1st entry

A couple weeks ago, our Sheltie Rescue asked us to foster a Sheltie that another shelter had. Without Beamer and with the step-daughter and grandson moving out, it was rather empty around here. We accepted. Me and the wife (Dar) picked him up from the home of a Sheltie rescue in the next county. This is the same home that I picked up another foster about a month ago. Sadly from owner neglect, he died a week later even with the best vet care. This home already had five or so Shelties, some of them were so sweet. But with being in a strange place and with all the commotion of the other Shelties, Shadow was a bit nervous. We were soon told he had one problem. He was having trouble taking a poop.

Once home, he calmed down pretty fast with the quiet around our house. Like Beamer, Bows didn't pay him much attention, just the mandatory sniff test. It didn't take long to see he was a play machine. Even at nine years old, that's all he thinks of. Being as thin as he is must really help keep him active. I hope we can keep him that way.

We tried to fix his poop problem with pumpkin, but it wasn't doing the job. When he went to the vet to get checked out and fixed, the vet found a large hairball in his colon. Hopefully his problem is solved, because we decided to adopt him. We took him to the Sheltie rescue picnic last week. It was so hot and humid, we didn't stay long. Last year many of the Shelties ran loose, not this year. I tried to let Shadow off leash, but he was too excited with all the other dogs around. At least one other Sheltie let him know that he was bothering her.

At first it was looking like Shadow was a ladies dog. He layed down by Dar every night and slept with her in her room (we have separate rooms because of snoring). And one day my sister-in-law was here and he used her foot as a pillow. But last night (at least for one night) that changed when he insisted on sleeping in my room. He would not go into Dar's room. I will say, he's a bed hog.

Problems, problems

As soon as I started fostering Shadow we were made aware that he had a constipation problem. Even though we followed the vets instructions as best we could, he continued to have problems. I took him back to the rescue vet once and he cleaned him out. I wanted to make sure the problem was fixed before I adopted him and for a few weeks, we had it under control. But soon after he was ours, he was constipated yet again and throwing up and not eating. All the nearby vets had closed for the day so I tried to do what the one vet did. He stuck his finger in there and broke up the poop and pulled out what he could. I tried it, but was hurting him, so off to the ER we went. They did an enema on him which got some of it out. The next day he went to our regular vet. After examining him he determined he has a Perineal hernia. It made more sense then what the ER and rescue vets were telling us. I could actually feel what he was talking about when I tried to unclog him. Now my vet is going to confer with the rescue vet. Hopefully, even though he's mine now, the rescue helps with the bills since a Perineal hernia is usually fixed by surgery.

Test results

It's been confirmed by the vet Sheltie rescue uses, Shadow has a perineal hernia. We have an appointment with a surgeon on Thurs.

Surgery

The surgery went well and Shadow is back home. It seems like it isn't bothering him too much. He did try to get at that area a couple times soon after getting home, but doesn't seem to mind it much now. He sure doesn't like the Eliz. collar though. He still tries to get it off and he'll be wearing it until Nov 20. No playing around or steps for him until then too. He certainly looks weird with his entire butt and part of his tail shaved. I bet when he came home and hit the cold outside air he was probably thinking "I feel a draft".

Finally

This entry is a little late.

Shadow finally got his staples out. All of us are glad he's now out of the e-collar. So far, everything is going good, the incision has healed fine. He doesn't seem to be bothered by the surgery anymore, but he sure won't let us get a closer look. I guess with all that poking and proding up his butt, he doesn't want us fooling around down there anymore. Now he has to deal with the indignity of his haircut. The fur was shaved off his entire butt, part of the tail, and part of his leg where he got the I.V. When I had the septic tank guy come out, he asked me if we were trying to give him a Poodle cut. Oh the indignity of it all. Can't wait for the fur to grow back.

I've been hearing a lot of good things about a raw diet. Most go with the Barf type diet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_feeding I'm not completely ready to go through that trouble and expense, but I did try Shadow & Bows with raw venison I had in the freezer. Bows ate it up quick the first meal or two, but then stopped eating it. Shadow loved it. I'll have to try to get a larger supply of venison to keep down the expense. Once I get enough, I'll try him on a complete raw diet.

Lost Sheltie

What a week it has been. My dad bought me a 4 years old Sheltie from a breeder for me to have a playmate. Dad has so much on his mind that he forgot to take an extra leash. He took me to find out if I would get along with the breeders Sheltie, so he only had one leash. Mom & Dad decided to get Kasey after seeing he was a real sweet dog (what Sheltie isn't?). The breeder didn't want to give us a leash so Dad carried Kasey to the car. When we got home, Dad took my leash and opened the door. He saw that Kasey got car sick and with that little distraction, Kasey jumped past Dad before he could grab him and he took off. He's been on the run since Feb 1. He's still in the area, we get sightings almost every day. Today Dad took me along to see if I could help. We saw Kasey walking through a field. Dad hid behind the car and let Kasey see me. As soon as he saw me, he turned back the other way. Dad let me off the leash and told me to go get him. As soon as Kasey saw me running toward him, he took off running. I stopped and Dad yelled for me to come back. We are now going to change tactics. We've told people not to chase him, but some people don't know Shelties in flight mode won't come to you. Dad is not going to try to track him down anymore, just find out where he's spending most of his time and then set up feeding stations. Once we get him to eat at one of these stations, we'll set the live trap. Here is one ad Dad made. http://york.craigslist.org/laf/1025073153.html

Kasey- Day 18

Kasey is still out there. My wife saw him yesterday, he looks sad, wet, and muddy. She managed to move the trap into the area Kasey was heading in, but so far, he hasn't taken the bait. If by Sat. we don't trap him, I have organized a search team. A group that helps people find their lost dogs will come up and I have around a dozen people coming to help. Most of these people have never met me before. They read my posts on the local forums about Kasey and have voluneered to assist. There is even a 10 year old girl who wishes to skip a childrens play in order to help in the search. It's so wonderful that there are still people out there that care this much. I just hope it works.

Day 20- HAPPY DAYS!

On Sat, Feb 21 after 20 days on the lam, we finally caught Kasey. We had around a dozen people, a tracking team, and a herding team, all looking for him. It wasn't until 1 PM when we got a sighting. Good thing since we were considering calling off the search. We converged on the area but the tracking team couldn't go through the thick woods that Kasey went into. They came out of the woods and some were thinking we'll never get him this way. But we redeployed our teams to areas that he might go to.

Dad stayed behind in the last area he was sighted, and then walked to an treeline that he thought Kasey might use to double back. Dad walked half way down the treeline when he saw Kasey coming straight for him. He called in to report his location. But when Kasey was about 75 yards away he spotted Dad and after figuring out what was happening, he took off running into the field. Everyone tried to close in on him, he stopped a couple times to figure out what to do. He then made a break for the woods again. Dad walked into the woods, but didn't see him. Dad came out and saw a guy and his son who were helping out and walked over to talk with them. Soon the guy pointed, Kasey was running down the field away from the teams we had on the other side of the woods.

Suddenly, one woman took her SUV into the field to keep Kasey from breaking through our line. She pushed him back toward the farm where we had other people. Dad and the other guys saw Kasey run toward the farm, but lost sight of him as he ran on the other side of the buildings. Kasey ended up getting stopped by the farmers electric fence and was then grabbed by the farmer son. His big adventure was over.

It only took Kasey a couple hours to calm down and become once again, a good Sheltie dog. He's been cleaned up real good and is going to the vet today. He'll be added to Dogster once he's groomed and we get some better pictures of him. Here he is an hour after capture. http://tinyurl.com/cn6ve6

A big thanks to Anne & Heidi of http://www.dogsfindingdogs.com/

Ericka of Grandmas House for Pets (almost our next door neighbor) http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Grandmas.House.for.Pe ts.717-993-6336

Don R, who saw Kasey one day, but didn't see our flyer until a couple days later. From that day onward, he looked for Kasey everyday and helped us in any way possible. We are deeply indebted to Don.

And all those who helped us catch him. Almost all of these people never met us before, but decided to help when they read Kaseys story on the local forums.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday Shadow!!!!

Maggie

Our foster Maggie was adopted yesterday. Shadow and Kasey sure are glad of that. She must have been the queen of her castle at her previous home because she really bossed our boys around. She also tried to boss the humans around when food was involved. Besides pushing the boys out of the way to eat their food and treats, she would try to force them to play with her. When they wouldn't cooperate, she'd push their fur out of the way and nip them. While they would sometimes snarl at her, mostly they just tried to stay away from her. The past few weeks they spent most of their time upstairs where she won't go. Last night Shadow was back to his old love bug ways which we haven't seen since Maggie has been here. Bows on the other hand is still feisty in her old age and wouldn't take any crap off of Maggie. Maggie learned not to mess with Bow's food or she'd have Bows all in her face. She should do good at the community home where she won't have any other dogs to compete with or boss around.