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This was Zeus's (4 yr old schnoodle) favorite view of the Fort. He would sit on top of the couch, with his favorite stuffed squirrel under his chin, keeping watch from lot 1616.:)

This is my latest pup, Banzai, a Miniature Australian Shepard at 5 1/2 Months.  We got him in October.  

This is the TCD dog, Rocky. He is the third boxer we have owned, and the only one out of the three who enjoys swimming. I snapped this photo during a recent visit to Honeymoon Island State Park: TCD

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  • 3 weeks later...

We take what I refer to as a traveling petting zoo. Here is our latest addition. She is a rescue who we were initially just fostering until I said we're keeping her. Here is Sushi.... 960ee62b1348548aa809baeb92a5b6eb.jpg

 

Anyone care to guess what breed?

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Chinese Crested?

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Yep.

 

We were told she was only a few years old and the former owner didn't have her her whole life either but upon a vet check-up, the vet feels she is about 8 years old.  Also says she has a very bad heart murmer.  Her vision is degraded badly as well. She was treated well but she didn't get along with her former owner's two other dogs and since the former owner was only allowed to have 2 animals, Sushi was "hidden" and never went outside.  So, Sushi was used to using piddle pads.  She hasn't learned the routine from the other dogs yet about signaling when she needs to go out so we've had an accident or three but she's improving each day.  Unfortunately, she had a couple of those accidents inside the camper at the Fort.  It was her first time staying in the camper for any duration of time.  With her vision, she also kept on walking into the camper steps. :facepalm:

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Next up is another rescue who was from Georgia. Got her April/May 2013.  She was not treated well apparently but is more then happy now.   Here is Rolo.a60baea248455af6b8d0f41c5d8045bd.jpg

 

The vet thinks she may be a "dwarf" boxer. Her age ranges is about 3-5 Years.For perspective the floor tiles are 10"x10". You can see how short her legs are. She's been camping with us many times and we found out you can't just leave only the camper screen door closed. It's not enough to hold her back and those short little legs can move that chunky body pretty quick.

 

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Aw - sweet pups, and very lucky to have found you!

 

 

you can't just leave only the camper screen door closed. It's not enough to hold her back and those short little legs can move that chunky body pretty quick.

 

Yeah, in our hybrid Bz figured out how to hit the latch on the screen door so that it popped open.  Smart little stinker.  8)

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Aw - sweet pups, and very lucky to have found you!

 

 

Yeah, in our hybrid Bz figured out how to hit the latch on the screen door so that it popped open.  Smart little stinker.  B)

Rolo can't reach the latch.  Just backed up and rammed the frame with her head.  Popped it open.  She is strong for her size.  Right before Christmas time she came running down the hallway at full speed for reasons unknown.  I couldn't get out of the way in time and she rammed by shins with her head sending me for a flip.  I am not a light person at 215lbs.

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Prior to Sushi and Rolo, this little one found our way to us from a co-worker from the bank my wife and I work at. They had 4 large 100lb dogs and this dog only weighed about 4.5 lbs and tried to hang with them. They only had her for a week before they knew she needed another home and couldn't keep her. She had a very bad life with the previous @hole that owned her. It was the July 4th weekend of 2011. It was in the upper 90s that time and her owner put her in a box with no holes in it and left her outside. A neighbor saw him put this box outside and didn't think anything of it until the box started moving. She goes over to investigate and he comes out and accosts her verbally. When she opens the box and sees a dog she immediately removed her and he started flipping out on her again and said go ahead and keep her, all she does is pee. Since the woman couldn't keep animals as she rented, she took her to a local pet store where our co-worker's wife worked and told her the story. They had a vet check her out and was discovered that at some point her ribs and tail were broken and never healed properly. She also has a "lazy eye" and no one is sure if it came from abuse or if she was just born that way. She is about 5 or 6 now and has easily doubled her weight. Here is Minnie: 2b954bc6acd0f9d3656123abbf9d4cc6.jpgd8bc27e8a7e077a5817a6f7b346a7d05.jpg

 

Anyone guess what mix she is?

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

I've been putting off posts about 2 animals for months now and it's not good news. 1st here is Wrigley. She was born either May 2,3,4 of 1998. My bday is May 3rd. My mom and step dad were friends with the couple who had this litter. My mom brought her to me in the beginning of that August to help me get over the death of my cat Jenny who died the month before at the age of 13. I protested that I didn't want another cat but this new kitten was unique. She went a couple of weeks without a name but this was during the time of the Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire (spelling?) home run race. Every time the kitten heard the name Wrigley Field she would meow. Then she got hold of a pack of Wrigley gum on my dresser and destroyed it. So Wrigley became her name.

Here she is 17 years ago

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This kitten would follow me everywhere. She even jumped in the shower while I was taking a shower. She would also follow me outside and liked to go for car rides. Her favorite spot was the rear package tray of my Monte Carlo SS. She didn't like my other vehicles as much as she liked that car. She also sat on my shoulder while I sat on the couch. She had to either sleep on my chest or beside my head. When my wife and I first dated in 2001 there was some conflicts. Wrigley drew first blood and had to show my now wife who was boss.

The first time she stayed over She awoke to Wrigley laying on her chest, staring and growling at her. Few months later Wrigley had to get over it as we moved into her place. Took a bit for Wrigley to get used to little kids but she did and would allow everyone the privilege of petting her. My wife would jokingly call her princess and Wrigley would answer to that as well. Over the years Wrigley softened up and she even got along with a couple of the dogs. Especially Rolo. Her and Rolo became buddies and Wrigley was the only cat Rolo liked. Rolo hated the others.

July of 2013, rascal, the other cat we had rescued and Wrigley got into a bad fight. It would have been worse if they hadn't been declawed. Wrigley being older and smaller sustained a bad wound on the bridge of her nose. Here is a pic of her from May 2013

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The wound would not heal and eventually became a "blowhole" and everyone she breathed it would sound like she was snoring. In July of 2014 she had surgery to remove some necrotic tissue and to clean the wound out more.

I won't post pics of what she looked like after but it wasn't pretty. After this she was on antibiotics daily and we had to clean the wound out daily. She took this like a champ most of the time and she would lay down on the bed when she saw the med kit. All the time the vet said she wasn't in real pain or discomfort. She was always hungry and still playful. Because of her medical needs, we started to take Wrigley camping with us which she loved.

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Here she is in the old TT.

In mid to late February of this year, the wound area started to look worse despite our efforts and she started to "snore" louder. Called the vet and and told him we were getting ready for a week+ trip and she was going with us. We also had a concern about my wife's favorite dog which I will cover in another post. He said to go and call when we get back or sooner if we get in an emergency. So with that we headed to the fort.

Wrigley loved the Florida weather and on the 2nd day she stopped "snoring". I had seriously thought she had got loose from the camper because we couldn't hear her! I looked in every nook of the camper and we found her sleeping behind the couch. While at the camper we even set up a dog crate outside for her for about an hour a day. She was like a little kitten again. Sadly this all had to end and had to come north. After we got home, on March 9th I called the vet and told him the wound was looking better and she wasn't "snoring" anymore. He said good and to keep him posted. All was good for a few weeks and then something happened and she was bleeding a lot from the wound and making more of a gurgling sound. We think her and rascal got into a fight again. Here is a pic of her from a couple days before taking her to the vet.

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She loved laying in Rolo's cage.

I took her to the vets on the evilest of all days, April 15th. They really didn't let me have any time with her before they took her as they felt it would be routine and uncomplicated. I got a quick pet on the head as they took her away and she looked scared. I went home and got a call a few hours later that the surgery went well and I can pick her up in the morning. At 6:30 the next morning my phone rang and I don't get to it in time. I listen to the voicemail and I was crushed. The message was she had just died. I call back and He said she had woken up briefly and let out a low meow and laid her head down. He noticed she had really shallow breathing and he said that just stopped breathing at 6:15 that morning. My best fur buddy of almost 17 years was gone. I haven't been able to sleep right this whole time because Im still not used to her not being there. We got her collar back and showed it to Rolo a few days later as she was looking for her buddy. Rolo sniffed the collar and then licked it and took it from me and went back to her cage with it and laid down with it. For a few months Rolo as well as us were sulking around the house without her as she left a big void.

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Next up is my wife's favorite dog, Belle. Belle is a puggle. She was a 3-4 year old rescue when we got her the summer of 2007, so that puts her at 11-12 now. Belle has separation anxiety from my wife. Every Time my wife is gone Belle has to drag some article of clothing or shoes to her cage so she can snuggle with it. And nobody but mommy can remove the clothing from the cage. I've tried to intercept the dog while trotting down the hall dragging clothes behind her. She usually growls and snaps at me. I am however allowed to rub her belly. Apparently I give better belly rubs then mommy. She usually sleeps on the pillow beside my wife's head. Now since Wrigley is gone Belle will sleep on the pillow beside my head (Wrigley's spot) sometimes but that only seems to happen if Belle has some type of indigestion.

Here is a pic from January 2014.

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See that bump above her left eye? We took her to the vet shortly after and he said to keep an eye on it. We'll eventually it got larger and another two bumps show up on her torso. We had them removed in March of 2014 and biopsied. The lumps on the torso were benign. The lump on the head was cancer. The vet was confident things would be ok and it wasn't going to spread. Fast forward to February of this year and the lump on the head came back. By the time of our trip to the fort it had grown to a golf ball size. This is the other animal issue I referenced in the previous post. While at the fort something bad happened. It either burst open or she scratched it open. Fortunately we had medical supplies from Wrigley's condition and kept Belle's wound clean. We notified the vet what happened and he told us to contact him when we get back.

I'm not sure what happened but somehow there was some communication issues between the vets office and my wife. She wanted to be the one to drop the dog off so I had he do the scheduling as she knows when she can do it. With the miscommunication my wife went to another vet and had the surgery done. They couldn't get her in until the end of March. Our regular vet who is a small time country vet from where I used to live is very affordable and well worth the gas money to drive 70 miles one way. He charged $300 for the first surgery for 3 lumps and biopsies. This other vet in Hanover that my wife found charged us over $2000 for one lump and one biopsy. Of course it turned out to be cancer again.

Here is what a dog looks like after having $2000 surgery

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The worst part about this price gouging is the vet my wife chose didn't get the whole tumor the was between the skull and skin. This was confirmed by the regular vet while Wrigley was going through her surgery. The regular vet didn't even charge me for the surgery that Wrigley died after. He just charged me for individual cremation which was less then $100. I've been a customer of his since 1992 and my step dad has been since the early 80s.

Anyway, back to Belle. The tumor is back and that tumor seems to have a small bump coming out of it as well. There is also a lump that showed up a few days ago on the side of her neck. I think we are at the point where my wife needs to make a difficult decision.

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So sorry to hear about Wrigley's passing and I hope you and your wife get as much quality time with Belle as possible.

 

No matter how long they've been with us, it's never long enough.  Hang onto the good memories, and know you did a wonderful thing giving Wrigley and Belle a loving home.

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The lump on the side of her neck grew larger since the last post here and she started to breathe heavier and developed a limp on Saturday. On Sunday she yipped if the other dogs bumped into that side of her body.

Tonight as soon as the vet felt it he knew it was bad. He listened to her breathe and said he felt it has spread to her lungs. Another Surgery would just have been a waste of money at this point. The vet and staff gave my wife 45 minutes to spend time with her. Belle loved to rest her head on my wife's flip flop while in the crate and we took that along tonight so she could rest her head as normal.

It's amazing how fast that lump grew on her and the whole time we were focused on the wrong tumor although in hindsight nothing would have saved her. Hope she can rest in peace now.

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