Days That Break Your Heart

So, yesterday, Riley & I got to spend basically the whole day at the shelter, since Riley was out of school. We hung out with the dogs and everybody got good long walks and we had a blast. Good news is that my buddy Bear is going to a foster home & getting some "rehab" training to help deal with his fear of men. When he is done w/rehab, he will be re-homed. Great news for Bear! Two really great dogs were reclaimed by their owners...both surprisingly enough were Rotties. The rest of the good news is that all but two dogs are going to go to OHS on Tuesday morning...meaning that I would've only had two dogs to walk Tuesday if no more dogs were taken in. About that time a little red car pulled up. A woman got out who was obviously nervous & shaken. While she was a gas station in town a LARGE black dog got into her car & wouldn't get out. Poor guy is huge, but also obviously starving. Nicole had to remove him from the car w/a catch pole. She got him into a kennel & he inhaled a whole bowl of food, ate all the dog biscuits we were handing him, and then devoured the 2nd (half) bowl that Riley brought him. He probably would've eaten more, but we didn't want to make him sick. Poor guy has sore paws too. I've seen other dogs come in this way. They've been walking on concrete for several days usually & they've rubbed the pads of their feet raw. Right now he probably weighs between 60-70 lbs...he should probably weigh closer to 1oo-125 lbs. He's got a big Mastiff head, but he's so skinny it's hard to tell what else he might be, possibly lab. I'm hoping that when I go back on Tuesday he's got a new lease on life. Right now he's not sure if he should trust us or not & was scared & confused. I'm hoping he realizes now that he's safe, and I'm hoping that his owners don't come looking for him. Right now he's WAY better off at the shelter & we'll find him a great new home with people who will take care of him.

Gracie Lou Update

Six days post surgery, we've been back to the vet twice. Friday was unscheduled, but even with the cone on her head she was managing to get to her thigh incision & had opened up part of it. They added some staples and antibiotics. Today was the scheduled appointment. Everything is healing up just great, but there's still issues with the thigh incision. And the reason for that came back with the lab results. The lump on her belly was just a fatty deposit. The lump on her thigh is cancer and apparently she has what's called a "dirty incision" meaning they didn't get all of it. So the vet is calling the lab back today to get more information and then will call me & doing some research on exactly how to treat. It may mean going back in & removing some of the muscle. She just scraped along the muscle & didn't cut into it with the first surgery. The antibiotics are helping, but they've put her back on the anti-inflamatory, and added Benedryl. It seems that these cells make the body produce histamine and this is probably why it's still inflamed. Four days on the Benedryl and hopefully this will correct itself and she can get her stitches out Thursday.

Again, if everyone could just say a prayer for our little dog that the cancer hasn't spread-it seems to be local at this point-and hope for a treatment that doesn't involve another surgery it would be appreciated.