Puppy Recovery

We are happily in now in the fun part of puppyhood and the work of raising them to be well adjusted dogs has begun.

 Dobby sleeps in the funniest positions and is either in contact with brother or with one of us.  Yoda is very tolerant of Dobby's restlessness.  I have slept with Dobby.  And wakeup with him too.  He is constantly moving and cuddling.  Yoda is more aloof but does not like to be alone.

It's hard to get pictures of the boys at play.  They turn out like this.

 I think this is Yoda the weekend after Parvo.  Yoda and Dobby have been putting on healthy weight.  Yoda is very picky with his food and stopped eating.  I was worried and found some dog food for finicky chihuahuas and it was a hit.  But it was blended with the other two dog foods I have for them. Yoda loves to sit in the sun, if the flies leave him alone.  He had a day where he didn't want to be outside and the flies landing on him freaked him out so we went backwards in the housetraining. For some reason the flies are ridiculous right now.  But they are doing pretty well on the housetraining for being as young as they are.

Dobby is a fun loving super affectionate puppy.  He can't wait to say hi to everybody.  He has learned to fetch and picking up on training quite well.  He knows sit.  He is learning what outside means.  He has learned stay, come and leave it.  He is sharp.  Yoda is much more stubborn.  He takes a bit more time to learn as well.  He loves little bits of hot dog.  So he has also learned sit, stay, come and leave it.  He probably will either take longer to learn fetch or he just won't be interested. 
Kelsea did this Dobby but oh my gosh, he is so funny and cute.  Dobby lives up to his name.  The vets office has agreed.  My pups were the talk of the vets.  They said they were amazed at Yoda's recovery.  I took them to get what we are calling their first round of shots.  We are skeptical of the quality of the shots they got (or if they really got them) from the people we bought them from.  I took Dobby, Yoda, Spot and Sox the cat all together to the vaccination clinic.  We were there for over 2 hours but the puppies looked good and the vet tech that helped us said he heard about our puppies.  Dobby handled his shot fine.  I have had some issues with Yoda panicking when things happen too fast for him.  But the shot brought back bad memories.  He cried like he was getting hurt for a long time even after the shot was over.  Then they trimmed the pups nails.  The vet got one to close to the quick.  And he freaked out again.  So Saturday Yoda had some moments where he sounded like he was severely injured when I picked him up.  It has taken some work to get him to calm down.  He has become quite fearful.  But he was better today.  Spot doesn't mind playing with Yoda but wants her space from Dobby.  She is trying desperately to act the part of puppy.  But it is fun to see our 12 year old dog act like she is much younger.  The cat hates the whole idea of there being puppies in the house.  But she is starting to come around.  She is bigger than all of them so she can be the queen if she wants to.  I have had success crate training them and they have a wonderful night time routine.  We can put them to bed in a pen around 9 and they stay asleep until at least 7:30 before they need to go out.  I came to a conclusion last night.  The reason we got puppies must be because I have a little snoopy card thing on my vision board that says "Happiness is a Warm Puppy"  Now if only the rest of the things on my vision board would come true.

Other than that, this week has been a rough one.  One of our neighbors two houses down passed away.  I made a trip to Payette and back and now my car is fussing at me.  I had a bunch of other pieces of bad news.  I also miss my kids that aren't here.  Hannah and I are spending an awful lot of time alone together.  Which also means my household help doesn't really exist either.   You would think being home I would have lots of time to take care of things but not with puppies around.  But there is some potentially good news we got today.  We will have to see if it happens.  Lee Joe might be able to start working on a job in Burley over the winter.  That is 2 and half hours from us.  Much better than the 16 hours from home that he is now.  One way or another we are hoping he will be back closer to home soon.

Puppies and Parvo

I would like it if I could have events in my life just happen like they do for most people. I would like to say "We got puppies! Let the training begin." But things aren't that easy around here. As the course of the past few months-look back years-no that never happens. One way to look at it is Heavenly Father must really love me because he pays a lot of attention to me by giving me lots of character building experiences. But I would like it if he ignored me for awhile and paid attention to someone else. Then another thought I had was I must have been selected to save these puppies because maybe someone else wouldn't have.

Here is how it happened. In a previous post I shared how we had to put Buddy to sleep at the beginning of August. Our rescue dog that we had for 12 years, lived a long dog life with us. We still have Spot who is 12. Hannah said before we put him to sleep that we needed to get a puppy because that is the best way to get over the loss of your dog. I wasn't ready for that at all. But over the course of the month I found myself pet looking, just looking. Telling myself they are hard work and it was nice being down to one cat and one dog, 3 guinea pigs and several fish tanks. I did pretty good talking myself out of it. I was thinking kitten. But the kids weren't for that but they are easier I think.

The kids started school and I don't know what was up with the cat and the dog but since I am not working, they followed me all day. I was in my room, they were there. I go to the kitchen, they follow me there. Spot seemed depressed. So I was in conflict now. Then Kelsea came to visit and says out of the blue she wanted a puppy. And there I was pet looking again. Then there were some Chihuaha/Dachsunds that showed up. And there was another small dog but that one didn't pan out. So Kelsea had pictures texted to us and they were super cute. So we went to meet some puppies in Caldwell. We were offered two for a good deal. We were told they had their shots but needed round two on Sept 1st. But we brought home one. Kelsea liked the super active one. I was looking at the calm one thinking how much easier it would be to handle a calm one. But we left with Kelsea's choice and he was adorable. I almost wanted to turn around and go back for the other one. But we didn't. So the first puppy Kelsea named Dobby after the house elf in Harry Potter.

Dobby is a bouncy happy little guy. Full of energy. But Kelsea felt bad that I didn't get the other dog. She and my mom got together and Kelsea came home the next night with Yoda. Dobby was having some issues being alone. He seemed a little depressed that night until Kelsea walked in with his brother and he got real excited.

Yoda is really reserved and shy but what we soon found out was that he was getting sick. They ate a bunch of food that night before bed. Sometimes when puppies start eating new food they can get diarrhea. So I wasn't sure if that was what was wrong and if that was why Yoda threw up twice that night. Yoda the next day was looking for love and wanted to be held. I am not sure why but I was worried all day that something more was wrong. I talked to a couple of vets offices to get their input. It was either adjusting to new food and stress or they mentioned Parvo and I had read about it already and didn't want it to be that. They told me how expensive it could be to treat that and we should give the dog back. The people we got him from would not be able to take care of him, I knew. I was hoping it was stress. But that next night he started throwing up at 3 and didn't stop. He looked bad. I called the vet as soon as they opened. I brought the dogs. They didn't want the dogs to come out of the car. They tested Yoda and he was strong positive for Parvo. I had hoped so badly it wasn't that. The said he would be best to be treated in the vet hospital and they told me it could be $800 or more for just him. Who can do that? They brought up putting him to sleep. I really couldn't do that this close to when we lost Buddy. It was tearing my heart out what to do. (I am a ridiculous animal lover as well as thinking of my kids broken hearts as well as my own) The vet tech said he looked bad. With Parvo it's only a 50/50 chance they give you and Yoda was in bad shape. They gave me another option and that was giving the pups fluids under their skin. I would come in the morning and they would give them meds and fluids and there was no way to know how long it would take. The dogs needed to be quarantined in my house. Everything blanket or towel they touched would need to be bleached. The house would need to be bleached. Where they had pooped would have to be fenced off until the dogs got their shots. We would have to be extra careful entering and exiting that space where they were quarantined. The dogs couldn't be with each other either. Needless to say, after the three rough nights I had with seminary driving at 6am each day I was already exhausted but I did everything I was told. I didn't think Yoda improved much that day but I had to take him back that afternoon before they closed to get him and another antinausea shot. Then they found out they could give him a stronger antibiotic than the one they gave him that morning so they gave him that. The vet tech said she thought he looked better. So that gave me a boost. I had been in tears over the heartbreak of how serious it was and I wanted them to make it because it was already hard to ease the pain from Buddy. Dobby had been getting sick but he was caught super early so he felt like he was being tortured by having to be locked up in a room alone all day. Kelsea came home that night. She spent hours alone with Dobby and slept him that night. They were quarantined in her room. All Yoda did was sleep. The next day, more fluids under the dogs skin around their necks. Yoda did not throw up. That night I was told to try offering a little water to him and if that stayed down after several times he could have a little food. I tried to offer him water and he wanted more at first and then later I had to dropper him some water because he wouldn't take it. Then I tried to offer him food. He wouldn't take it either so I mixed it with some water and droppered that into his mouth. If he didn't take some food soon it wouldn't be good for him either but it needed to stay down. I made the mistake of leaving water in his pen that night so he had too much and threw up. I was upset over my mistake and hoped it wasn't a setback. But Dobby was not needing to go back to the vet because he was doing great but he didn't have the all clear to be released from quarantine. That was hardest for him. Day number 3 I only bring in Yoda. I don't think he is doing much better but he pooped all over his carrier on the way to the vet. She thought it didn't look too bad. She said she was amazed at Yoda how he was recovering and they were happy to see he was improving and that they didn't expect to see that but they knew I was doing everything they asked. So he needed to eat food and not throw up and stop having diarrhea and he wouldn't need to come back.

Yoda in quarantine on Day 3.

I couldn't get him to eat the food they gave me. He just sat where I put him on the counter and he wasn't interested at all so I kept giving him dropperfulls determined to help him get better. My third time that day feeding him, he left where I put him on the blanket on the counter in the kitchen. He was looking for something. He went to the bowl where I had the puppy food he had eaten the first night at our house. It was in water soaking for Dobby. He wanted that food. I gave him some and he ate it on his own! Every half hour I offered him more and more. I left Kelsea with Hannah and the puppies so I could run to Costco that afternoon. Kelsea texted me and told me that Yoda was barking! I nearly started to cry in the store. He was looking for attention finally! So we kept doing what we were doing. That night he kept getting better but he hadn't pooped yet and that would tell us if he needed to go back to the vet. This morning-Day 4 all indications is that he had recovered from Parvo and didn't need to go back. Today we have finally gotten to know out little guys. They have been played with, crate trained, some house training and loved a bunch. Yoda is little more dachsund looking. He is shorter than Dobby. Yoda still tires easily but also still has a very reserved. cautious and shy nature about him. But he loves to sit in your lap or cuddle on under your chin or on your shoulder. Dobby doesn't look like chihuahua or dachsund. He looks a little like a miniature beagle only brown and white. Dobby plays fetch and tug of war, and can squeak his squeaker toy and is quite the entertainer. He sleeps in the funniest positions and loves to snuggle up to people when he sleeps. Now we get to find out what Chiweenies are all about. But I never want to deal with Parvo ever again.

Sidenote-I totally offended the cat with our new additions and Spot is totally put out by her tiny little yard right now outside the pet door. Yesterday she wanted to play with Dobby. Today she is not sure what she thinks.