Douglasville, GA AC Lady, mom to king

[ShannonT]

I will start with the bad news because I'm hopeful it will turn to better news in the morning. A few minutes after my last post, my vet called to let me know that Cindy is HW+. Since she was scheduled for spay surgery tomorrow morning, they did a brief look-over and HW test this evening and it was positive. Tomorrow, she will have her full physical and Dr. Guyk will do a slide and possible chest scan to determine strength of the HW as well as the least intrusive treatment options. Spay surgery will most likely be postponed, but I do not want to guess or make assumptions about her condition and would rather wait until I speak to the doctor in the morning before posting any more reports about that.

This morning, the shelter staff let ASP know that Cindy has really been missing her puppy and today was a highly stressful day for her with the transport and all. She's very smart and she is a definite flight risk. She does NOT like being contained in a car, in a kennel and definitely hates being in a crate... it's very stressful for her and she will try to escape. Once she is out of the crate, car, kennel... she is very calm, extremely manageable and excellent on a leash.

Now the good stuff... she is an amazing, beautiful and resilient dog. I'll admit that I wasn't drawn to her pictures the way I am with alot of other dogs (I'm drawn to the needy, sickly, broken ones) but I am definitely drawn to her now!!! I am smitten with her because she reminds me so much of Faith... she is that type dog who is looking for "her" person... the person who is going to bond to her as much as she wants to bond to them. When ASP and I met up this morning, I noticed that Cindy was already responsive to ASP and looking to her for direction and seemingly for comfort. She did that with me later at my vet's office. It's like she's desperate to find someone she can depend on. Her sweetness and personality reminds me so much of Faith. She's ready to meet "her" person.
And, she is soooo much more beautiful than her shelter pictures... even the pictures I took do not show how pretty her coat really is... she's very unique.

Although she hates being in the crate, she didn't make any fuss and didn't make a peep the whole drive through GA and TN (none of them did.... all excellent car riders.) Again, she must be crated in a car during transport... she will freak out otherwise.

When we arrived at my vet, I took the other two in and got them situated and spent about an hour & half with her outside just walking, de-stressing and bonding. I enjoyed that time with her alot and think she appreciated it too. She takes both direction and correction well... she barked at a few of the other dogs but was easily re-directed and stopped when I told her to... and by the end of our time outside she had stopped barking completely.

More updates on her health condition as I find out tomorrow.

One last thing... I have to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Adrienne for everything she did to make this all happen. And a personal thank you for allowing me to borrow TWO of her crates to make this transport much easier and safer for all of us.

Thank you, Adrienne... you're the BEST!!

[aspatter]

You are so welcome. Thank you for all that you do. I will move mountains to save these magnificent dogs.

[ShannonT]

She really is beautiful... but even more stunning in person!

Anxious to get out of the crate!





She was looking at Adrienne in this photo...



At my vet's office. By the way... she LOVES being Furminated! I think I collected about a 2 pound bag of hair.

































Adrienne, she loves the "baby" that you gave her.

[ShannonT]

THAT is the LOOK that turns my heart to silly putty.

[4dognight]

awww weee she is beautiful

[ShannonT]

Holding off on the spay surgery for Cindy at least until Dr. Guyk is able to determine the severity of her heartworm condition. She will have her full physical sometime this afternoon, so I'll update later.

[ShannonT]

I did not get an update from Dr. Guyk today due to several emergencies coming in while I was there. Cindy did have some massive diarrhea issues last night so they moved her to an isolation area today which is a little bigger than a large dog crate, and they said she turned circles and tried to get out all day... so they eventually let her back into the larger run. I let them know she HATES small spaces. (Although once she gets out of the small space she is perfectly fine and easily manageable.)
I did not get her a new collar but gave her Suma's old martingale collar since she is more of a flight risk. As I was walking her this afternoon, I went to get her a treat out of my car and she tried to jerk her head out of the collar to keep from getting close to my car. She did NOT want to get close to another car. So I hitched her up to the shade tree and ran back to my car... she just laid down and waited on me like a good girl. I spent about an hour with her outside. We went for a very short walk to the property next door and she seemed to get pretty tired from just a short walk. She really enjoys hanging out under the shade tree. She is scared to death of the air conditioning unit behind my vet's office. She really is a great leash walker and she is soooo sweet!! When I took her back to her run, she went in with no problem and drank almost a whole bowl of water... she's a big water drinker.







This old shelter collar is now in the trash!

[4dognight]

Shannon

I think you are smitten with this girl!!!!!

[ShannonT]

Cindy is such a good girl. She was happy to see me this afternoon and does great on a leash... while walking her, if I stop to talk to someone she stands right next to me and head-butts my hand every so often to get a head rub. She is very calm for the most part but she did get spooked a couple times today (although I'm not sure what spooked her.) She is a very, very sweet dog. She is patient and doesn't pull on the leash.
Cindy tested low on the heartworm scale with some microfilaria present. Dr. Guyk felt the least intrusive treatment would be to give her ivermectin and heartguard early in the morning tomorrow and monitor her throughout the day with excercise every two hours. Providing that there are no negative side-effects from her treatment, they will spay her on Thursday morning and then she will be ready for transport several days after surgery. She is being treated for parasites (I think hooks and rounds.) She will also get a good medicated bath tomorrow.









She has the prettiest tail... although you can't really see how pretty her coat is in these photos.

[Karin]

What a beautiful and sweet girl she is! Her expressions just melt your heart! Thanks to everyone who has helped this sweetie. It looks like she is really enjoying staying with you, Shannon.