A couple of nights later, upon returning home from work, she noticed her right eye looked "funny" in the dim light and took her to her vet. Dayzee had a juvenile cataract in her eye, and a blip on the left. The veterinarian gave her a grim prognosis - she would be totally blind in a year. She called me from the vet's office, and said she was bringing her back immediately.

I accepted her and apologized, explaining that our rescue does not have enough available funding to take every new rescue in for an examination immediately after intake. The woman told me she just couldn't afford it and would be in touch.

So, I scheduled a visit to our veterinarian and found the same diagnosis, but with one difference. He said that her other eye had a blip but was not crystallizing, and might never do so. Time would tell. In the meantime, she could see light only in the right eye, and surgery would fix it permanently. The cost would be around $3200. The rescue couldn't afford that, but decided to put her up for adoption with a special needs tag, and in the meantime try to raise money for the surgery.

Dayzee went to an on-site adoption last week, and a family came through and fell in love with her, and could care less if she is blind in one eye. They said they would deal with her vision problems and wondered if she would like riding in a pontoon boat. Dayzee hit the jackpot!

On the Lighter Side

We have 42 dogs on the premises today, and since it is our wedding anniversary, my husband of 31 years is helping me with kennels so we can get done a bit earlier than usual and go out to dinner. Going out to eat, even fast food, is a real treat. We usually come in tired, dirty and longing a hot shower. By the time we accomplish taking the house dogs out and getting cleaned up, my husband is sitting at the kitchen table looking somewhat like a vulture waiting for some road kill.

Although our anniversary plans usually don't pan out as something always seems to happen at the last minute, we are hopeful. We plan on stopping by a friend's place to meet their new stray dog, a coon hound, and help make sure her barn is secure enough to house the hound till new arrangements can be made.

The dogs here are sharing in our festivities. I cooked extra chicken, so they are having baked chicken with their kibble and we have a 5 gallon pail of vanilla ice cream and enough cones to go around so they can have a little extra treat. After all, 31 years is worth celebrating.

Have a great day everyone!!!

What's the Right Thing?

"There was a drug bust, and we have two dozen pit bulls coming in and we can't keep these dogs because we have no room. Can you take at least four of them so we don't have to destroy them?"

That was the phone call last week. We, fortunately, had a little empty space and we have also become pretty good at what we call "creative kenneling", so we picked up a border terrier mix, a border collie mix, a four month old golden retriever mix, and an 8 week old cocker spaniel mix. All of them really nice dogs with no future if we weren't able to help out.

Now, I have no problem with pit bulls. They are good, loyal dogs, and unfortunately people have created lots of problems for them. However, what is the right thing here? The rescue organization we work with has been advised not to adopt out pit bulls or pit mixes because of liability laws. Finding homes for them with responsible owners can be a real problem. We have four pit mixes here right now, and the only people who have shown interest are folks that we would not approve to adopt.

So, what's the right thing?