She’s Young and With It

On Clint’s way to work a little over a week ago, a wee puppy ran in front of his car and across a four lane road. Being the insane animal people that we are, he circled back around to save the puppy and found her munching on animal remains on the side of the road.

She was in really bad shape – distended (worm-filled) belly, fleas, ant bites, skin problems and incredibly hungry. I took her to a hole in the wall vet because it was the only vet I could get her in to see that day and we were way worried about her condition. The first vet told us that she had puppy mange and advised to give her baths and keep her away from Neko and the cats. He also gave her a dose of dewormer. By the next morning she was looking better and had more energy.

Day One:

Day Two:
 

After talking to some rescue groups who indicated that she would need a skin scraping to properly diagnose her mange, we took her to another vet a few days later. The more thorough vet diagnosed her with sarcoptic mange, which is the contagious (to animals and people) form of mange, a secondary bacterial infection from the mange and most likely ringworm too. Poor pup! She has begun a series of lyme sulfur dips which she will receive once a week for the next six weeks. During that time, we must keep her quarantined from our other pets and handle her with plastic gloves to help prevent us from contracting scabies or ringworm.

Managing animals that cannot be around one another is very difficult.

There are several issues with this puppy business.
1) She is adorable and we are getting attached.
2) We have a dog that we just adopted three months ago due to a similar scenario – abandoned puppy in heat running around our neighborhood.
3) At what point do you become the crazy person with too many animals? We have three cats and a dog already.
4) Would it be better for her and our other animals to find her a new home?
5) If we find her a new home, how do I insure that she goes to the most fabulous home ever that will love her and protect her forever and ever? She has had a rough life and deserves the best.

Day Seven:

All pictures may be found here.

This is reason number one that it sucks to live in East Austin. There is a very different mentality regarding animals.

P.S. I have not really written every stupid thing my neighbors have done, but suffice it to say that they are ignorant and intolerant idiots for many reasons. Most recently they called animal control to pick up their sweet dog because he was chewing “everything” up. Everything would be an air conditioner hose since he lived in the backyard 24/7 and there was nothing else to chew. The reason he was chewing was because he was lonely and had no toys. They suck so much. I despise them.

I dropped a can of Sylvia’s black-eye peas on my big toe the night before last. It hurt. A lot. How can a toenail feel so much pain over such a minor incident?

We are in contact with a dog trainer for Neko. We fear she has become a bit aggressive, usually with our hands, but she is also about impossible to walk these days. If she sees another dog, she absolutely freaks. People and cats are no good either, but dogs send her into a frenzy that is embarassing because we cannot calm her down. So, we are going to take 1-3 private lessons with the dog trainer before joining a group training session. The dog trainer requested that our first meeting take place at an outdoor coffee shop so she can see how Neko behaves with distractions. Holy cow. We would never ever take her someplace like this. Dogs, people, food, cars. Total overstimulation for our little doggie. It will be interesting for sure.

I knitted a hat over the past few days and I absolutely adore the yarn. make make by Olympus.

I have to go be a good archivist today and celebrate American Archives Month.

Clint says that I have not been posting enough lately. My lack of posts and lack of time may largely be attributed to keeping the alligator in check.*

We see a lot of those teeth.

We break up a lot of Basil and Neko battles. She is just playing, but Basil is an old guy with bad hips so we have to make sure that she does not hurt him. I find it amusing that she wars with Basil so much because she is absolutely terrified of Chim Chim. He seems to immobilize her. She hates walking past him.

* Clint coined the “Gator” mouth for Neko.