Thursday was the
anniversary of Sage’s passing. Sometimes it seems like she is right here and other times it seems like we never had those 10 years with her.
We really hadn't seen any signs of anything
other than old age. Sage live every single minute of her short
life, November 10, 2002 – January 30, 2013, as hard as she could. When she was younger she was either off or
on, it was amazing to see. That morning, she just didn't look or behave like herself, Dave took her to Ocean State Veterinary hospital, West Greenwich RI, amazing vets there! When the vets
looked at her and reviewed her chart and the x-ray, it appeared that the mass
they removed with her spleen two years ago was back and was bleeding out. There were two choice, to remove this mass,
test it for cancer, as they did with the mass two years ago (miraculously it
was not cancer – which was a relief as we had just lost Diesel to cancer a few months earlier).
Neither of us even remembered that emergency surgery or the waiting for
the pathology reports to come back. We eventually did remember getting a call at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night from OSV, we were terrified to pick up the phone either this was really really good news or really really bad news. The vet was so amazed he couldn't wait till regular business hours to tell us. Guess stress does some amazing things with blocking out bad
experiences. We talked about it, and
remembered we had our extra two years with her and why put our 10 year old girl
through the recovery process from a major surgery and potentially chemo. I was in NY for the day, and couldn't be
there, Dave said she went peacefully.
She was
giving the young ones hell on the beach the Sunday before, and she was gone a
few days later she was a tough dog who didn't have time for nonsense. Makes me think of Sweet Brown “Ain’t nobody
got time for this.” That was Sage.
Walking Jax
(Dave finally got the harness adjusted so Mr. Squiggy can’t wiggle out of it –
touch wood – a black dog who likes to chase cars is a recipe for disaster,
considering we ended up with him because he was hit by a car and his owners didn't want to pay for surgery or deal with rehab even if someone paid for the
surgery) last night I was thinking about all the foster dogs we've had over the
years since getting Gizmo from Northeastern Boxer Rescue on New Year’s Day
2003, he was just 2 and a young curmudgeon.
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| He has looking pathetic down to a science |
Lola. That first week with Gizmo was fun, he adjusted well enough, we were
figuring out how to communicate with him and him with us, then we got the call. We have a 6 month old boxer girl desperately
in need of a foster home, Gizmo has the right temperament to deal with
her. He is a calming influence and not
really all about being the alpha dog and exerting his authority, perfect for
Lola.
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| Add caption |
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| The picture of innocence.... |
OMG… she was a nut case, terrified
of her own shadow and aggressive as hell all packed in one 45 lb boxer
girl. She was so stressed out for the
first few days, she slept a lot but when she was finally awake, she ran
roughshod over our poor Gizzy. I am sure
he wanted nothing more than to go back into rescue and hope for a better luck
of the draw. Eventually, over the course
of a few weeks, we figured out most of Lola’s trigger points and Gizmo just let
her be her, even if it involved her sleeping on him in his favorite chair. About 6 weeks in to Lola’s stay with us,
Gizmo and she found common ground, barking at the gas meter reader person, and
at that point they seemed to be just fine cohabitating. She was with us 5 months.
Diesel. About 3
months into 2003 there was a call from rescue about someone to temporarily home
Diesel, his current foster home couldn't handle him and all of his energy. Dave though, oh what the heck, nothing could
be as bad as Lola and she seemed to do ok with other boxers. Dave picked up this crazy Diesel boxer boy
(he was 18 months old complete with all sorts of GI issues and a possible case
of mange) and snuck him into the basement.
Maybe if he just appeared Lola would think he had been here the whole
time and not have a fit. Well that
seemed to have worked, Diesel wandered up stairs as Lola was passing through
the kitchen and she was OK with this additional dog, oh where have you been all
this time seemed to be her reaction.
Fortunately this was near meter reading time and the three of them
bonded over barking over the meter reader.
Diesel can best be described as a Maserati, very very expensive and very
very fun. Figuring out he did not have
some weird skin condition, he had serious allergies to most food causing him
all sorts of internal and external issues was quite the adventure. He could eat canned venison dog food, he
preferred venison itself, when it was available. My brother sent me home with some Venison
jerky one visit and the poor dog was beside himself smelling it and I think he
managed to climb onto the counter to get at it.
He also wanted to play, all. the. time. Ok so he wasn't insane he was just very very
busy.
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| Diesel in hot pursuit of Giz |
Sage. May of 2003
Lola was finally placed in the perfect home for her, an only dog and two doting
humans. The call
came in June, a 6 month old uncontrollable boxer girl needed to be transported
from the Long Island, the vet would bring her on the ferry to New London, could
we pick her up and she was sure to get
placed really really quick, she was cute as a button and probably her only
behavioral issue was she was 6 months old.
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| ADORABLE! |
Her owners had gotten her when their first baby was born because it is a
smart thing to have a puppy and a newborn at the same time. Dave pulled up in front of the house with
this adorable brindle boxer with the goofiest look on her puppy face. I fell in love with this girl. OMG so cute and so much energy, so much fun! She managed to get all top marks in her puppy
training and socialization classes, but out in the real world she forgot all of
her lessons.
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| Sage giving Giz a run for his money! |
OK so maybe all boxer girls weren't insane like Lola.
Gracie. Rescue
called, fall 2003, there was a 12 week old puppy with a club foot who needed a
home until surgery and she would be placed in her furever home.
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| Not a great pic but you can see the clubbing of her left foot (Giz butt in the background, Sage to the side) |
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| The left foot is sticking up over her right leg |
Gracie was amazing. That club foot did make her pretty miserable,
and she drug it around for the 3 weeks she was with us. We took her on a
beach outing and that little girl tucked that club foot up under her and ran on
three legs with those boys and was in her glory. She did get the foot amputated and went to
live with another 3 legged boxer girl in NYC.
Deuce. Spring
2004 Our first rehab dog, 9 months old, two broken front legs, hit by a
car. 6 weeks in the crate only out for
bathroom. By the end Deuce hated Dave,
Dave would take him out of the crate and put him back in the crate, Dave
sucked. He healed, two metal plates in
both his front legs, and was able to run around with our guys and just had a
blast with people and other dogs.
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| Deuce, he liked me, but then I wasn't the one continually putting him back in is crate! |
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| Giz and Deuce |
He
ended up in Stamford CT as an only dog, as the months with us went on it became
pretty clear while Deuce liked other dogs, he really thought he needed to be
the only dog. All good stuff to know when placing a dog in a furever home. Deuce also was in People magazine, the church
his family went to also had Sunday service for pets!
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| Ugh, poor guy! |
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| His legs looked pretty good! |
Greco. Spring
2005 our second rehab dog, 6 months old, broken hip, fell down the stairs.
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| Handsome boy! |
He only had to be in the crate for two weeks
but limited activity. Bwahaaaa, a boxer
boy to remain calm, like that is going to happen. When he could finally go to the beach and run
with Treacherous Trio, he was so happy.
They had a fun rough and tumble play session on the beach, he was a
little sore for a few days. He went to a
family in Maryland, and they sent us status reports on him for a couple
years. He was a skinny little thing when
we had him and filled out into a very handsome 80 lb boxer boy. I couldn't find a pic of him with Giz... oh well..
Georgia. Fall
of 2005 a semi load of dogs from a kill shelter in Georgia, a boxer girl,
apparently used as a breeder dog arrived at the CT Humane Society, were we
interested. I picked her up, all skin
and bones and scared, oh so scared.
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| Georgia - such a happy girl! |
I
brought her home and put her in the back yard, locking the threesome in the
house. She could at least smell them in
the yard and I would see if this would relax her a bit. She was ok with other dogs and rather happy
to be in the yard. She scratched around
and sniffed a bit and found a place to lie down. And seemed to be at home. Oh this was going to be fun, she didn't know
about houses. I opened up the doggy door
and our three came tumbling out everyone behaving appropriately. Eventually they all lost interest and went
inside and Georgia went back to the nest she was making. I encouraged her inside and she found a nice
pile of wood shavings and began this nesting process again, looking a little
dubious about this inside business. I
didn't let her stay there long and she started heading towards the door, having
no idea how to use the doggy door was a good thing. I herded her towards the
stairs and she looked at them and looked at me and gave me this ‘ok lady what
are you looking for me to do here?’ I
picked her up and carried her up the stairs, our three were curious about
this… and I set her down next to me on
the couch. She stood up, looked around,
turned around and for the rest of the time she was in our home that was HER
spot on the couch. I think she was with
us 4 months, and we were honored to name this little peanut of a boxer girl
Georgia Peanuts. Her fur ever family
were an older couple, looking for a low maintenance pup to take on walks and
grow old with them. Georgia was the
perfect fit. Her new human parent said
she got in the house and found ‘her’ spot on the couch and whenever they needed
to find her, that is where she was!
Faith. Spring 2006 Faith was found on the streets, abandoned, she had kidney failure,
only a few weeks to live. I picked her
up from the ferry in New London, she was too weak to walk and I placed her in a
kennel in the truck, no one knew how she would react to being transported. She was OK with it. I received instructions on how to administer
her daily 1500 ml of fluid subcutaneously to flush out her kidneys.
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| Faith (Diesel in the background) |
After a couple weeks, she started to thrive,
the vet was amazed, this dog should be dead by all rights, yet all of her
kidney levels are in the normal range and she will never get better however she
is healthier and healthier. From the dog
that I had to carry into the house, a few weeks later she was starting to get a
little rough and tumble with the Treacherous Trio. They all seemed to enjoy playing together for
the majority of the many many months she was with us. After about 6 months it became obvious Faith’s
health was fading fast as was her tolerance for other dogs. She was not in a good environment for what
truly would be her last few weeks. Sadly
we agreed and she was placed in a home, where she was the only dog, until she
passed peacefully a month later.
We didn't
have any more foster dogs after that, Diesel was diagnosed with cancer in
September of 2008, we were happy to have a couple healthy years with just the Treacherous
Trio until Diesel passed in July of 2010.
Phoenix. Our first attempt at rehabilitating a dog placed in a kennel for an extended
period of time. 3 year old boxer boy,
came to us in the late fall 2010, he had been in a kennel for many months year,
previous to that his story was one of multiple homes and abuse.
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| All in all a happy boy, on his terms! |
Quite sad.
He had quite the aversion to construction tools, hammers, screwdrivers,
tape measures to name a few. He was very
good at self entertainment, which seems to be a trend with kennel dogs. In the back yard he would spend hours chasing
a ball on a rope back and forth and all over the yard. For the first month he was crated most of the
time and let out to play, this sounds mean, however it really is for the
benefit of the dog to understand the routine and have minimal expectations
placed on them. So his hour a couple
times a day in the back yard was grand for him and we took turns playing with
him. He was placed as a single dog in a
home and did very well, he passed away last year, such a short life for a special
boy.
Gus. Our second kennel dog, Gus, 3, came to us on New Year’s Eve 2010, he had
the same treatment of being crated most of the time first alone and then down
stairs with the family and when he became agitated covering his crate with a
blanket. Gus was in ‘puppy prison’ for
18 months, this is a very long time.
Most dogs do not live this long in the kennel. He was extremely stressed out. It was not until March of last year that he
was completely crate free in our home.
He needed to be crated when we were gone because he would panic, and we
would see destruction when we came home.
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| He loves his freedom! |
We still have a crate in the bedroom and from time to time he enjoys
escaping to the “Gus Hut” the door never
gets closed, he likes his little den. Although lately we’ve noticed that he
more enjoys burrowing under the covers on our bed to make his own little
den. Fortunately, he retires to the
“Gus Hut” at bedtime and will come wake me up to snuggle around 5 a.m.
Jax Our 3rd
rehab dog, Jax 8 months old was run over by his owner in the summer of 2011 and
when the vet explained the cost of putting his leg back together the owner said
to put him down. The vet contacted
rescue and rescue offered to pay for the surgery if the owner did the rehab,
still no interest. Surgery was done and
Jax was place in a foster home who just could not fathom leaving him in a crate
to rehabilitate and Jax was far far to active and his leg was not going to mend
properly. He came to us and was set up
in his crate. Having learned a lesson or
two we kept him on the lowest floor, easier to get him in and out for the
bathroom and more likely for him to get plenty of rest. We also learned a few tricks for bribing him
into the crate. He became kind of wise
to them and sort of accepted them all at the same time. The 8 weeks seemed like they didn't take as
long as 8 weeks seems, at least to us.
Jax was thrilled to join Gizmo, Sage, and Gus and they were OK with him
and is all boxer all the time energy.
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| Bouncea bouncea bouncea - eventually I'll be able to take a non blurry picture of him! |
I can't think that I am missing any of them. 12 that sounds about right... and oh yeah, what started this whole boxer thing off was Moe (Dave's dog from his previous relationship) passing away in November of 2002. Moe was physically challenged, she had a breathing issue which caused her throat to partially close up when she drew in a breath and it appeared she was having an asthma attack. An experimental surgery at Michigan State University Veterinary School in 1998 was thought to give her a few more months of life. Dave didn't know the few more months until AFTER the surgery. Year after year went by and while it was a shock to wake up and find her gone, those few months turned into nearly 4 years!
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| She was a small goofball, Christmas 2001 |
He was sure he didn't want another dog, I was sure to keep the option open, that it was his call, I love having pets and he was very much allergic to my cats, so... A dog was the best option. The second day after Moe passed Dave called me at work and said the house was way to quiet and he just couldn't bear it.
And Gizmo came into our lives and well you read the story. Our families and friends think we are a little overboard and weird, a dozen dogs in 10 years, however at the core of it they know we have big hearts and it is hard to see anyone suffer if we have the ability to give them a second chance.
Sincerely,
Beth who will update you with this week in running tomorrow.
