Bye-bye Arlo! Helloooooo Alice!

Arlo is adopted! He has 3 doggie buddies, a big backyard and a wonderful mom and dad who will love him and take care of him. I love a happy ending!!

Tomorrow morning I'll meet him and his new mom at our vet's where he will be getting a puppy shot, and we'll take care of the contract paperwork.

Arlo is such a furry little guy that they named him Bear. :-) Cuuuute!

As soon as we knew Arlo was adopted, we took in another of the Fast Food puppies, and named her Alice. Alice has short brindle fur, and is a real cutie! She's feisty and loves to play with her sister Gracie.

ALICE:

Arlo and Gracie move in

Our new fosters moved in Monday, June 22. They were born under the floor of an abandoned house in Waxhaw. There were 8 in their litter. Mom is a black lab mix who our group is still trying to catch. The other siblings are in other foster homes and doing well, except for one who seems to have some health issues.

Since mom frequented the dumpsters at fast food restaurants, we named this litter the "Fast Food Puppies" and at first they had names like Bojangles and Big Mac. We named the two we took in Arlo and Gracie. Arlo looks like he's paid a few too many visits to the buffet line at Alice's Restaurant! (Note: you have to be over 50 to get that one!)

Both went to PetSmart for an adoption event with a rescue group on Saturday and everyone loved them! We got a great application for Arlo and did a home visit that afternoon. The next day he went for a week's trial and today I received the message that they want to make him a permanent part of their family! YAY! He has a puppy pool, a big back yard, 3 doggie friends to play with and learn from, and a wonderful mom and dad. He new name is Bear!

Gracie is a sweet little girl, full of fun and all dressed in black. We're having fun with her, and she's doing very well, sleeping through the night, and behaving in her play pen. She probably won't be with us for long!

Here are their photos:

ARLO


GRACIE

Ralphie's been adopted into the perfect home

Ralphie had been malnourished and was living outside with no shelter or medical care, so he was wormy, underweight, and intact. While at the hospital for his surgery, he was neutered and wormed. In foster care, his foster mom added Nussentials MORE to his food at every meal. Two weeks later when he returned to the hospital to have his stitches taken out he had gained 10 pounds and was healing well. The vet was surprised at his weight gain and said, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!"

Today Ralphie moved to his new furever home. He has a big fenced yard and another dog named Ruby to be his buddy. He said goodbye to his rescuer/foster mom Tammy, then ran off to play in the yard with Ruby and his new mom and dad. Ralphie Tripod is going to have a great life!


Ralphie's rescuer/foster mom Tammy


Ralphie with his new mom and new buddy Ruby

Update on Ralphie

Ralphie's been in his foster home for a full day now and what a day it's been. He's doing incredibly well and has far exceeded our expectations.


By lunchtime he was going up & down the stairs off the back deck to the fenced yard. He does this by himself. He plays with the two resident dogs but has bonded with one in particular; Thelma Lou (a Corgi/mix). Ralphie loves her and follows her around.


This evening when he was put in his ex-pen he just couldn't settle down.......until Thelma Lou was put in there with him. Now they're both sleeping; Ralphie on his giant pillow and Thelma Lou on her blanket. All is well.

Ralphie is discharged

Ralphie was able to come home today. The vet and was amazed. Remember the first photos of Ralphie's leg with the open wound where you could see the bone and the horrible x-ray? That happened 3-4 weeks ago! It would appear someone else hit this boy and they too didn't stop to help him. Because he received no care when that injury happened, it started to heal incorrectly and by the time he received care it was just too late. The ends of the bone had already started to die.

So the woman who hit him the other day can take solace in that she didn't cause this horrible injury. However, she's not off the hook. She too wasn't willing to help him in any way. Morally, that's just wrong. Some would say morally bankrupt.

Because of the previous injury he's had a head start on learning to walk on 3 legs. At his foster home, he was carried out of the car and they had to coax him to move around. Then he got his bearings, laid down and rolled around in the grass. He walked/hopped around a bit, watched the cats and when he saw another dog he wagged his tail.

In the house an ex-pen was set up for him.



You'll see it's got a large dog cushion in it which should be comfortable for his stump. It was covered up with a super soft blanket. That too should feel good while he's healing. It was obvious he'd never been indoors before; he refused to go inside the house. So Ralphie was carried inside and put into his pen. It's happened before with rescue dogs who've never had a bed; they don't know what to do with it. Here's Ralphie, half on & half off his bed.



That's a chew bone which I don't think he ever saw before. He treasured it and laid his head down on the bone. An hour or so later his foster mom reported that he not only chewed it but ate the whole thing then got up on his new bed to lay down. First milestone: Ralphie figured out what a bed is!

Ralphie's story

A volunteer rescuer was driving one day and saw a dog beginning to cross the road in front of her. She stopped, but another car came from the other direction and hit him. The woman driving the other car wasn't going to stop, but our volunteer made her stop.

The woman said she was late for work, at a vet's office! What luck, our volunteer thought - she can take the dog to work. "Oh no, I can't do that," she said and drove off. Didn't even stay to help our volunteer get the 50 pound black lab into her SUV. Fortunately some men were working on a house nearby and they help lift the dog into the car.

Off she went to Indian Land Animal Hospital. The dog, now nicknamed "Ralphie", was given pain meds and made comfortable. His wound was dressed and the leg stabilized. Because it was shorter than the other leg, the vet said the bone had probably broken and slid past itself. Surgery would be required to put a plate in the leg, or it might have to be amputated.

Ralphie was stabilized and made comfortable for the night, while our volunteers made a plan to move him the next morning to The Pet Hospital in Bessemer City, NC for surgery.

Ralphie waited patiently for the results of his x-rays. It wasn't good news. Apparently he had been hit by a car a month earlier and the same leg was broken and not treated. The leg couldn't be saved.

Ralphie's leg was amputated on November 18th. He did well in surgery.

Good Golly, Miss Molly!

Here she is, our new foster puppy, Molly! She's a trip. Very cute, loves to play. We think she's only 6-8 weeks old, and she weighs 6.0 pounds. Loves to play. Has the prettiest blue eyes. Cried every few hours all night to go outside. :-) She's smart, I think we have a puppy einstein on our hands!

Here comes Trouble!

You knew we couldn't go puppy-less for long! Tomorrow we're taking in a puppy that, of course, was dumped by the side of the road in Rock Hill, SC. Who could do that to an 8 week old puppy?
Well, anyway, the people that found her nicknamed her Trouble. We'll probably re-name her so's not to give her a bad reputation. She's a black lab mix with a white dot on her nose, a white streak on her head, white chest and white paws. Sounds adorable, and I'm sure she is!

Today was Jim's birthday. We had a nice dinner with friends, a quiet day, and this evening Helen invited the neighbors for cake and coffee. We love our neighborhood, and have made some great friends here, so it was good fun.

I also heard from Simon's mom, too!

"Here's some great news for you! He didn't cry Monday or last night at all. We took him out at 10:30 for his last walk and then put him in the crate and said good night. He was pooped for sure :-) We didn't hear a peep from him until morning. I came downstairs and he was standing up waiting for me and we went outside and took care of business. That was about 5:00 am. The early morning is when I do my devotion time, so he then cuddled up on the couch with me after breakfast and chewed on a bone while I read... of course then the kids get up and quiet time is over! He's done great during the days as well. There's been no accidents in his crate and only one in that puppy bed that you saw (such as it is with life... remember we said that we were fine if he messed up the carpet because it was old and coming up soon... so he pees on the NEW bed. Oh, well, that's what they make deodorizer for!) We are doing great! I will send pictures this weekend for sure :-) I can't thank you enough for taking such good care of him for us. He's a joy!"

It's so good to hear that he's doing well. He's destined for a wonderful life! :-)

11 year old black lab with arthritis is like a puppy again

Our dog, Amore, is an 11 year old Black Lab. She has been diagnosed with arthritis in her hind leg which causes her to limp.

Instead of giving her the pain medication that the vet prescribed my wife thought that PET RESTORE might help her. My wife and I were taking PET RESTORE for shoulder joint pain.
Miraculously, when the dog took the PET RESTORE she stopped limping and actually acted like a puppy again.

What is also very fascinating is animals do not have a placebo effect. A placebo is a substance containing no medication and given to reinforce a person’s expectation that they will feel better. In my dog’s case the PET RESTORE works because it really works not because the dog just thinks it is going to work.

That was all I needed to convince me of how great PET RESTORE really is.

Dr. Jonathan Musher
Maryland