Elphie
(Delaware 4)
12/20/12: The picture below was taken after we took her to the groomer’s on Saturday. They said she was an “absolute joy” and stood there like a show dog while they worked on her!! She is so soft and fluffy now and loves prancing around like a pretty princess!
I took her back to the vet for a check up to make sure the anemia situation had resolved itself and to have look at her ears. The anemia is completely gone and her ears are all clear! No intestinal parasites of any kind either. The vet was amazed at the change in her from the first time she saw her. She is still untrusting of strangers and wouldn’t take any treats from the vet, but when she handed the treats to me, Elphie took them right away.
Elphie has quite the personality and has “adopted” Ken and I!! She doesn’t hesitate to let us know when we aren’t moving fast enough at meal times and loves going for walks and meeting new “friends.” We have discovered she loves socks! She loves to gather them up, whether they are clean or not, and will even hide them in “special” places! One of her favorite spots is to place them under the Christmas tree. It is amazing how she will go through a laundry pile and pick them out and leave everything else. Our daughter bought her a stuff Santa dog toy and Elphie will put it on her bed after she is done walking around with it. So far, she has not destroyed anything and is really gentle with the “treasures” she finds (i.e., socks). She is still leary of stairs and does not want to attempt going up. Maybe in time, she will decide to be brave enough to try.
12/19/12: New picture after Elphie’s grooming.
11/24/12: Elphie continues to do better. She is very active now and enjoys her walks. She wants everyone in the room with her at the same time and will let us know if we are missing someone by woo-woo’ing for them to come back from where ever they went. We put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and I barely had the tree set up (no ornaments yet) when she climbed under it and laid down (she likes to do this in the bushes outside too). Below are a couple of pictures from a couple hours later when the tree was all set up. They don’t call them Christmas dogs for nothing (the pictures were not staged – she did this on her own).
11/16/12: Update from Elphie’s new home: I just wanted to give you an update on our girl. First of all, we have named her “Elphie,” which is a character from my favorite play “Wicked.” She really is a sweetheart!!
She was doing fine until last night when she seemed a bit lethargic and kept wandering around whining like she wanted to go out and when she did, she wanted right back in. Then this morning I went to get her out of her kennel to take her for a quick walk before her
breakfast, and she didn’t appear to be happy to be doing any of it. She did her business before we even left the yard, and then wanted to head right back in the house. I figured she was hungry, so got busy getting her food ready. She didn’t want any of it and walked away with her tail between her legs.
Our daughter came by at lunch to let her out, and again, she didn’t want to go for her walk or eat. So, when we got home Ken checked her nose and it was dry and felt hot. We called the vet and they were able to get us in tonight. She was running a fever of 103.5 so the vet did blood work, checked her urine and stool. Her white blood count was high and she is slightly anemic. The incision from the spaying looked good on the outside, but the vet feels she has a post op infection since her surgery was just last week. She also tested positive for Lyme and has a parasite called Giardia. Long story short, but they gave her shot of penicillin, a bag of fluids, two bottles of antibiotics (one for the post op infection and the other for the Lyme), Rymadil for the fever and joint pain, plus the meds to treat the Giardia. She will also be on a bland soft food diet for about week to get her back on track and allow us to give her the meds. The vet wants to retest Elphie’s blood in a month to make sure the anemia has corrected. She feels sure it will and that it is just a bad side effect of the “living” conditions she was kept in for so long.
It breaks my heart everytime I think of what those poor dogs had to endure!! I hope the people who had them did not get off with a slap on the wrist! Thank God for you and Jeanne and Marlena and the super big hearts you all have!!
11/11: Number Four has been adopted! Adoption picture below.
11/7/12: Four is also sweet, skin looked ok, ear better than most but still icky. She suffered through the bath, was uber good about all of it except for being put in a cage after with a cage dryer blowing at her. It’s cold here now so drying the dogs is important. Four is another tiny girl, am guessing she is related to 19 cause they kinda have the same face but i’m thinking younger than 19. Her coat is in pretty good shape and so soft where it’s still long. She was better on the leash than most.
