Wednesday

Ollie is back home this evening.  Dr. Kolar said she is doing good and that her tummy is all better.  He thinks it was a reaction to being on heavy antibiotics for four and a half weeks.  I am so glad she is doing well.

Les picked Ollie up and brought her and Sweetheart to my work.  One of my co-workers is going to foster Ollie starting Saturday to see if he is interested in getting a grey.  Of course Ollie looked all sad and ratty.  Her hair is still pretty ugly and fuzzed out and some of it is different colors from laying in the dirt holes in my yard.  I assured him I would give her a bath and put a new collar on her prior to bringing her over Saturday.

Sweetheart had a blast at my job.  My co-workers all know her story after hearing me go on about her for months.  The last time she was at my work she was still pretty thin and her leg was still bandaged.  Today she was so happy and friendly, going up to everyone, wagging her tail and batting her pretty eyes.  I do so love watching her acting sweet and silly with everyone. They were all so surprised at how good she looks.  They said she looks like a different dog!  I must say that she does, especially with all the muscles she is building.

I will get some pics of Ollie once  I give her a bath.  Sweetheart is getting one Saturday morning too.  This should be interesting as I have never given her a bath since she had her very first on at Kolar's.  Instead of white she is sort of a yellowish, not the prettiest color.  Sweetheart will be accompanying me to a fundraising and outreach event in OKC from 1-4 Saturday so she does have to look her best.  I will have to break out one of her fancy collars too!

Hope all is well with everyone.  Ollie is FINALLY done with antibiotics and I hope this is her last visit to the vet for a long while.  Poor girl has had a rough two months.

Jess, Ollie and Sweetheart

Vet visit

Saturday morning I had to take Ollie to Dr. Kolar's.  She has been having issues with her stomach this last week and she has been having accidents in the house.  I stopped her antibiotics because I felt they were upsetting her stomach.  Kolar examined her and feels her intestines are inflamed/upset.  He is keeping her until mid week so he can keep an eye on her and give her her meds (she is a horrible pill taker).  Her antibiotics should be over with so hopefully she can be done with feeling icky.  Poor little thing, she is so pitiful looking when she isn't feeling well.

I decided to take Sweetheart with me to Dr. Kolar's so that they could see her.  It has been a while since they saw her and I wanted to have her visit them for a happy visit and not for treatment.  She did NOT want to stay in the office at first.  Dr. Kendi sat on the bench and was loving on her and hugging her and Sweetheart kept shivering.  Poor girl, she just knew she was going to have her leg scraped on.  :)  After a bit she calmed down and started warming up.

Everyone at Dr. Kolar's is amazed at how great she is doing, both physically and mentally.  Dr. Kolar saw her and said 'she looks pretty good for a dead dog'!  :)  He is very very pleased with how well her leg has healed and how much control she has over it.   For a time he was worried that she wouldn't have the full use of it.  Kolar is also pleased with all her muscles and he feels she is doing above and beyond what he ever expected.  I must admit I was a proud 'Mom' to hear my little girl praised!

After the vet visit I stopped by my mom and dad's house.  We sat out on the porch and watched the hummingbirds (my parent's have about 15-20 hummingbirds at any one time during the warm weather).  They were buzzing around and chattering and Sweetheart just watched and watched them with her ears perked.  It was so cute, she didn't know what the heck they were all about.  She got a couple of walks around my parent's property and my dad said she was like a bloodhound, sniffing all the scents along the trails.

We got home and Sweetheart passed out for a while.  All that excitement wore her out!!

Ollie will hopefully be home mid week sometime.  I hope she comes home with a settled tummy and is accident free in the house from here on out  I will try to get some pics of Ollie and Sweetheart soon.  I haven't posted pics in a while and I know everyone is wanting to see a few!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.  Mine was great and I think Sweetheart's was too.  :)

Jess and Sweetheart and Ollie

9 months!

Friday the 13th will always be a special day for me.  9 months ago on Friday, August 13th I took Sweetheart out of the Chickasha Animal Shelter and our odyssey began.  It has been 9 months of ups and downs but I must say the ups far outweigh the downs.

I never thought she would be doing so well and that she would be able to have all four legs, let alone run around on them like the wild Peanut she is.  I am so grateful for all of your support these last 9 months.  Every one of your comments has meant the world to me.

I am going to celebrate Sweetheart's birthday on August 13th 2011.  I figure it can be like a rebirth for her.  Perhaps I could have a Sweetheart birthday party for her.  

Thanks for keeping up with us through all the ups and downs.  I promise there will be more blogs and Sweetheart stories to come!  

Jess and Sweetheart

58!

So for the last week or two Les has been commenting about how Sweetheart appears to be getting a little "bulk" to her.  I really hadn't noticed but once I started looking closely, I started seeing it too.  The muscles on her thighs and her front shoulders are getting more defined and 'bulkier'.  Well, I took her to Petsmart yesterday and decided to weigh her on their scale.  Sure enough, she is now 58 pounds.  The last time we weighed her she weighed 56.  I supposed all of that digging and running after the other dogs has helped my little Peanut become a bit bigger Peanut.  I am excited to see if she will gain any additional weight by August 13th, her one year 'rescue' anniversary.

Ollie is doing great.  She is pretty much normal weight now, or at least appears to be and her coat is nice and soft and still fluffy.  She is very very sweet and likes to snuggle on the air bed with me when I let her.  She is doing better with her food aggression and doesn't growl any longer when the dogs come near her when she is eating or when she is lying on a dog bed.  She still has about 10 days to go on antibiotics for her tick borne disease.  Then I suppose we will have her blood work done again to make sure she doesn't need to stay on them even longer.

I will try to get some pictures of Ollie soon.

Oh yes, I almost forgot.  Friday Lester made steaks and baked potatoes.  After we finished dinner I let the dogs in.  I was sitting in my recliner relaxing and watching TV.  All of a sudden I see Sweetheart run into the living room from the kitchen with something in her mouth.  She drops the 'object' in the middle of the floor.  One guess what it was....half a stick of BUTTER!  ARGH!.  I took it away from her and made her feel guilty.  She went into her crate and hung her head.  After she was 'punished' I gave her, Ollie, Cleo and Journey a few licks of the butter.  Yes, I know, I am a sucker.  What makes this all the more hilarious is that Bavarian had a butter fetish and swiped a tub of margarine (not a full one thank goodness) off the counter a few times when we were gone.    As time goes on Sweetheart is showing more and more little Bavarianesque characteristics.  However, at least Bavarian would wait until we were out of the house, Sweetheart is just downright brazen! 

Jess, Sweetheart and Ollie

ARGH Sweetheart! What did you do?!

I know it has been a while since I updated the blog but what I came home to today made me want to share with all of you.

Below is a picture of Sweetheart's handiwork.  Les was outside tending the chickens for no more 15 minutes and this is what happened.

That is Journey in the midst of the rubble!

Les said Sweetheart was standing right in the middle of it as proud as she could be.  ARGH!!!  I have yet to pick it all up.  I am sitting here looking at the carnage and thinking it is going to take a while to get each and every little piece picked up!

Ollie is great.  She is currently on antibiotics for her tick disease but she is no longer coughing and does not have a runny nose.  She is gaining weight quite nicely and her coat is finally starting to soften up and not look so ratty.

Ollie and Sweetheart have taken a little liking to one another.  Ollie likes to run outside and bark with Sweetheart at night.  I am sure the neighbors just love it.  I know I do when I let them out at 3:30 in the morning.  They will also lay together in the giant dirt pit off the back porch.

I hope you all enjoy the picture of Sweetheart's destruction.  She is spending a little quality time outside as we speak.  :)

Jess, Sweetheart and Ollie

Heading home!

I talked to Dr. Kolar an hour ago and he said Ollie still has a little bit of a cough but she mainly coughs when they go to check on her at night.  He thinks it is drainage.  She isn't coughing continuously and whenever she does cough, she stops after a minute or so. 

Dr. Kolar said I can bring her home today and that he will send me home with some cough suppresants.  He wants me to start her back up on tetracycline for her tick borne disease.  She hasn't been on it this past week because he doesn't like to have them on both antibiotics at the same time.  Hopefully the tetracycline will knock out any residual bacteria that may be left in her respratory system. 

Dr. Kolar did say she continues to eat well and that she is quite lively!! 

I will pick her up after work and should have her home about 5:30 or so.  I hope to have more pictures of her to post over the next couple of days.

I hope Ollie continues to be cat safe now that she is feeling better.  You never know, she may be feeling feisty enough to want to 'play' with Kitty.  :)

I am interested to see how Sweetheart does with Ollie now that Ollie is going to be feeling better.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.  The home visits I did Saturday and Sunday went well and I am hopeful Selleck and Tuscany have found their forever homes.

Jess, Sweetheart and Ollie!

Friday Night

I spoke with Dr. Kolar earlier today and he said that Ollie is still coughing a little.  She is eating well and seems to be feeling better each day.  Dr. Kolar wants to keep Ollie this weekend so he can watch her and make sure she is recovering like she needs to be.  I will call him Monday to see if she is ready to pick up and bring home.

I didn't deliver Tuscany to her foster to adopt home Thursday because the foster parents wanted to make sure she didn't come down with the respiratory bug that Ollie has.  So far Tuscany is fine and I hope to deliver her to her new home in the next few days.

I am taking Selleck to his new foster to adopt home tomorrow morning.

I am hoping each dog does well in their new perspective homes.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.  I had a nice day off today, planting flowers and spending time with Les and the dogs, chickens and cat!

Jess, Ollie and Sweetheart!

Thursday

Dr. Kendi (her first name is Kendi but I think of her as Dr. Kendi, not Dr. Horner) texted me today and said that Ollie is feeling better today, she still has a little cough but not too much of one.  She said she is almost as big a chow hound as Sweetheart was!

This is wonderful news.  A good appetite means she is feeling a thousand times better.  I am waiting to see if I can pick her up tomorrow and if so, at what time.  I would like to get her home so she can start settling in.

I decided to treat myself with a day off tomorrow.  I have been doing so much dog stuff the last few weekends I figured I would give myself a day to do nothing.

I will update everyone once I know when I can go get Ollie.

Jess

Evening

I talked to Dr. Kolar about 2:45 today.  Of course Ollie hasn't coughed once while at the vet's office.  ARGH.  She does have a runny nose though.  He is going to start her on penicillin and will keep her for a couple of days so that she isn't contagious and so he can see how she does.

I told him I would watch my dogs and if they started acting puny I would be seeing him for antibiotics!  Goodness I hope none of mine get sick, I don't want to give five dogs antibiotics.

Tomorrow night I am taking Tuscany (foster female) to her foster to adopt home in Norman.  I hope they like her.  She is awfully sweet and such a good girl.  I will be doing a foster to adopt placement in Duncan (same town I went to last Saturday to pick up Ollie from the shelter) to place Selleck (foster male).  Wish me luck in both placements.

Jess, Sweetheart and Ollie

Back at the vet

I crated Ollie last night and she coughed and coughed all night.  I found a little bloody mucus on her crate pad.  I decided in the middle of the night to take her to Dr. Kolar's this morning.  She has a runny nose and she coughed most of the way to the vet's office.

I left her at Kolar's this morning about 8.  They are going to examine her and see what is going on.  Hopefully the tetracycline will kill off whatever respiratory bug she has but I didn't want to chance it and have her get worse.  Poor thing is pitiful looking enough being so thin and ratty looking.

I am hoping that whatever she has is not going to move on to my five.  They are all vaccinated for kennel cough so hopefully that is what it is and they won't be suseptible to it.  I don't really fancy having to give six dogs antibiotics.  :)

Ollie did well with the cat last night and didn't have any accidents in the house or in her crate.  She does not like other dogs coming around her space or close to her when she is eating.  She snarls a little and growls.  We are working on that and correcting her any time she shows any sort of aggression.

Sweetheart still can't figure out what Ollie is all about.  She kept trying to go over to her last night and each time Sweetheart would get near Ollie, Sweetheart would put her tail almost straight up in the air and perk her ears.  Finally Lester sprayed Sweetheart with the water bottle.  Sweetheart jumps back, Les looks at her and tells her no and then Sweetheart bows down and barks at him.  She takes correction so well.  :)  All we could do was laugh at her, silly goose!!!  I have no doubt Sweetheart will be fine with her, she is just such a goofy little dog that new things are always interesting for her!!

Jess, Sweetheart and Ollie!