Rolling Dog Farm

This Is How You Repay My Affections?

I took this photo today when I was in the cat house cleaning the litterboxes.  You think that would be a straightforward enough task, except for the fact that blind Herbie loves to climb up my legs when I'm doing this.  He swirls around my ankles, then stands on his hind legs and reaches up with his paws to ... yes, pull himself up my pants and hopefully -- this is the end goal -- to eventually reach my shoulders.

"Excuse me," I say to him, "those are my legs, young man!"

This makes the essential task of cleaning litterboxes a wee bit difficult.  I have tried to shoo him away, fend him off, and otherwise discourage Herbie's affections in this department, but ultimately the only thing that works is to put him in one of the medical cages. 

Thus he sits there meowing from behind bars, protesting the injustice and indignity of it all, while I go about the business of cleaning.  The Herbie lock-up doesn't last long, he is soon freed, and I quickly skedaddle from the cat house before I end up going out the door dragging a cat holding onto my ankles.

---

Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  The site has been very slow in the past couple of days so their servers may be overloaded on occasion, so you may need to keep trying.

Look, It's Bare Ground!

I was over at Widget's House this morning, scooping after letting the dogs out, and noticed blind Brody standing on bare ground.  I thought, wow, it's been a long time coming.  Brody seemed to be enjoying the change.  Just in the past couple of days the last few inches of snow and crusty ice have finally melted away to reveal the brown grass and dirt underneath.  You can see we still have some ribbons of snow and ice in the yard, and out beyond, too.  But most of the front yard at Widget's House is now bare and, well, muddy from all the snowmelt.

Callie At The Teaching Hospital

Callie had her MRI this morning at WSU's veterinary teaching hospital, followed by a spinal tap for analysis of her cerebrospinal fluid.  I took this photo of Dr. Fidel, the oncologist, holding Callie after she had recovered from the anesthesia.  You can tell she is still pretty much out of it, bless her little heart.  The back of her neck was shaved for the spinal tap.

Before Dr. Fidel had brought Callie out so I could see her, Dr. Fred Wininger -- a neurologist we know well from previous cases we've taken to WSU -- showed me Callie's MRI images:

Dr. Wininger explained that based on the MRI, both he and Dr. Chen as neurologists and Dr. Fidel as an oncologist were all pretty confident that Callie did indeed have a menigioma tumor.  (For this and other reasons, it didn't make sense for her to participate in the clinical trial I had mentioned in yesterday's post.)  He said we could take one of two approaches:  a combination of surgery to physically excise the tumor and then radiation to ensure no regrowth, or radiation alone.  The surgery entailed higher risks because it would, in fact, be brain surgery, but it would give her probably 3 to 4 years -- so the "returns" would be higher, too.  This was the "go all in" course.  It would also probably double the total cost.  The other option was to do the three-week course of radiation alone, which Dr. Fidel estimated would give Callie 2 to 3 years.

Given her age (we think about 12) and the prospect of putting her through brain surgery, and then looking at the extra benefit as being perhaps only an additional year of life when she would already be 14 or 15 ... well, we didn't think that was worth it. 

So after sitting down and talking through this at length with Dr. Wininger and Dr. Fidel, we decided to pursue the radiation-only option.  That was the original game plan all along, but of course it depended on the MRI and any other additional findings, and we always want all the options put on the table so we can make a fully informed decision.

Thus Callie's first radiation treatment will be tomorrow, and I said goodbye to her this afternoon and made the 5-hour drive back to the ranch.  I know I left her in good hands:

Callie's Visit To WSU's Veterinary Teaching Hospital

Callie and I left the ranch early this morning and headed to Pullman, Washington, to see specialists at the WSU veterinary teaching hospital for her brain tumor.  In the photo above, veterinary oncologist Dr. Janean Fidel is listening to Callie's heart during the initial exam, along with 4th year vet student Jen K.  Dr. Fidel later brought in Dr. Annie Chen, a neurologist, for Callie's consultation.

Callie will have an MRI tomorrow morning, along with a spinal tap, to give Dr. Fidel and Dr. Chen a better idea of the precise location and size of the growth.  The MRI gives them a three-dimensional view, while the original CT scan is only two-dimensional, so the image will provide a lot more information about the nature of what's growing in her brain.  Dr. Fidel said that although it may well be a tumor, it could also be a non-infectious inflammation of some sort, or even an infectious bacteria causing the growth.

Depending on what we find out tomorrow, Callie may also be a candidate for a clinical trial that Dr. Chen is leading for a minimally invasive way to take a biopsy of brain tumors to get a definitive diagnosis.

Watching Callie mill around on the floor of the exam room, you'd never have any idea anything was wrong with her.  At one point she found the trash can under the sink and tried to knock it over to see if there was anything edible inside.  <sigh>  In the truck today, she did sleep on a Miss Piggy fleece blanket for the entire ride, which seemed appropriate.

I'll post an update tomorrow on Callie's second day at the teaching hospital.  Until then, another huge "thank you!" to everyone who made gifts for Callie's medical fund!

Animal Rescue Site's Shelter Challenge

The Animal Rescue Site is holding another Shelter Challenge online contest with prizes worth $100,000.  Last year, because of your votes, we won the contest for the state of Montana and a $1,000 grant.  We need your help to do it again!

And remember, this is the contest where you can vote every day!  The voting began today and runs until July 26th.  All you have to do is enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  The Shelter Challenge contest page is here.

Thank you for voting early and voting often!

Ready For Westminster!

Last Friday was the blind Poodle sisters' first-year anniversary since coming to the ranch, and I took Molly and Priscilla to the groomers in Missoula for their usual make-over from what we call "Montana ranch Poodle" to "Westminster diva."  (In between there's a style we call their "Tina Turner look.")  They actually needed to be groomed a few weeks ago, but it had been so cold and snowy that we decided to hold off.  Thus their anniversary, on a beautiful, sunny spring day, seemed like a perfect time to do it.

While they were being groomed -- it takes four hours! -- I ran errands in Missoula.  Alayne took this photo of me with the girls after we got back on Friday afternoon.  Following the photo session, I turned them loose in the Widget's House yard, and the other dogs came running out to smell the "new arrivals."  Since almost all of the dogs there are blind, they rely a lot on their noses to tell them what's going on, and these girls do smell very fragrant after they come back from the groomer.  Less ranch, more perfume, you might say.

So the other dogs follow the girls all over the yard, sniffing at them, trying to figure out ... "Is that you, Molly?  You smell so ... different!"

I'll Have Some Of What You're Having

I got this photo of blind Moose, our new arrival, at the breakfast table this morning.  This big fellow has turned out to be a perfect gentleman with impeccable house manners -- that flickering tongue notwithstanding.  In fact, he is one of just a handful of dogs who are granted "sleep-over" privileges and allowed to sleep in our house at night.  Moose makes number 6.  I can't think of a dog who instantly earned sleep-over privileges in their very first week with us, but that's the kind of guy he is.  He's so quiet he hasn't even barked yet!  The only noise he makes is the thumping of his huge tail every time we talk to him or walk by him. 

And he is incredibly gentle with the small dogs ... too much of a push-over, in fact.  A couple of nights ago he followed Alayne into Birdie's Cottage as she was putting the dogs up in their crates and handing out the bedtime cookies when Widget -- the only one in that cottage who doesn't go in a crate -- sensed some competition for her cookie and snarled at Moose.  The poor guy had shown absolutely zero interest in Widget's cookie but there she was, teeth bared and snarling at him ("Widget!  Not a pretty face!").  Moose slinked away and cowered by the wall, head down, with a sad, apologetic look on his face that seemed to say, "Oh, jeez, I'm so terribly sorry -- I didn't mean to upset you!"  It was really rather pathetic, this 99-pound dog cowed by a 20-lb, eight-inch high Widget.  Alayne escorted him safely out of the cottage.

But that shows you just how sweet-natured and easy-going he is.  Our original plan was to move him over to Widget's House, our main dog building where the other "big dogs" are, but he's not going anywhere.  He's going to be staying right here.  Next to the table.

Frankie The Walk N' Roll Dog To Help The Ranch

We've often said that disabled animals are inspirational, and Frankie -- a Dachshund who became paralyzed after a spinal injury -- is certainly proof of that.  Frankie's spirit and tenacity in overcoming her disability inspired her Mom, Barbara Techel, to write a children's book, "Frankie the Walk 'N Roll Dog."

As Barbara describes it, "Teaching children, as well as adults, that we can overcome challenges has become a passionate mission of mine. With Frankie by my side, I find blissful joy in sharing her story."

Published in 2008, Frankie's book has won several awards and honors, and is helping people see disabled animals in a new light.

For the month of April, Barbara is kindly donating a portion of the book sales to the ranch to help the disabled animals here. 

You can read more about Frankie, as well as order the book, at Barbara's wonderful Web site Joyful Paws.

Thank you, Frankie and Barbara!

Black Olive

I always tell blind Widget her nose reminds me of a black olive.  Alayne saw her sleeping like this, that little nose pressing down the edge of the bed, and got the photo.  And there it is ... my black olive.

I know I've mentioned this before, but for any new-to-the-blog folks, this is normal for how her eyes look when she's sleeping.  Her eyes are comfortable, but she doesn't always close them when sleeping and her third eyelid pops up part way.  This has to do with the shape and size of her eyeballs.

(The big wad of brown paper in the background came from a box someone had shipped us, and we're using it for fire starter in the wood stove.)

Here's another view of my sleeping black olive:

She had opened her eyes after the repeated clicking of the shutter woke her up.  I know, it's rude to wake a sleeping olive beauty!

From The Tip Of His Nose To ...

Alayne got this shot of little Dexter the other evening after feeding the dogs.  Every time Dexter has finished eating, he licks his bowl clean until it's spotless.  Actually, until the final spot of food ends up on the tip of his nose.  Then he saunters into the kitchen and stares up at Alayne like this, imploring her for more food.  We don't know what it is about the physics of the round food bowl and the pointy Dachshund nose, but somehow he always gets a dab of food on the end of his nose.  He seems either unaware of it, or -- more likely -- he thinks it sends a powerful message to Alayne about what he's looking for.