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Alli aka Honey - This is Her Life

Alli's Troubles

We live on the Arizona Mexico border (10 miles from) and my dogs have been poisoned a number of times as the smugglers want my vehicles badly = have even caught them scanning my property during the daytime. They put out poison three times that all my dogs got but fortunately all four threw everything up clear to bile and I did not even take them to the vet. The fourth time they switched to rat poison which causes animals to bleed to death internally. Alli got all the poison as she is always the first one out the gate in the morning (my yard gate leads onto my property which is also gated so they cannot get out). She was very ill so I rushed her to the vet. They did a blood test and her blood would not clot meaning she would bleed to death if not treated. She was given a course of Vitamin K which ia pretty terrible in itself) and recovered except for seizures. The fifth time she was also the only one to get the poison but it evidently was a small amount as she was clotting okay so had no treatment but still had seizures. The sixth time she got it all again. It was Sunday so I could not take her to the vet. She began seizing and Sasha dog attacked her because of the seizure and tore her up good. There is a hospital open on Sundays so I rushed her there and she spent two days being cleaned up and medicated. I took Sasha to be put down so it wouldn't happen again and then brought Alli home from the hospital. She has not eaten for a couple of days until I just started giving her her treat chicken which I cut from roasted chickens so it is quite healthy. She ate quite a lot of it today and feels some better. Of course there was a $5oo hospital bill but that is not the point - I love her and do not want her suffering and I hated losing Sasha! These evil people who poison dogs so they can steal from the owners must be stopped! We are trying in Arizona but the federal government is no help at all!

May 2010 Update
We have put Alli through obedience training nine times and she finally has all the commands and is a very good girl. There were times I thought we would never get there as she was chow chow stubborn and coyote wild - quite a combination - but she is also very intelligent and learned all the commands quite easily - the problem was always whether she would do them or not and now she sort of does them automatically when I give the command so it works out very well. She is an awfully good doggie though we have had some digestive issues as she continues to eat a lot of things that coyotes eat that her doggie digestive system just won't deal with so there is quite a bit of throwing up but it never seems to hurt her particularly and she is a good weight and a good energy level. She is so funny as she has dug a huge den for herself in one corner of the yard with an escape exit in it and she protects it savagely from the quail who want to nest in it and the snakes who want to spend the winter in it - she never hurts any thing but there is sure some wild barking, growing, running and general upset - it just gets comical mainly!

Update on Alli

A cold, cold day today so am taking some time to update my doggie diaries. Alli has been through two more obedience classes with a different trainer. This trainer used the clicker method and that worked very well with Alli. She has finally, after all this time, gotten over jumping up on me so she is quite a good doggie. She also doesn't roar out the gate whenever it is opened but waits like she is supposed to. These were the two behaviors we could never get done but now they are fine.

Alli and Brandy get on pretty well and are the two house dogs and Patches and Sasha are the outdoor doggies so that works out well too.