July 2012

What a month!  I knew I had basically all of this month with Buddy because he was underage and we wanted his scar to heal, get a few shots etc.  Each day honestly felt like a gift with this little boy!  He makes me laugh constantlly with  his all his pupy antics, and watching his bloosom from a timid baby to a bouncing puppy is such an amazing experience!  From time to time I would think to myself, this is temporary, he's not yours try to not get attached but let's be honest.  With a face like this how can you not!

It was about 10 days into having this little gem, and there had been a lot of progress on Buddy's health.  He was eating well, his balance was starting to come along, he was potty trained and the last bit of scab had fallen off his scar.  Phew!...but I started to notice these little spots developing around his scar.  It was like his fur was falling off in patches.  Upon seeing this for the first time, I thought maybe he had just itched it off, then the next day it had almost multiplied.  So I took a few photo's and sent them to Phil, he said we should make an appointment at the vet's and go from there. 

*The first photo is the picture I took the first time I noticed the spots and sent to Phil.  The second photo is after 1 week of medication, and medicated bath's. 

Going to the vet had it's up sides and down sides.  First, we would get this skin condition taken care of, and get him weighed.  Both of these were total UP's..as I was anxious to hear how much weight he had gained with his new and improved diet.  The downs being we were one step closer to having to say goodbye to our little Buddy. 

The good news was Buddy was 10 pounds at the vet's, in more good news he didn't have any skin conditions like mange or dermodex but he was battling an infection and he was allergic to grass.  So armed with a few med's and a special medicated shampoo we headed home. 

As the week went by his fur continued to fall off in patches, he got his pills every morning like clock work and his bath with his special shampoo.  None of it bothered him because water has never really bothered Buddy and I wrapped his pills in peanut butter as that is truly one of his favorite things in the world!  So as a panicing foster, I thought maybe there is something more wrong with him.  So we made another vet's appointment.  Sure enough Buddy had gained another 2 pounds and the vet assured me to stay the course and let the medication do it's job. 

Buddy was going on his second week of medication when I finally started to see the difference.  It was now close to the end of July and he had 2 solid set's of Puppy shot's under his belt along with anti-biotics and the medicated shampoo left his fur silky smooth.  In fact when I first got Buddy he had little brown stripes in his coat and now those were gone completely.  He was plumping up learning quickly and as happy as this all made me I knew it meant his time with me was numbered.  Look at that face and the difference paitence made with his medication.  Not only did the spot's disappear, his fur grew in nicely and all the brown patches went away to reveal a beautiful grey!

The First Day..

It has to be one of my FAVORITE days, the day we get a new foster.  I'm excited, nervous, feeling a bit challenged, and antsy waiting for their arrival and then of course, "How is this going to work?"  Which usually is answered after a few days and us all more or less figuring each other out.  Now, I am as previously stated a TOTAL animal lover(as long as it doesn't slither I'm good!) so the idea that a little baby puppy is going to be at my door step in a matter of a few hours is like Christmas Morning for a 5 year old!  So I kept myself busy playing with my 2 other pups, and picking up in the backyard when I get the call from our secuirty gate. 
Security Guard: "Phil with Barks of Love is here"
Me:  "LET HIM IN QUICK!!"

At which point I run inside, try to make myself mildly presentable and by the time I run outside there is Phil getting out of this truck!  I walked..as fast as I could to avoid running and looking even odder..to his car and there on the passengar seat is the smallest little puppy I've ever seen in person!  Phil picked him up and while talking to me a little about him, which I admit I was only mildly listening too, I interupted only to say, "can I please hold him."  Paitence is not always one of my virtues.  The moment that puppy hit my hands, I melted.  All 3 pounds and 9 ounces of little boney legs, and bloated belly were just to much to handle!  Phil explained that he had asked a girl at Petco what to name him she had said, since he had a scar down his back like a mohawk he should be called NoHawk.  We continued to talk and now I was listening.  Little NoHawk had been brought into the shelter by a man who saw another dog in an abandoned lot.  The man approached the other dog, which we guessed was his father, and out came this little cutie pie with a big old scar down his back. 

You see shelters don't have the rescources for pup's like this, they do their best(some of them do) but they rely on rescues to pull these pups.  The Shelter had been feeding NoHawk puppy food but had notated he got sick almost everytime.  Usually this means they have a little dose of puppy worms so a little dewormer and he would be fine.  Turns out he didn't have worms at all but I'll tell you that in a minute.  Anyways, after holding this sleepy pup in my arms for about 10-15 minutes I interupted Phil 1 more time to say, "Phil, I think I'm going to keep this one."  He laughed and said,  "A boy might do your girls some good," he told me to think on it, "fosters always get first pick." 

We migrated to the garage, watched him literally wobble on 4 feet and decided the shelter was off their rocker about his age.  He was just getting his little teeth in and couldn't walk a straight line if he was at a DUI checkpoint!  So our guess was 4-5 weeks old.  I also discovered he LOVED food..too much in fact but the problem was his little stomach wasn't ready to process it.  So I went to work, overboiled rice, red potato's, boiled chicken and some of his food (very little) mixed in. 

The glorious thing about a puppy that age is they play for a little bit and sleep and cuddle most of the time.  You really have to just enjoy every minute because in 2 weeks they want to be rompin' with the big boys.  So squeeze him I did(in my best yoda voice), I would crank up the A/C so that I could wear a sweatshirt and tuck him inside wrapped in a blanket.  The first few days, you would have thought I was a kangaroo, he came with me everywhere.  And so came his new name, my little Buddy...

Prelude..

I, Buddy's Mom, have LOVED animals since I can remember.  Always opting for stuffed toy's instead of the dolls my friends all enjoyed.  My parents fostered this love and allowed me a dog of my own, first Nugget, a shelter pup who taught me how to run so he wouldn't bite my heels and who could LITERALLY bend it like Beckham!  Then my biggest heart break as a child, my first puppy who died shortly after of Parvo, Shelby.  To this day it brings tears to my eyes.  My last dog, and who shaped me into the pack leader I am today was Jasmine.  Part Australian Shepherd, part Coyote, Jasmine stole my heart the moment I met her.  We were inseperable, after taking her to shows ranging from novice to advanced, in both Showmanship and Obedience I finally said, "I'll see you soon" to Jasmine at just shy of 19 years old(her not me). 

After, being married, graduating college, buying a home and getting our first 2 pup's.  My husband and I made the decision to begin fostering for a WONDERFUL rescue called, Barks of Love.  Our first fosters, were 2 adorable little border collie mixes.  Next came little Mattie, a Schnauzer, who my parents ended up adopting(YAY!)  Then my first "view" changer.  I got the option to foster a "Pit Bull" named Dodger.  Up
and until this point I had only heard terrible things about Pit's in the media and I believed the media.  It was at the urging of my husband who thought Dodger was Gorgeous that I said, "yes" we will foster a Pit Bull.  Dodger scared me a bit, I had 2 bouncy lab's and there was this calm, sweet mannered dog that I was sure would bite my face off or there's.  It took only about 3-4 hours for my whole mindset to change.  I laid down on my sofa at the end of the day and immediately he jumped up and curled up.  When my husband went to bed with my 2 girls, this pit bull didn't leave my side.  Point #1 for Dodger!  I went up to bed and he calmly followed me, laid on the floor even though he wanted in the bed, and in the middle of the night when we were sleeping he snuck into our big bed..squeezed inbetween us and fell asleep.  I rolled over in the morning only to see a snoring pit bull beside me and he opened his eyes, wagged his tail and snuggled in.  Over the next few days(Dodger was adopted in a week) I realized what many already knew, it is not the breed it's what the person who trains them tells them to do.

At the end of June, beginning of July 2012 I was fosterless when I got an e-mail from my friend Erin, also our foster co-ordinator that she had an underage pup from Pasadena Humane Society if I wanted to foster him.  I looked at this pup and immediatley thought there is no way he's the 7 weeks they say, he looks so tiny!  I said, YES, of course and we arranged pulling him etc.  I had the days before 4th of July off to work in my backyard.  So in a complete sweaty mess, I get a call from Phil our Ops manager at Barks of Love that he's on his way with little, NoHawk. 

And so the Story truly begins..