Idaho went back to Old Friends, now that the quarantine for ringworm has been lifted from that area, and we got Marge back. Marge moved to the Garden from the Lodges when I was still working up at the Lodges (you may remember Margie from previous posts - she's the smiler) and then she developed ringworm and was moved to Old Friends with some other ringworm dogs (not in the same run) to try and contain the outbreak. 
Unfortunately, Marge has lymphoma and will probably not get rid of the ringworm because of her diminished immune system. But she is the last dog at the sanctuary that I know of to have ringworm and they decided to bring her back to the Garden because the dogs are mostly young and healthy and less likely to pick up an infection should they come in contact with the spores than many of the dogs at Old Friends. Marge is such a sweet dog and she has very little time left with us, but we will love and adore her until she is ready to go and we are working on lifting her quarantine so that volunteers may go in and be with her and walk her using the same protocols that the staff are required to use. In happier news, Simon and Oakley were both adopted last week. Simon went to Denver and Oakley went to the central Washington coast and we hear that both are doing quite well in their new homes. Valley Girl, Oakley's former run mate, has three new kids in her run to keep in line. She now lives with Poinsettia, a very sweet little hound that is a bit shy but very lovable; Tucson, a Rottie mix that is very playful and fun but a bit scared in new situations (during his behavior assessment he tried to climb out the window when he got scared); and Dana, a very cute red-brindle six-month old pup that looks like a jackal when he gets excited. In the other building, Anahi and Pilot have two new friends as well. A lab-hound mix named Boone that was picked up roaming in Colorado City, the nearby Fundamentalist Mormon (aka Polygamist) settlement. He can be nervous with new dogs and isn't always sure of himself in new settings, he was probably never in a home environment prior to his arrival at BF, but he absolutely loves people. For about a week he was living with Grady and Mercy but they were picking on him a lot and by the end of the week he never wanted to go back into his run in the morning or after a walk, so we decided that we would try him with Anahi's run and he is a completely different dog. He plays and stands up for himself and he seems happy to go back with his friends in the morning and after walks and outings. We have another black and white hound named Alden in Anahi's run, as well. He was in a foster home for a few weeks but the family had a rabbit, too and they were too nervous to let him meet the rabbit so after a little while, they decided to let him come live at the sanctuary. He is an incredibly well mannered dog and I can't imagine that he will be with us at the Garden for too long, somebody is going to come along and snatch him up. We have already had one couple fall in love with him, they took him on sleepovers for three or four nights in a row, he is easy to love and very sweet. Pilot is our Plott hound, he is a beautiful and remarkably powerful dog. From a sit, he has a six-foot vertical jump; he is solid muscle, as is the standard for this breed. He is young and playful and doesn't know his own strength, he wears a harness for his walks to help cut down on his pulling but getting it on him is a decent challenge in and of itself. It is kind of like trying to dress a toddler that doesn't want to be clothed and can, without warning, jump six feet in the air - some days I wish I could wear a hockey mask to work. Anahi is the odd duck in this run, a twelve year old Akita mix, she definitely doesn't fit in with the three young hounds, but she loves them. 
For some unknown reason, Anahi prefers male hound dogs - in spite of their youthful play and crazy antics (Pilot is forever jumping on her head by accident) she seems content with them.
For some unknown reason, Anahi prefers male hound dogs - in spite of their youthful play and crazy antics (Pilot is forever jumping on her head by accident) she seems content with them.Well, that seems like enough for today, I still have three runs of dogs to introduce, but I will save them for another post. I hope you are all doing well!
(All photos copyright Best Friends Animal Society.)
I have had too many of these posts lately. Dexter was euthanized yesterday after the onset of a bizarre set of symptoms about a week ago. Dexter was a Lodge dog, you may remember him from previous posts about hand feeding him to work on his issues with food aggression, he was sweet and a little nutty, but very lovable. Nobody ever thought he was as old as he was, people often thought him to be a young kid - three or four years old - everyone was always shocked to see that he was about eleven years old. He had so much energy and loved to play fetch, he would play fetch all day long if he could, balls, frisbees, anything that you could throw, he would try and fetch. He loved it! He also loved to eat sticks and juniper berries, the berries aren't toxic to dogs but they can't digest them, so they come out the other end looking pretty much the same as they went in - poop scooping in Dexter's run was always a bit challenging because of the volume of his berry intake . . . I'll just leave it at that. Prior to my arrival at BF, over the course of about six months everybody thought that Dexter was dying because every time he opened his mouth it smelled like death. They were filling out caregiver observation sheets on an almost daily basis and calling the vet techs when the smell would get really strong. He was acting just fine, eating regularly, playing, there were no physical symptoms other than the stench emanating from his mouth. After a while, he was scheduled for a dental and when they got into his mouth, they found a piece of rotten wood wedged between two of his back teeth. Never stopped him from eating branches after that, though.
Last week he started acting very strange, he was lethargic and wouldn't eat - this from a dog that would gorge himself on food until he exploded if given the chance. He collapsed on a walk, he didn't really loose consciousness entirely, just sort of fell over. He was taken into the clinic and they did an ultrasound. They could see a mass near his heart and some nodes on his liver, they did an EKG and took him for a walk to see if he would collapse again, but he decided to hold off on collapsing until about 3 minutes after they had taken the EKG sensors off. His behavior in the clinic made it clear that he was really not feeling well, in addition to not eating, he was a fairly willing participant in all of his diagnostic tests - this from a dog that usually required at least two people just to restrain him for anything remotely resembling a medical procedure. There wasn't really much they could do for him beyond putting him on Prednisone to see if the steroid would help. After a week of Pred his condition had not improved, he spent his days staggering around his run looking very confused. It was clear that his quality of life was way below our standards and it was decided to euthanize him yesterday afternoon. I had not seen Dexter for a few months but went up to spend some time with him and be there when they sent him over the bridge. He really wasn't the same dog that I remembered - very tired and clearly confused. He did have a last burst of energy before the vet arrived and decided to go out for a little stroll in front of the building. He wandered around, staggering like a little drunk, peed on a weed, and started wandering up the road that would have taken him back to his run. Megan stayed with him and when she blocked his way, he tried to fake her out, walking one way and then trying to quickly change direction and go around her, but his motor functions weren't so good, and the speed necessary for a successful fake out wasn't there. He made his way back to the kitchen and plopped himself on his bed, ready to go, it seemed. He will be buried with one of his favorite balls and we will miss him dearly. He was a long time resident of BF, it is always sad when they fail to find that forever home, but I think he was pretty happy. He got to play lots of fetch and go for lots of walks with our volunteers - he was well loved by everyone who knew him and will be remembered fondly.
She was in a home for a while, but was recently returned, she was exhibiting some dog aggression that the owner didn't feel she could manage. Karina is also healing from an injury incurred during her time in the home, she was out hiking with her family and a snowboarded came down the mountain and ran over Karina injuring one of her back legs. She is doing much better now and I have yet to see her limp on the leg. Her run mate is Reggie Boy, a Guardian Angel and Nat Geo dog that was surrendered by his owners because he has some severe medical problems (possibly Lupus) and, while they loved him dearly, they could not afford the medical costs associated with the diagnostics and treatment of his condition. 
He is very sweet and his face is healing up very nicely, but to protect him from the sun on his walks, in addition to sunscreen, he gets to wear a very stylish baseball cap designed for dogs - he's definitely a show stopper. Mercy is a very sweet border collie mix, full of energy but getting up there in years (about 9) and should really be in a home with a family to call her own. 
She is a great dog, a bit quiet and not a flashy as some of our other residents which means she tends to be overlooked by many of the people that come through the Garden on a daily basis. Grady only just arrived a week or two ago, brought to BF from a local shelter not far from here in a town called Enoch. 
When we have some unexpected space available, a trainer will drive out to Enoch and bring a few dogs to BF, helping to take some of the burden off this small, over loaded no-kill shelter (more on the story 
Her run mate, Oakley, was being fostered by one of the Dogtown maintenance guys until he had to move and could not take his fosters with him, so Oak came back to the Garden and won everyone over with his adorable charm. He is leaving on Friday for his new home in Washington. Ruth is the mother of Ester, another dog at the Sanctuary. 
She has a very sweet disposition and chocolaty, soulful eyes and just melt your heart. She is incredibly soft, almost like velvet and when you pet her against the grain of her coat it it like watching a wave roll across her body at the hair shifts back into place all on its own. She lives with Harley, a very cool Heeler mix. He is smart and funny and always trying to herd something - dogs in other runs, dogs out walking, people, he even tries to herd from inside the car, so we put him in a crate for longer car rides. He went on his first sleepover this week and the people loved him so much they put an application in on him as soon as the left from dropping him off. Unfortunately, he tried to taste the cat during his cat encounter, so he will have to wait a little bit longer for his forever home (the people that wanted to adopt him have five indoor cats . . . not exactly the best situation for a dog with Harley's herding drive).
some of you may remember me talking about Ophelia from the Lodges, well she and Hera are (probably) sisters, they came in as a group of three, the third being Pandora that I had over at Amra's. I am fairly sure, based on appearance and behavior that Hera and Ophelia are sisters, Pandora is very similar emotionally though she expresses herself a little more outwardly and she doesn't really look as much like the other two - perhaps the same mother and a different father? When I was here last summer, Hera was one of my sleepover dogs - though she didn't let me sleep much, seeing as how she wanted to sit on my head all night and lick me.