Chubbs

WARNING: DO NOT READ WHILE EATING unless you have a strong stomach.

Chubbs came to us because a family who was renting a home had to move out due to the recent flooding in Wisconsin. He is a poorly bred guy, and around 4 years old. He is named Chubbs from his previous owners for a reason. He is pretty fat! All he does is pant like crazy. I guess that it doesn’t help that it has been pretty warm and humid outside lately and conveniently something is wrong with our air conditioner. Well, according to the previous owners, Chubbs have never been crated. To not complicate matters, we have to keep Chubbs gated in the hallway while we are at work. Well, he came to us on a Friday night. All weekend was fine – no big worries. He growled at Sadie a few times, and maybe once at Bert. Then Monday rolled around, the first long workday where he had to be kept in the hallway. I got home from work before A, usually he gets home first but he had a long day at work. I walked in the house, looked for Chubbs, he greeted me in the hallway, but I saw our bedroom door open. Well, apparently I had not closed the door good enough and he pushed it open. He laid on our bed all day. If that isn’t bad enough, I noticed blood all over the white sheets and drops of blood on the floor. I looked all over Chubbs and didn’t see anything wrong with him – and then I saw blood on his butt. Ick! He wouldn’t really let me get close enough to look. So I called the vet. It was going to be tough for me to take him in that night, I had a work dinner to attend in just a few hours from when I got home. But, I was worried about him, so I took him in. And am I glad that I did. He has an anal gland abscess. It is pretty icky. It is a hole, pretty big one, where his anal glad is and it is infected and bleeding. It is due to lack of expression – it could also be due to lack of cleaning, as he is a portly fellow and cannot get back there to clean up. Mmmm, just what you wanted to read, right? So we got home with our various ointments, antibiotics and pain meds and I made it to the work dinner on time. It is a slow road to recovery for him and if it doesn’t heal with what we have now, he may have to go under and have his glands cleaned out and medicine infused in the glands. I mean, this infection could lead to some serious issues if not taken care of properly. I will keep you posted. I hope that Chubbs gets down to a healthy weight and finds his forever home. He is a sweet guy. Pics to follow!

Have a great life Lancer Dancer

So, I placed Lancer this weekend in Milwaukee. It was a nice drive there, and a great visit. Lancer played and played with his new brother and cousin. He is in a great home. I will really miss him though. Even though he HATED being crated, he is a terrible counter surfer, he destroyed all toys, he would never come inside from the yard because he loves it out there, he barked at all the neighbors... the list can go on and on, but I love him nonetheless. I mean, none of us is perfect, right? There is on thing about him that I will never forget. I may have mentioned this before, but he always had the cutest look on his face looking out of the window. Whatever mood I was in, it always made me smile or giggle.




The way home from placing Lancer was a different story. The interstate back form Milwaukee was closed due to the bad storms that we had the week before. So I had to detour south west. Conveniently the detour took me right past my mom's summer house. I had lunch with her and we went shopping. Then I came home. Overall it was a good trip, but a really long day.

Here are more pictures of Lancer - he is so photogenic!

Skittish Sam

So, I have to rant a bit here. I got most of it off my chest yesterday by sending an e-mail my great friend Alabaster Mom. So the humane society called me. They have a 9 month old male boxer named Sam that they asked if we could take. Of course I said, what's wrong with him. I mean if he was perfect, they would adopt him out. So, he needs some TLC, which we can give him over the stinky cold shelter. His previous owner is in jail, for animal abuse. The guy held the dog up by the throat and punched and kicked him for peeing in the house. UGH UGH! That just really pisses me off. I mean, a poor defenseless dog, well - I guess the dog could have bit him, but then it would have been the dog's fault. Catch 22. So, the sister (thank goodness she doesn't have the same a-hole genes) called the cops who arrested this guy and threw him in jail. When I was at the shelter, there was practically no punishment for animal cruelty, and that was a few years ago. So, this guy had the dog for 3 months. I hope this was the first and only time the dog was beat. I doubt it, but I like to think as positively as I can about this stomach churning incident.

So today I went to the humane society and picked up the little guy - and I mean little! He is only 20lbs, skin and bones. He wouldn't come near me until I gave him 3 treats covered in cheese whiz. Then he just started warming up to me. I took him to meet another volunteer who is going to hold him until he goes to his foster home. He is soooo skittish. I know he will be Ok eventually, maybe he will always be afraid of strangers. We will find him a great home that will cater to his special needs.

Good Luck sweet Sam, the skittish guy who covered me in kisses and leaned his whole 20lbs on me after a few treats and some reassurance. I will think of you often.