Month: May 2006

Snowball is under a PENDING ADOPTION!!!

Lady’s Cafepress Online Store is now set-up! http://www.cafepress.com/bhrr/1456583

In the 3 days that Samson has been on Flagyl, he has only had one accident in the house!

Mazda has her own Cafepress items for sale whereby the monies raised will be used to help support animals that need BHRR

Samson had a really bad night and I took him into the vets today. He has an infection and is now on treatment and we are also putting him back on the Flagyl to firm up his stools. He was SOOOO happy at the Vet Hospital and his leash manners were impeccable. He could be on the Flagyl indefinitely and we are going to start on 4 pills daily for a week and then decrease to three pills a day for a week and then down to two pills a day for a week. We want to find the most minimal dose to give him and at the same time maintaining his stools to a suitable texture and frequency. The vet noted that his anus has lost some of it’s musculature which can be a natural process of aging. Samson’s bladder control is completely normal. Once warmed up, Samson had a lot less wobbling and bobbling and seem to want to ‘strut’ his stuff to all that would watch. He is such a ‘ham’ and SO social! I am very glad and relieved to hear that he will be ok and that he still has the opportunity to be a king in someone’s home. I was very worried about him. His leg is also looking better as well and I found it somewhat hard to believe that he has put on weight!!! He is now 59.70 kgs(131.34 pounds). Samson makes a great car travelling companion. Thanks to those who sent their thoughts for Samson. Samson is now home, had another bath and is wrapped up in several thick blankets dozing happily. To lose Samson would have hit us very hard and the world would have lost a very special creature.

Fancy will have her own Cafepress Online Store whereby the monies raised by your shopping will go towards helping other animals in need. We are currently working on the items. STAY TUNED!!! I also have new pictures of Fancy that are now posted below!

Unfortunately, Samson is not doing better and is in fact, worse. He is having loss of his bm’s almost every time he tries to stand and is having a lot more trouble even trying to stand. When he is standing and walking now; he is a lot more wobbly and unstable. I will be bringing Samson back into the vet as I am deeply concerned.

Should Mazda be well enough from her spay by the time we attend Pet Expo 2006; she will accompany me. So, if you would like to have the opportunity to meet her, she could be in Port Hope on June 24th! I have new awesome pictures of Mazda, see below! Mazda will have her own Cafepress Online Store whereby the monies raised by your shopping will go towards helping other animals in need. We are currently working on the items. STAY TUNED!!! New pictures of Mazda posted below!

K. Sardana, Ottawa, ON, CDA

I truly thank you for your very honest and down to earth website is wonderful and your dedication and work is admirable.

S. Smith, Ontario, CDA

Hi Gwen – I love your new website – having trouble deciding what I want – good luck with this new project!

T. Sisson, Whitby, ON, CDA

I also just wanted to tell you that I absolutely love your website and how forward you are, especially the YOU are NOT adoption from ME! I think people really don’t realize how hard your job is. I have volunteered in humane societies and shelters for some time now and I wonder how stupid people really are sometimes. Sometimes I am embarrassed to be part of the humane race. Thank you for being out there and the hard work you do.

Merrilee Bauman, IN, USA

I did finish up my break by reading updates about your babies. I love how you take perfect care of them.

S. Smith, Ontario, CDA

I admired your commitment to your program and it shows in the stats you have posted. Congrats on 10yrs and many more years to follow. Thank you again for your time and kinds words when I needed them most.

Lady will have her own Cafepress Online Store whereby the monies raised by your shopping will go towards helping other animals in need. We are currently working on the items. STAY TUNED!!! New pictures of Lady now posted below! In case I have not yet mentioned it, Lady has not used a crate in ages. She has full run of the house and has not destroyed one thing.

Snowball will have her own Cafepress Online Store whereby the monies raised by your shopping will go towards helping other animals in need. We are currently working on the items. STAY TUNED!!!

We are on that rollercoaster ride down again. Frost has not eaten well in the last three days. You can literally see the weight dropping off him. As soon as the weather gets warm; Frost starts having problems. Today, was the first day that he ate more than what a bird would eat and the weather outside has greatly cooled down plus it is raining. I put beef stew on his kibble to try and entice him as the yogurt, shredded cheese, chicken and many other ‘usually’ palatable items to Frost “T” ceased to interest him. He is still drinking yet not playing as enthusiastically as before and also sleeping more. I will continue to monitor him and if need be, I will take him in to see my Vets. It has now been almost 5 months since his ordeal had begun and he is still here with us!

Mazda’s HW test has come back Negative.

Fancy is now interacting with 9 other dogs without any issues. She does get a bit ‘huffy’ when it comes to sharing the bed with Mazda yet they do sort things out and each gal gets a large piece of the bed and Sean to snuggle up with! 🙂 She is a major cuddler and loves her comforts! She is still a little bit nervous/somewhat hesitant yet has come a long way and with her ‘hidden’ strength that has assisted her with increasing her comfort zones. We have continued to try and create an environment that encourages her inner beauty to come out and to build up her confidence in the right manner without creating/encouraging dominance. Sean calls her ‘very regal.’ She very rarely jumps or barks now and her obedience is coming along well. We continue to look through the applications that arrive for the right home which must have Great Dane experience. Fancy is never crated now and is completely housebroken. Fancy’s best friend is still Boba with Gracie next on her list. She is not a large dog playing animal yet is very human pack oriented! She really is beautiful with her sleek coat and looks. Her eyes CAN be so expressive!

Mazda’s spay appointment has been scheduled for June 14th.

McGee’s Tribute

Wendy – ‘My heart sank when I saw his name in the title and instantly thought “No, please don’t tell me…” What a loss for us here on Earth, but what an angel Heaven has gained. I’m so very thankful to all of you for taking McGee where he would be loved and cherished. And how wonderful it is that he passed over with love in his heart. I appreciated you letting us know, Gwen. I hope Heidi’s boy, Dozer, gets along ok without his spotted buddy. Thank you all again for loving this boy. Rest in Peace, McGee…..

Jill – ‘Gwen, Thank you so very much for the kind email. I am so sad about McGee, and my heart aches for Heidi and her husband. Please thank them for everything they’ve done for McGee and giving him so much love.

Gwen: Thanks for everything you did as well, because without your help, he would have never had a chance at all.
Blessings to you both…”

Merrilee – ‘Hi Gwen: I was very very sorry to read this morning about McGee’s passing away on May 3. It shocked me, and I never even lived with him. I’m sorry that you deal with such devastation from time to time. I was used to seeing his pictures on your site, and reading about him. Hardly seems real. Good night, sweet prince. Best regards and deepest sympathy,

Simone – ‘I was on the website and was saddened to read about McGee. “His story” was touching and I could almost feel the great love you had for him.’

Cathy, Rob, Tristyn, Bastin & Dukey – ‘Dear Gwen, I was so upset when I saw the news about McGee. Having had the honour of meeting him quite a few times, I was able to see what a wonderful special boy he was and how very loved he was by you, Sean, Heidi & Michael. He was one of the luckiest dogs in the world to have been able to live out his last couple of years with such amazing people! I made a donation to BHRR in memory of both McGee and Domino. Thank you for being the wonderful person you are and taking care of these animals to ensure they have the best life has to offer!

I have been meaning to write an update for Mazda for awhile now. When she arrived, it was clear that she had not been thrown from a vehicle as previously told to us. She did not have one mark on her to indicate any trauma of that type. Mazda went to the vet’s tonight and her weight was hard to obtain as the Hospital was busy and I also had Buster. She went up on the scale beautifully, yet no one was there to catch an accurate weight and with Buster there, I was not comfortable handing him off to anyone else to hold to try again. We will re-weigh her when she is spayed yet from what we could gather she is around 46KGs(100 lbs). I did her nails tonight for they are very long and we will work on training the quicks back. The Vet believes her to be about 1.5 years of age (November 2004) and definitely less than 2 years; so he concurs with my thought process that she is not less than 1 years of age. In respect to her ‘heat’; it looks like she is about 4-6 weeks out of her heat and the vet could feel no sign of puppies inside of her. We will wait until the swelling goes down a bit more and her uterus has some more time to get back to normal before spaying her; so probably in another 6+ weeks. We did a HW test and also microchipped her while we were there. SHE is an amazing girl! So calm, gentle and patient. Happy and wagging her tail to all that walked by and her behavour is so much more like an older Dane than one that is still a puppy. She is a real doll of a Dane and is going to make someone’s home very enriched! The Vet also said while I was there, that he cannot be sure yet there was the extreme smallest of possibilities that she might have a very very very faint HM. He was not concerned or worried for he said it was a very remote chance and we will monitor and do a follow-up at the time that she is expected to be spayed to know for sure. With Buster also there tonight, ultrasounds, X-Rays etc. were not possible. This Vet sees my Frost “T” and also saw McGee and is very experienced when it comes to ‘heart’ dogs; so I am not concerned at this time either. We will monitor and be proactive yet wanted to post all vet findings for anyone that might be considering applying to adopt her for we believe in full disclosure. Her heartbeat and pulse were not abnormal. Updates will be posted. Other than the one pee accident in the house shortly after her arrival; Mazda has been a model Gal! She is very quiet and ladylike inside the house yet will play with any Dane that is willing outside. She is interacting with 9 other Danes to date without any issues. The only issue comes when she eats inside her crate and Fancy gets too close(she will grump)yet when it is bedtime they both share the bed with Sean without any problems. When I was driving to the Vet Hospital tonight, she sat on the front seat with her front feet on the floor looking like the ‘Queen’ she is out surveying her kingdom. She took the treats offered to her from the vet very gently and on the drive home; she slept with her head in my lap. This Dane is so wonderful.

McGee is now home and has been laid to rest. Heidi brought me his X-Ray and I will be bringing it to my own vets when I work tonight to get their thought processes. When Heidi, DozeR and Michael came on the 3rd to bring me his body, we spent a few hours together talking about many things including McGee and it was a bittersweet time. I asked one of the vets at my Hospital to take a look at his X-Ray and he along with one techs who also saw the X-Ray were in agreement with me that his stomach was unbelievably huge, lots of gas and that it is hard to tell what may have been happening around his spleen as it looked completely pushed over. The vet’s words were that this was the worse case of bloat he has ever seen. It made me feel a bit better in that we made the best decision possible in ending what had to have been unimaginable suffering for McGee. I have a little better closure now in respect to the toughest words I feel I ever have to give regarding a loved animal. McGee’s light will burn brightly in our memories and a candle has been lit in his honour.

Just before 11 PM on May 2nd, 2006; McGee’s Perma-Foster family(Heidi) called me to say that McGee was bloating.

Advised to get him to their Vet Hospital as it is much closer than where I live ASAP and to keep me posted. I was called after he was assessed (around that time he did vomit up bile and his supper) and then again after his X-Rays were done.

He was twisted in at least three spots that they could see and Heidi’s vet also thought she might have seen something else near his spleen in the X-Ray. Hard to tell she said. His pulse and heart beat were high and irregular and with his DCM condition; his chances were stated as being ‘0-none’ for survival in trying to do surgery.

He has been a large member of our program, our home and then Heidi’s as a perma -foster since his arrival to us in 2004. He was just days shy of celebrating his 9th birthday.

All medical objectivity and rescue professionalism just gets lost when you have to make the most difficult decision ever regarding one of your beloved animals.

Just after midnight the morning of May 3rd, McGee was allowed to cross over. Before letting Heidi go on the phone, I asked her to give him a hug for me and to say good-bye to him. McGee was to come to Pet Expo 2006 in June as an ambassador for Great Danes and BHRR. He is going to be very much deeply missed.

Heidi and Michael will be bringing me his body this evening(May 3rd, 2006) so that he can be laid to rest amongst all of our other cherished animals overlooking the springfed pond and our house.

McGee was truly adored and had the best that life could offer.

Boba is now interacting with 16 other dogs without any issues other than that slight food possessiveness when it comes to a bag of dog food or a bag of treats being left on the floor. He will lie next to it and ‘grump’ at the other dogs should they come too close. We continue to use a firm ‘no’ and to reassure him that there is plenty of food/treats to go around! 🙂 I will be taking Boba back into the vet soon as I need someone else to help me to do his nails. Last time, it took three of us. One to give him treats; one to hold his collar and one to cut his nails. 🙂 I also would like to get a re-weigh on him as he is looking great! His pictures keep turning out dark and I have asked Sean to help me take some pictures with his new camera to see if we can get some better one’s as he is a really handsome boy!

I truly cannot say enough about this Dane! Lady possesses quite the character and even a sense of humour! She is now interacting with 13 other dogs without any issues. She is the type of dog that could fit beautifully into any number of ‘home’ situations. I personally would like to see her in a home with at least one other dog as she and Buster and Frost are quite the set of bosom buddies when it comes to playing! She really needs that in her life. I would also like to see her in a home that has children and as per our mandate they have to be 8+ years of age. She adores our kids and she is really a ‘mother’ Dane towards them and I believe she needs that in her life as well. Lady is very obedient, smart and she just loves to ‘talk back’ to me now about how she feels about things; such as not getting my butt out of bed fast enough in the god awful AM to go outside to greet the new day! She is calm when she needs to be and a riot of playfulness when it is time; EXCEPT for when Buster arrived and she has now developed some ‘selective’ hearing in the house and the three of them begin to play. She is still one of the best darn cuddlers in bed and Sean loves that about her! I will have Sean help me to take some new pictures of her as she has gained more weight and her coat is looking so sleek now. She is VERY soft to touch, especially before Buster and Frost get their drool on her! Lady is a very smart Dane. It did not take her long to learn where her food bowl was, to wait for us to get a lead on her before going out, where the treats are etc. She is one of the very few dogs that I can say ‘go to your special spot’ and she will, without being asked twice. Every animal here has their own ‘special’ and ‘safe’ spot that is theirs alone and hers is in the ensuite right by the tub in front of a wall of windows on a huge pile of dog blankets on top of a dog bed. Sean keeps saying that she is an amazing dog and that someone is going to be very lucky to have her as part of their family. He is right that it will be very difficult to hug her and then let her go.