Lewis

Bittersweet day for me!
 
Today is our last day with Mr. Lewis.
 
He is now ready to move to his perma-foster home! 
 
After months of emotional/physical rehabilitation and close to $8,000 in medical bills including two surgeries, he is finally ready to leave Mama Gwennie’s nest.
 
We made the decision to have him perma-fostered due to his heart.
 
He has an incredible team of vets plus specialists that are standing strong by his side, BHRR will continue to cover his bills, and his amazing experienced perma-foster home will continue to shower him with love, kindness, etc.
 
He will lack for nothing, and as many are aware our haven program is the biggest part of what we do at BHRR.
 
Mr. Lewis, I am going to miss you immensely….you greatly humbled me by choosing me as your person….that you feel I was worthy of such an enormous honour is deeply touching.
 
This is not goodbye….I will get to see/visit you quite often, and my heart is incredibly full knowing that we were chosen to be the ones to assist you in your urgent time of need.
 
Thank you to both of your two emerge temp fosters – JoAnne & Ashley for taking excellent care of you until we could get you here. 
 
We are going to have an amazing last day together!!! Let the extra adventures and wonderful memories begin.
 
Here he stands proud…finally….his head held up high, no longer cowering in a corner, shaking, trying to make himself as small as possible. He makes eye contact…and man, he has such beautiful eyes. With a sweet gentle soul. His body stance is one of strength….you are not just a survivor Mr. Lewis, you are a thrivor!
 
You are safe, and you know it…..
 
He is now confident, more sure of himself, and looking mighty fine having put on significant weight, and muscle mass plus having two professional grooms to date.
 
I love you with all that I am BHRR’s Lewis.

BHRR’s Lewis – getting new teethies! He says, ‘CHEESE!’

Mr. Lewis, my Apex, my Zero, Miss Lilly, and Mr. Porthos!
 
Mr. Lewis is getting more comfortable and settling in!
 
AND, a gentle reminder:
 
We still have the following dates open for our 3rd Annual ‘Drive Way Events’ for nails/ear cleaning!
 
This will be our major source of fundraising again in 2022.
 
We have some big bills for some really special Giant dogs!
 
IF you would like to host us in 2022, please do email contactbhrr@gmail.com – We are looking for Saturdays, Sundays up until September.
 
We just need the use of your driveway, and we do the rest!
*Social distancing is easy to do!
 
Here are our open dates for June & July if anyone is open to having us hang in their driveway!
 
We hope to be able to do events all over Ontario and into Gatineau, Quebec, again in 2022!
 
Saturday, June 18th, 9 AM – 4 PM
Sunday, June 19th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Sunday, July 10th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Saturday, July 16th, 9 AM – 4 PM
Sunday, July 17th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Sunday, July 24th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Saturday, July 30th, 9 AM – 4 PM
 
Thanks in advance for any consideration!
 

Mr. Lewis is supervising Gwennie while she shovels dirt in the fenced-in dog area.
 
A ton of work is being done this weekend with spring clean-up – lots of trees came down this winter in our 3+ fenced-in area for the dogs plus our front lawn.
 
Glorious weekend to work! Minus the black flies…..

Miss Rosie showing Mr. Lewis ‘the ropes’! 
 
He had some complications – extreme swelling – post-op, yet slow but sure, he is healing from his neuter.
 
We are working on him liking himself, enjoying his alone time, not feeling like he has to be a constant shadow to me & sharing – great with the communal water bowls, and almost as great now sharing me. He has a sneaky ‘weave’ movement to get in between me and other dogs. 
 
He now comes in and out of the 3+ acre fenced-in yard by himself – in the beginning, it was leash only for the family or I had to go with him and he was fine off-leash.
Now, he is almost prancing in and out and he is so much more confident!
 
I get the best play bows and bounces when he sees me when I get up in the AM or come home from work. While he likes the family, he has chosen me as his ‘person’ so others feed him and give him treats plus work on his obedience skills more than I.
 
He is still more nervous of Sean/Mason and will want to scuttle away and cower a bit
 
…..yet doing it less, and his head is staying up more often, his tail is also not as tucked in as often.
 
Wonderful progress is being made!
 
As for Miss Rosie – she remains AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION to that right-matched personality fit home. 
 
 

Someone (not naming names!) is making studying hard!
 
Pushed right past the xpen I set up to have some private space/avoid drool! Cheeky monkey! 
 
Time for a walk says, Mr. Lewis.
 

Mr. Lewis!
 
A shadow he tries to be, and he is learning more and more about how his own company is ok, to like himself, to self-soothe, self-comfort, and is now going in and out of his crate at will spending time by himself….
 
He can now be found laying comfortably in it with the door open.
 
He is recovering well from his neuter. Eating and drinking, and only one accident he has had in the house. Good boy!!
 
From living in a barn to a loving home, is an adjustment for sure.
 
He is much better with women over men – men make him freeze up but he is warming up faster, wagging his tail more, and when he forgets his troubles, he can even run and be playful. So joyful to see!
 
He is deeply loyal to whom he feels is his ‘person’, and we are working on continued exposure to many things as we do not want separation anxiety or the development of any possible resource issues.
 
It is a process….decompressing, learning about helpful kind loving hands.
 
One small step at a time my dear man…we got this and we got your back.

BHRR’s Lewis!
 
He asks, ‘does my butt make me look flouffy?’
 
On Tuesday, he was re-weighed, neutered, and had boosters.
 
We were not able to do a dental on him – he does have a confirmed heart murmur, and it would not have been ideal to keep him under longer – Gwen was his surgery tech, and he was stable throughout, yet we want to practise the best medicine.
 
We will re-evaluate once he has healed. We do suspect allergies and we are investigating that further too.
 
While he was under, he had his nails trimmed, we cleaned his ears plus shaved off mats.
 
He weighed 44.1 kgs(97.02 pounds).
 
Once he has healed, we shall work on his own professional groom session too. Sadly, our groomer has closed up her own business, and is now working for another – in Orleans to boot!  They have to check with the O. to see if they would be ok seeing a rescue dog. We understand. 
 
AND we are beginning to look forward to our 3rd Annual ‘Drive Way Events’ for nails/ear cleaning as we have some big bills for some really special Giant dogs!
 
IF you would like to host us in 2022, please do email contactbhrr@gmail.com – We are looking for Saturdays, Sundays in June, July, August & September.
 
We just need the use of your driveway, we do the rest!
 
*Social distancing is easy to do!
 
Here are our open dates for May, June & July if anyone is open to having us hang in their driveway!
 
We hope to be able to do events all over Ontario, and into Gatineau, Quebec again in 2022!
 
Sunday, May 29th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Saturday, June 18th, 9 AM – 4 PM
Sunday, June 19th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Sunday, June 26th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Sunday, July 10th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Saturday, July 16th, 9 AM – 4 PM
Sunday, July 17th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Sunday, July 24th, 10 AM – 3 PM
Saturday, July 30th, 9 AM – 4 PM
 
Thanks in advance for any consideration!
 

Mr. Lewis – a great pic from his foster home!

Per our posts, BHRR’s Lewis has had his initial thorough vetting and he will receive his boosters, be neutered, microchipped, etc. over the next few weeks.

He will also have his own professional groom session!

We have been receiving some truly lovely updates on this fabu boy and he is a real sweetie! 

Per BHRR’s Lewis’ amazing emerge temp foster home:

“He is truly the sweetest and starting to come out of his shell.”


As mentioned Mr. Lewis was at the Vet on Monday, the day after we picked him up.
 
Thank you to his emerge temp foster JoAnne Eaton for bringing him in!
 
As promised, here is a copy of his Vet Bill. We continue to strongly believe in transparency and full disclosure. We blocked out his emerge temp fosters private information.
 
His weight was a really skinny 41.85 kgs(92.07 pounds).
 
He was such a brave boy at his vet appointment.
 
He has meds for a hot spot, has a healing wound on his shoulder, the bloodwork we did is normal and the tick-borne disease/heartworm testing we did was negative. They feel he requires a dental, and when we have him neutered, we will have the opportunity to look much closer in his mouth.
 
They feel that he has a Heart murmur Grade 2 and if need be, we will have him seen by a cardiologist. Many murmurs are harmless.
 
He was given meds for de-worming, heartworm/flea, and tick preventative.
 
We also began his vaccine protocol.
 
The even wrote into his Vet chart how nice he is! When Gwen called today to pay the attached bill, the staff members knew immediately who Gwen was talking about after just saying her name/our organization. They spoke so wonderfully about him.
 
He will be back at the Vet in a few weeks for more vaccines, a recheck on his weight – we do not wish to neuter him when he is not as healthy as possible, to pick up more preventative – we keep the dogs on yearly, listen to his heart again etc.
 
As with all of the dogs that we are entrusted with, we go up and beyond to make sure that all of their needs are addressed.
 
Any donations to his and Mr. Simons mounting Vet bills – Mr. Simon is back next week for his next Vet visit, can be made via PayPal to gwen@birchhaven.org
 
OR via email transfer to contactbhrr@gmail.com
 

Thank you in advance for any possible consideration. The vetting is far from over……

 

After another really busy, exhausting day, this will be my final post of the night.
 
Mr. Lewis was at the Vet today, and once we receive the reports/records from his lovely emerge temp foster JoAnne Eaton, we will be in a better position to update re: weight, etc.
 
We can post that the bloodwork that we did is normal plus the results for tickborne diseases plus heartworm was negative.
 
We shall wait until we have the detailed Vet Records/notes and then post more re: him!
 
From our home to all of our friends, family, and supporters, the best of good night wishes are being sent! 
 

We got them!

More soon!

This is them loaded up in their respective transport vehicles – one with me, one with JoAnne!

Mr. Lewis and Mr. Simon are safe AND both are now heading to their emerge temp fosters.

We have been told this makes about 68 dogs brought to freedom to date.

Thanks to a village for coming together to make this happen.