Short video.

Pictures!

60 and a cold

He's just a big hunk of dog!

Benny is VERY sweet and gentle

Sweetheart now weighs 60.2 pounds as of this Tuesday!  This is very very close to double her weight when rescued.  I think at least 2 pounds are spots!

Benny had to go to Kolar's this past Saturday.  He had some bloody discharge from his nose.  Dr. Kolar thinks he had a cold and that he probably has ehrlichia and that his bloody nose was a sign of it.  I had them keep him until Tuesday so that way they could monitor him and change any medication that might be necessary.

While Benny was at the vet Sweetheart started coughing.  ARGH!  Sooo, Les took Sweetheart in Tuesday and Dr. Kolar thinks she got the Benny Bug.  She is now on antibiotics for seven days I believe.  The cough hasn't slowed her down a bit.  She is still wild and bouncy and silly.

Benny is now home and looking and feeling SO much better.  The pictures of him above are from today and he looks like a different dog, all bright eyed.  He no longer growls at the other dogs and he doesn't 'guard' the food bowl.  He is very gentle, sweet and laid back.

Ollie came back.  She kept pooping in the house.  I think of it was that she was bored and needed another dog.  I also think she still had some residual stomach issues.  She is also on antibiotics again.  So that makes three dogs we have on pills.  Luckily Les is overseeing the medication and that is a big help to me.  Benny will be on doxycycline for four weeks to make sure the ehrlichia is under control.

On the prowl looking for trouble!

I am excited Sweetheart is having a birthday party!  Never thought I would say that about one of my dogs.  :)

Jess and Sweetheart

Birthday Party!

Well, I have officially entered into crazy dog lady territory.  Yes, I am going to have a birthday party for Sweetheart.


Sweetheart's birthday party will be held on Saturday, August 13th from 5 p.m-7 p.m. at Mann's Best Friend, 10700 S Penn, Suite 24, Oklahoma City, OK  73170.  All of Sweetheart's fans are invited as are your dogs.  The planning is in its initial stages but I hope to have cake, punch, finger foods and beverages for all who attend. Mann's provided many great things for her party in October 2010 and I will be working with them over the next month to finalize all the details.


I hope some of you who live in Oklahoma are able to make it.  This will be a special day for me as it will be exactly one year from the day Fasthound rescued her.  She has come such a long way and deserves a celebration!


Hope to see lots of you there!


Jess and Sweetheart

Thoughts

Sweetheart is not too thrilled with Benny being here.  He is huge and rather intimidating to her.  He also mad dogs the food bowl (which we are diligently correcting) and this kind of freaks her out.  She has been acting demure and rather subdued lately.  It is kind of nice in a way but I wouldn't want her to be that way forever.

Benny has a cold.  Dr. Kendi said it is from stress most likely.  He got a shot of antibiotics and some pills for  7-10 days.  He is coughing a tad and has some mucous discharge from his nose but it is slight so hopefully the pills will kick in and he will be tip top in no time.  He has gained ten pounds and now weighs 78 although he is still thin as a rail.  He isn't growling at the other dogs as much and we will cure him of this food bowl guarding I have no doubt.

I was kicking around the idea of having a birthday party for Sweetheart on Saturday, August 13th.  I decided a while back that that date is going to be her birthday.  I wonder if anyone would attend her party if I held one?  I put this as a poll on the blog.  Let me know what you think by voting and/or commenting.  

I hope everyone is having a good week.  I have a four day weekend starting Friday and I am super excited about it.

Oh yes, I keep forgetting.  Prior to Benny coming here Sweetheart starting getting into my stuff.  She would nose around in my bag and pull out my cross stitch, yarn, knitting needles, pill bottles, books, etc.  I would wake up from a nap and discover things just trailed all over the living room floor.  Thankfully she did not ruin anything, although one of my new books is missing a corner and has a few teeth marks in it.  Oh and she is excellent at unwinding a ball of yarn and heaping it into a nice pile!  She 'fishes' for these treasures all around my recliner.  But, as always, I can't be mad at her.  It is rather amusing actually!

Jess

Sweetheart and the snake!

She looks so sweet and innocent.  She's NOT!  :)

Every time I see a picture of her all I can see are SPOTS! 

As some of you have read in prior posts, Sweetheart likes to patrol the backyard at night and bark at anything she feels is a danger to her territory.  :)  She has been doing this from the day she came home, weighing a fearsome 35 pounds no less.

Les let the dogs out last night.  He was in the house and heard her barking (again, not unusual).  He looks out the window and sees her barking at the ground.  He doesn't think anything of it and lets them all back in.  About an hour later they go outside again.  Sweetheart goes to the same spot again and starts barking and dancing around.  Les decides to get the flashlight and take a look to see what all the fuss is about.  He goes over to the dead tree stump she is dancing around and discovers a snake, about four feet in length, coiled and ready to strike.  I guess the snake didn't appreciate Sweetheart barking at him.  Les ended up killing the snake because he did not want it to try to kill his chickens.  Who knew I had a fearless snake hunter in Sweetheart!

One of our volunteers had Benny at her house for the last two days.  I brought him home today.  He growls at the other dogs but he hasn't tried to bite or snap.  I think he is more scared of them than anything.  He IS getting along with Monte well though.  Cleo and Sweetheart he isn't quite sure about.  He is eating well and is very friendly to people.  I took him to Tractor Supply after picking him up from our volunteer and he did fabulous in the store.  He walked around wagging his tail most of the time.

Sweetheart isn't so sure about him.  They stood beside each other in the house and he growled at her and she tried to posture like she was tough.  Of course we don't let this go on and correct both of them.  After that bit of posturing and growling Sweetheart has been keeping her distance.  When they go outside she just sort of watches him walk around the yard.  It really is quite funny to see her acting so docile around him when normally she is trying to chew on new dogs.  :)

This photo makes me laugh.  Her expression is almost cartoonish.

Benny is so big he makes Sweetheart look rather wimpy.  :)  When he fills out I would imagine he will be about 90-100 pounds easy.  Oh, and I doubt he will ever be cat safe.  He was in the crate and lunged at Kitty when she came out of hiding.  He then kept looking around the living room for her after she ran off.  She is safely ensconced in the bathroom with her food, water, litter and beds for the time being!

Benny is also a collector of toys, a counter surfer and a trash digger.  He also likes kiddie pools.  I have my hands full with this one.  He is so huge that nothing is too far from his 'reach'  :)  Benny isn't extremely photogenic but I wanted to attach a couple of pics in the blog so you guys can see more of him.  He is way more handsome in person.

Benny with a pair of boxer shorts he got from the laundry room.

You can kind of get an idea of what his coat looks like and how thin he is.

One more thing, I should be finalizing on Ollie this coming weekend!  YAY!

Jess, Sweetheart and Benny

Tired

Just thought I would share a cute picture of my foster boy passed out in his crate tonight.  His name is Cash and he is one of the most handsome greys I have had.

Sleepy theme continued.  I know I have posted this one before but she looks so sweet and innocent in this picture (please overlook the stuffing from the toy she just 'killed')  She has even more spots now than in this picture!

Long time no post!

Sorry I haven't written in a while, a long while actually, but I am doing good and Sweetheart is too.  Sweetheart continues to be a joy for us.  She is absolutely spoiled rotten and I just love her.  She continues to act like Bavarian in many ways.  

I did find out she isn't a big fan of crowds or big groups of other dogs.  Every June we have a gathering of adopter's and their greys at my house.  We have kiddie pools for the dogs and everyone sits and visits out on our back porch.  Sweetheart wasn't thrilled.  At one point I look over to the side of the yard where no dogs are and see her curled up by herself in a little hole.  She was really quite pathetic looking.  I almost felt sorry for her until I went over to pet her and she starts gnawing me.  Silly girl.  

Ollie is finally doing well.  She had a few setbacks with the strong antibiotics hurting her stomach and some intestinal worms.  However, she is finally done with antibiotics and should be worm free!  My good friend and co-worker has been fostering to adopt Ollie the last three weeks.  He was gone to training this past week and I took care of her.  He came to pick her up tonight and both were so happy to see each other, it was quite heart warming.  :)  Below is a picture of Ollie in his car on his way home with her tonight.  She looks so pretty in this picture.

Sunday I went to the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter to look at a supposed full blood greyhound.  Les and I get there and look at him and full blood he isn't.  He turned out to be a lurcher, half greyhound and most likely half deerhound.  We normally don't take in mixed breeds but I couldn't leave him there.  He was so beautiful and sweet, how could I?  Les named him Benny and he is absolutely gigantic!  His head almost hits my hip when he stands.  He has fuzzy, coarse hair like a deerhound and a sweet greyhound face.  I took him to Kolar's yesterday afternoon and he was vetted today.  He is heartworm negative and we are waiting on blood work to make sure he doesn't have other issues.  His poor ears are fly bitten and he only weighs 68 pounds when he should weigh about 80-85 at least.  However, if he comes here you all know I will fatten him up.  However, I don't think he is going to be cat safe so if he does come here Kitty will have to live in the spare bedroom for a while.

Look at all that fuzzy hair!

How could I leave this face at the shelter?  

I hope everyone is doing good!  I will keep you posted on how Benny is doing.  

Jess and Sweetheart

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