An Arf-Arf Here and a Meow-Meow There... E I E I O!

[S.Vashti]

We have been taking Tally to mom's on the weekend visit. Mom has fallen in love with her. What an odd thing. But after three visits, our dog is looking forward to the visits, since she gets two or three hours undivided attention from us (laying on the couch, or rather, our laps, being petted).

Also, can cats get addicted to laser play? We bought a laser pen for Ebony, and even when she's panting through her mouth at the exertion, she still wants to play, and looks around to spot the light and chase it. I'm not so sure it's good for her.

[vremya]

That's some messed up scary stuff! I'm glad Gizmo wasn't hurt!

And I'm with Chris - I hope your tetanus is up to date. I ended up in urgent care with a nasty cat bite on my thumb and they gave me a tetanus shot and tell me to soak it in Dreft to keep it clean.

[ravenscape]

Gizmo may be a bundle of nerves for a while. glad she's in pretty good shape. Hopefully she's got nothing more than some bruising to contend with.

I've had encounters between big dogs and little ones, but never at night. They are bad enough in the daylight.

[livius drusus]

My mom got blood poisoning from a cat bite. Definitely have it checked out, ES.

What a horrendous experience for everything. I hope Giz recovers promptly and thoroughly.

[LadyShea]

I got bit by a feral kitten once and it swelled and hurt for weeks. Fie on your little needle teeth!

[livius drusus]

My mom was bitten by their nice, sweet-tempered Persian during a game gone awry. It happened on a Saturday and by Monday her hand was swollen, hot and red. Being a proper nurse, my mom didn't wait it out for weeks (Shea, you crazy) but rather went to the hospital and had it checked out. If she had hesitated any longer, bad, bad things could have ensued. Better safe than sorry.

[LadyShea]

In my defense I was 16 and therefore immortal.

[beyelzu]

Yeah, it was bizarre. When the dog first ran up I moved towards expecting some barking and then it bounced off my legs. Then it went for gizmo. I'm glad the owner was so proactive.

Funnily, I had picked ripley up to get her away from the dog and then turned to see the dog attacking gizmo.. So I sat ripley down and went to help. When the second dog showed and the lady said to not worry, I thought What The Fuck my dog is being attacked and your telling me not to worry.

Then I realized that she was giving me actual information

I'm glad gizmo is okay an it I plan to be more proactive in the future

[BrotherMan]

[Demimonde]

And then there were four.

So I come out on the porch this morning and Contra has a little black lab puppy in his arms that he is cuddling. I couldn't even be surprised this time.

He was up on the roof and saw some kids coming from the park with her following behind. She looked exhausted and was not on a leash so he called out. They said she wasn't theirs. So we gave her some water and shade and are trying to decide what to do next. She didn't have a collar, but when the kids came back they admitted that they had taken a pink one off and left it at the park. I am pretty sure one of them was planning the whole "she followed me home" gambit with the parents. I offered them a dollar to go get it and bring it, but they negotiated us up to a dollar each. How can you deny such savy entrepreneurs? It is an old collar with no tags.

Once the roofing crew is done, we will take her to check for a chip and maybe some vax. She can't be more than 12 weeks old so I am not sure how dangerous it might be to have her over vaxed. She has some bald spots from scratching. Fleas I hope, not mange.

She is a cute little thing and so sweet. I can't even conceive of how someone could lose a pup this young. The kids found her near the school. She may well have been dumped.

With all the construction going on, my house is NOT puppy proofed. I have a crate I can use but it is not ideal. Happy to help the little girl, she was pretty close to heat stroke when we found her. But jeeze I would like to have some time without having foster pups all over the place. This girl puts us over the legal limit too.

Will post pix when I get my net up and running.

[LadyShea]

Good lord Demi. At least a young lab pup is very adoptable (provided she's not srsly ill)

[Demimonde]

That is my hope too, Shea. It is hard to gauge much in terms of personality and health right now. She is so tired and over heated. If she followed the kids from the park that is almost a mile. Too far for a baby to walk especially in this heat. Who knows how long she was there. She has had about a liter of water and we bathed her to cool her down. I am going to keep her towel that she is laying on damp to keep her cool.

I am worried about parvo, so we will take her and have her looked at and see what they recommend. She does have some eye discharge which could be kennel cough. I haven't heard any sneezing or weezing in all her panting so that is a good sign. Hopefully she gets a clean bill so she can come inside with the others.

[Demimonde]

Oh and in other Arf Arf news, Dante asked me to report that he is very upset and disgruntled that we have invited loud thunder people to be loud and scary on his roof and have not made them go away yet. He is claiming animal abuse and is demanding a phone to call the authorities on his bad, bad parents. Even worse, we have a puppy that he is not allowed to play with which is simply unacceptable to his sensitive soul. It has all been very hard on his very important personage and he wants to make sure you all don't get a false impression of us.

We are very bad people.

[Demimonde]

PUPDATE: Humane society gave her shots and a clean bill of health. Eye discharge and baldy spots are actually indicative of her breed, she is a sharpei! I thought she was just a skinny wrinkly lab, she isn't insanely wrinkled like some pix I have seen of sharpei pups, but the vet tech was certain because of the eyes. Apparently that breed needs a surgery to correct their eyelids or they have big problems later in life.It can be expensive, but the humane society will do it for free when they adopt her out. We will foster her for a week to make certain her vax takes full effect, and she won't catch anything at the kennel, then she will go to them for the surgery and to find a home. She would be in no danger of being euthanized being a pure bred puppy and will most likely find a home within days if not hours.

I have thought it over and I don't think I will put up signs this time. Whoever had her came close to killing her today. I will look for signs the owners might put up, or they can find her through the HS, but I won't go looking for them. I am pretty forgiving about owners of lost dogs, accidents happen and all, but there is NO excuse for a barely weaned baby to be on the streets like that. Her pads are really rough too, so she was out there for a while. That is beyond neglect and massively dangerous.

I am calling her Princess Luna but I may have to change it to Nightmare Moon. She growled at our pups when they were introduced. Sylvie was going into mothering mode, doting on her, and Luna snapped at her. So now Syl is afraid of the puppy. Dante growled back as if to say, "Mind your manners, pup!" but he was not so much aggressive as he was amused. I am correcting little Luna when she does that (before the big dogs do) with a momma dog scruff move. It seems to be working and they are gettting along tolerably well. If only Sylvie would stop running away from her and hiding, that is giving Luna a big dog complex.

Now I am going to run to the store and grab some puppy food.

[livius drusus]

Holy shit, that is unbelievable! It's not like Shar Peis are a dime a dozen. I wonder if she's a mix of some kind. There better be copious picture taking going on over dere.

[BrotherMan]

omg sharpies!

I am calling her Princess Luna but I may have to change it to Nightmare Moon.

[Demimonde]

And one would think that you would microchip her too right? HS lady was pretty emphatic that she is pure. Not show quality or anything, but standard. It seems incredible someone would invest in a dog only to practically throw them away.

I will say, I knew a girl who was future ex-girlfriend of a friend of mine who was just odious. Two times she bought pure bred pups for hundreds of dollars only to flat out murder them with neglect within weeks of getting them. She starved a Yorkie until its organs failed and it had to be put to sleep. Later she left a Pomeranian outside with no water until it died in the heat. She didn't even notice it was gone before it was half eaten by ants. Fucking monster she was.

Some people treat animals as things and are as nurturing towards them as a spoiled child with a toy. If they break it, they just want a new one.

Seriously, Luna's previous owners should hope I don't come looking for them.

Eta, and on a brighter note, yes a multitude of pix should be forth coming.

[LadyShea]

Shar Peis were bred as guarding, hunting and later fighting dogs, so do need proper socialization to avoid aggression and getting all territorial. My neighbors had one that they didn't do the corrective eye surgery on so he was blind, and he was badly socialized so very protective of his yard, and he scared the shit out of me.

One night I heard sounds and looked over the wall to see that their female Rottie was dropping pups all over the yard. She was a nice girl and wanted help (she kept looking up at me and whining and my heart was broken), but the Shar Pei wouldn't let me back there...he kept rushing the wall and trying to jump at me growling. All I could do was scoop the 2 of them nearest the wall up with the pool skimmer and we took care of them overnight (some others died and I still cry at that memory so feel privileged I shared it with you)

My friends bred and showed them for some years, and they were excellent family dogs.

So those are my Shar Pei stories

[Demimonde]

God Shea, that sounds awful!

In my experience I have seen both kinds of shar pei owners the neglectful guard dog types and beloved family pets. I want to make sure this little girl gets the last type.

The crate turned out to be too small, she couldn't stand or turn around in it. But the house isn't safe for a pup and we don't even have doors up right now. So I put together a big box with pillows and towels that was strong and comfy for her. She whimpered for a few minutes and that stole Sylvie's heart. She had to keep going and checking on her until she fell asleep. Now Luna is her #1 fan and follows Syl everywhere.

Dante is being crotchety, after the roofing noise yesterday his stress was high anyway, but now he was like not-another-one! The crew came back to finish this morning and he was just so put out. As though the rest of his life would be loud workmen and strange dogs stealing attention, and goofy puppies that jump all over you. He had had it, and just went to hide and contemplate how terrible and unfair life is.

The workmen are gone now and he is settling in. We had a long talk about it and I think he is coming around to his usual self. I hope so because Luna desperately wants to play with him.

[BrotherMan]

Oh, Dante! There are no loud working men at my place! There will never be a lack of wasabi peas! Also, when I hear poor put-upon Dante stories I can't help but think of this:

[curses]

New kitty is supposed to be coming home with me tonight!

[livius drusus]

[curses]

Pics will be forthcoming.

[Ymir's blood]

Good luck introducing the new arrival to the grump and the bully!

[curses]

Grump will continue to pee in strange places, bully will just be a bully to anything that breathes and has a pulse (except me ). It's going to take some patience and what I learned from my mistakes last time I tried to introduce a new kitteh.