Rolling Dog Farm

Buzzing Along

Beth took this wonderful photo of Buzz running through the dog paddock in front of Widget's House.  He is such an incredibly happy boy, despite his neurological challenges.  Now that it's springtime, he is out cruising the paddock all day long -- it's a rare thing to see him lying down or even standing still.  Even though he's fully grown, Buzz acts very much like a puppy, and he's always joyful.

In case you're wondering, that's our house on the left; in the center behind Buzz is our new welcome center (formerly the cat house, the cats are now in another cottage); on the right is Scout's Barn; and on the far right behind Scout's Barn is Lena's Barn.  The trees are cottonwoods that line an irrigation ditch that winds its way across the ranch.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Diabetic Sammy: Back In The Hospital

Little Sammy spent the entire Memorial Day weekend in the hospital because of a setback with his diabetes.

Early on Friday morning he started another round of obsessive/ compulsive drinking, and then suddenly his back legs began going out from underneath him and he became very wobbly.  He tried to be his normal self and rush back to his cottage, barking with excitement like he normally does, but even his bark was odd:  It was a deep, hoarse sound, completely different from his usual high-pitched bark.

We called our vets in Helena at Montana Veterinary Specialists and told them we were on our way.  With that, Alayne loaded Sammy in the truck and off she went.  Sammy had just been in the hospital a couple of weeks ago because of a similar but less serious episode; after a glucose curve test, our vets changed his insulin and we expected Sammy to be stable again.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.

This time it turned out Sammy had suffered something called ... ready? ... the "Somogyi effect".  This is when the body encounters first hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and then hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) in rapid succession.  It's too much for the body to handle.

We've had diabetic animals before (ironically, including a cat named Sugar) and the disease had always been easy to manage with daily insulin injections.  Our vet, Dr. Brenda Culver, told us over the weekend that there are some diabetic animals who don't achieve that level of stability, and the caregivers (and their vets) frequently need to refine and adjust the insulin dosage.  Brenda said it's clear that Sammy just may be one of those cases.

Brenda and her husband Britt, who's the internal medicine specialist in the clinic, have been caring for Sammy all weekend long, continually monitoring his glucose curve tests and calling us with updates.  They report he's doing well, and expect we will be able to take him home on Wednesday.

We had planned to make this delightful little dog available for adoption after Memorial Day, but now we'll need to hold off for a while and assess how he does.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Have A Crate Day!

Today we tackled a major spring cleaning at Widget's House, our main building for the disabled dogs.  We have two volunteers, Lisa S. and Christina O., who drove up from L.A. for a few days at the ranch.  They worked with Kathryn all day on this project.  The biggest part of the job was scrubbing down the crates the dogs sleep in at night.  I took this photo in mid-afternoon.  Lisa and Christina were just off the porch washing crates, Kathryn was getting ready to carry one back into the building, and others were still drying in the sun.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Blind Cookie Comes Back To Montana

We always love getting updates about the animals we've adopted out, and we were thrilled to receive an email from Heather H. with a report on blind Cookie. 

Heather adopted Cookie from us in May 2005 and took her home to the Seattle area, where Heather was in the Navy.  Cookie was a shy, soft, and sensitive soul, and one of our all-time favorites.  These are photos I took when Cookie was still with us.

To be honest, we're always hesitant to do long-distance adoptions for our disabled animals (and never more than a day's drive from Montana, just in case something goes wrong and we have to go pick them up).  But we knew Heather's mom Kate, and she had adopted another dog from us, Chelsea.  So we knew Heather would give Cookie the same kind of wonderful, loving home that Kate gave Chelsea.

Here's the note we just got from Heather about Cookie:

"I just thought that I would give you an update on Cookie.  She is once again a resident of Montana!  I am getting out of the Navy and she and I are currently living with my mom in Elliston.  Cookie is enjoying herself here as much as she did in Washington.

We are taking her for walks here (although not on a beach) and she is loving every one of them.  She has come so far.  She is extremely trusting on a leash and just takes off.  She tracks back and forth across in front of whoever is holding the leash and makes wide, never-ending circles around us. 

If she happens to run into someone, well that's okay with her.  She just sits down and waits for the petting to begin.  She is all clipped up and looks extremely pretty with the pink bows in her ears, her pink bandana, and her pink collar.  She has been a special dog and I thank you again for letting me adopt her."

That kind of note just makes us feel so good, you know?  Thank you, Heather!

Blind Stoney Makes The Local Paper

The Helena Independent Record newspaper carried a prominent story in today's edition on blind Stoney coming to the ranch.  The reporter and photographer went to the Lewis & Clark Humane Society to see Stoney on Friday morning, before Leanne brought her out to us.  The reporter interviewed Alayne yesterday for the story.

You can read the article on the Independent Record's Web site here.

Little Wobbly Wilbur

Here's little Wilbur, who arrived at the ranch late yesterday evening.  He came to us from a rescue group in Salt Lake City.  Our awesome volunteer, Jerry Black, drove down to Idaho to pick Wilbur up for us.  Jerry met Kim J. from the rescue group in Dubois, Idaho, which we reckoned was about halfway between Salt Lake City and Missoula.

Wilbur has cerebellar hypoplasia, which makes him wobble and flop when he walks, just like Allie.  Wilbur's a toy Poodle/Jack Russell mix (uh oh) and only about 14 weeks old (double uh oh).  In the two weeks Kim had him, Wilbur had already improved his balance and coordination.

This is consistent with what we've seen in our other cerebellar hypoplasia animals, who have all come to us as puppies or kittens.  As they grow older, their brains learn to compensate for the lack of fine motor skills.  For example, they learn to adopt a wider stance -- particularly with their front feet -- for increased stability when standing still.  And standing still is the hardest thing for them to do, ironically. 

Thus eating is a challenge, so we often need to hold them while they eat.  When they're very young, like Wilbur, we also need to hold their heads still so they can get to the food.  One of the odd things about cerebellar hypoplasia is that when the body is kept still -- for instance, if you pick the animal up and hold it -- the head starts bobbing.  It's almost as if the brain has to transfer the motion somewhere else.  That makes eating even more problematic!  With Wilbur tonight, I held his body in place with one hand and gently held his head still with my other hand.  That allowed him to concentrate on just putting his head down and into the bowl.

After dinner, this little tyke followed me all the way out to the pasture on a long walk and back again.  He wasn't on a leash but never left my side.  He was absolutely intrepid.  Wilbur was ready for a post-dinner puppy nap by the time we returned!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Blind Stoney Comes To The Ranch

The Lewis & Clark Humane Society in Helena, Montana, called us last week about Stoney, a blind dog a fellow had dropped off at the shelter.  The next day the man's wife went to the shelter, picked up the dog and took her back home.  Turns out they were going through a divorce.  Well, a few days later they brought Stoney back to the shelter.  The shelter called us again.  We said "yes," again.

So today Leanne Kurtz, who is on our board of directors and who lives in Helena, brought Stoney out to the ranch for us.  I took this photo of Leanne and Stoney in our welcome center this afternoon.  Stoney had her right eye removed earlier because of glaucoma, and her left eye went blind from a detached retina.  She is a very sweet, 'kiss-first-ask-questions-later' kind of girl.

Incidentally, we first met Leanne when she adopted a three-legged dog from us a few years ago.  Originally named Cassie, now Dani, she went on to became a certified pet therapy dog.  Leanne and Dani made the rounds at the local hospital and nursing homes, where Dani's disability helped her make an even stronger connection to some of the human patients.

(Click on photo for larger image.)

When Lips Are All You Need

Beth took this photo today of Travis, our dog with a fused jaw, playing with blind Pepper the German Shepherd.  Because Travis can't open his mouth, he's at a bite I mean a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to roughhousing.  He makes up for it, though, with creative use of his lips.  He'll grab the other dog with his lips, then he runs his front teeth back and forth rapidly against their skin, cutting like a saw.  He's done this to me when I've roughhoused with him, and it really gets my attention!

This is what he's doing to Pepper, one his best friends at Widget's House.  If this doesn't succeed, his next tactic is what we calling "chinning" -- he'll use his chin as a combination hammer and crowbar to subdue his opponent.  You'd be surprised how much force he can exert with one scrawny chin!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Ah, Summer. Summer?

Yes, it's only mid-May, but it sure feels like summer already!  As I write this, at 4:30 in the afternoon, it's 86 degrees in the shade.  Our average max temperature for Ovando in May is 63 degrees.  Missoula yesterday hit 90 degrees, breaking a record set in 1905.  The animals, of course, love the warm, sunny mornings ... here's blind and deaf Spinner, sleeping on a cot by our back door in the morning sun ... but by early afternoon they are ready for a nap indoors!

For a lot of reasons -- drought, fire season, pasture grass -- we need a return to cool, wet weather as soon as possible. 

Horses. They're Not Cheap!

Here's a photo I took last week but didn't have time to post.  I had hauled this crew in to our equine vet, Bill Brown, for various "issues." 

That's blind Luna on the left of the trailer, wearing a flymask.  We had to remove her eyes a few weeks ago, and then she developed a sinus infection.  So on this visit Bill drilled a hole into her sinus cavity and inserted a catheter so we could flush her sinuses.  (We're doing it every day right now.)

Behind Luna is blind Chance, who was in for an abscess on his left front foot.  Bill opened it up and drained it.  Chance is still holding up remarkably well in his battle with lymphoma -- we're almost a year after the initial diagnosis.

On the right side of the trailer in the foreground is old Crazy Horse -- 30 years + -- who is sighted.  We had taken him in several years ago as a 'seeing eye' horse for one of our blind ones.  He has not been doing well, limping and acting lame.  Earlier treatments with injectable joint medications (first Legend, then Adequan) had not worked.  On this visit Bill injected his joints with cortisone.  The next day, little old Crazy was a new horse ... walking without a limp!  We were relieved, because if this hadn't worked, we would have had to euthanize him because of the pain he was in.

Behind Crazy Horse on the right is blind Hawk, who also had an abscess in a front foot.  Bill drained that one, too.

Caring for horses is expensive.  For the month of April alone, we just wrote Bill a check for $6,299.  This covered the herd health day, Luna's surgery, a week in the hospital for Lonesome George, medications, and several other medical visits, including chemotherapy treatments for Chance and George.  (It didn't cover any expenses in May, like the group visit above.)

When we agree to take an animal, we know it's a major -- often lifetime -- commitment we're making.  And that includes providing whatever medical care the animal needs.  It's all thanks to the sanctuary's generous supporters, who make this possible.