Channeling Shades of Stalin

So busy! As if taking on two work-in-progress wolfdog puppies wasn't enough, one of them turned out to have parvo...

We noticed that Zelda, the flop-eared foster, was lethargic and had diarrhea. And although sleeping a lot and cuddling with her toys was really cute...

I mean, really cute....

It was clear she wasn't feeling well. We took her into the vet and she tested positive for parvo - because of course, none of the myriad of people who have apparently owned her before me could be bothered to drop a few dollars and get either of them vaccinated...

Luckily, we caught it quickly and she required only an overnight stay at the vet before she was back at home, looking sinister as hell and ready to eat everything that didn't eat her first.

If you stand still long enough, she'll eat you, too.

While we were at the vet, we insisted on getting Midna vaccinated, which she took with poor grace, having already been coned for the large cut on her side.

Every time I think they can't get more pathetic, they do.

Parvovirus, as most of the dog community is aware, is a very contagious virus that spreads in the feces of infected animals. Bast is up to date on his vaccinations and is in no danger, but since Midna has only recently been vaccinated, we've adapted some very strict bleaching rituals.

We first pushed bleach into every corner of the house, and threw away all of the girls' toys. If you ever want to feel like a complete monster, throw away your dog's toys while they watch. I think there's a permanent scar on my soul...

The Itty Bitty Judgement Committee

We also quarantined the area where Zelda pooped the most by fencing it off. Then, the backyard was subjected to a thorough mucking... a VERY thorough mucking. Using a shovel that rests in a bucket of diluted bleach when not in use, I scoop every little diseased pile of turds I find. Since parvo can live in the soil, I also dig several inches down, remove the dirt, and then spray the entire region down with diluted bleach.

That sounds excessive, and it probably is, but parvo is one of my big time pet peeves when it comes to dogs. It is stupidly easy to walk into any vet, pay a very small fee, and save your dog from a terrible, slow death. If any of the people who had owned these puppies prior to me had given a damn about them, they would have gotten them vaccinated, and I don't want to hear about cost -  it's about $20 around here.

Twenty damn dollars could have prevented Zelda almost dying. That's less than a week's worth of Starbucks, the same as skipping fast food for two for one night; a thousand thousand little things these people could have done without for just a few days to pay for their dog's care.

I'm going to get off my soap-box. Since I know most people come here for the sillies and the pictures, I'll leave you with the thought that every morning this week, while y'all have been enjoying your coffee, maybe reading the news or frowning over the crossword, I've been in my backyard with a shovel and a bag of infected turds, moving across the Bermuda with a gallon of bleach at my side, waging an obsessive-compulsive, Stalinesque scorched earth campaign against my lawn.

Black and White Sundays

Our best Clint Eastwood Impression

The Skinny on the Skinnies

For those who didn't see on Sunday, we have a pair of bitty fosters joining Bast's shenanigans. Although there have been some hiccups as everyone figures out whose spot on the couch belongs to whom, Bast has been very curious about our new ladies.

Look, you can pee all over this and no one gets mad...

Our girls, like Bast, have some issues. They're wee, starved sisters who are guessed to be around mid content wolfdogs - so, a bit higher than Bast is. With as thin as they are, at times they look WAY more wolfy than Bast does....

Slinky stinky girls.

But other times they just look like skinny little deer.

Today, we took the girls to the vet to see where they stand on their health. Because of their weak bone growth, we were worried about them having canine Rickets, however the vet thinks things aren't as bad as that. We will have to wait until next month to do X-rays to check on their bone formation.

What we did find out this time was bad enough, sadly. Zelda, the flop-eared girl in the second picture weighs 23 pounds and her sister Midna tipped the scales at a whopping 20.3 pounds. To compare, another woofer we know who is their same age weighs 65 pounds...

So we need a LOT of good food around here.

Midna, the sweet little slinky girl, had an unfortunate surprise for us, as well. Her previous owners told me that she had a cut on her side from trying to escape her crate, but told me it was mostly healed. We shaved the fur back today and were greeted by an absolutely unreal stench...

This was the "mostly healed" cut. After washing away the pus, the vet said that at the very least, there is some good granulation on it and that if kept clean, it should heal over quickly.

Now Midna has her own very stylish cone of shame. We think she should be a martini for Halloween.

If you wondered if they could get more pathetic, the answer is yes.

We have a long road to go with these girls, and I can't help but feel a little bit of déja vu - it's like the last year and a half never happened and I'm right back in the trenches with Bast. The fearfulness, the neglect, the hunger... How can this have happened again?

Today, the girls needed to be alone for a few hours while I went to work. Absolutely routine, absolutely harmless... and it absolutely terrified me. Bast has been so good about being okay in the backyard that I've forgotten what it's like to be actually nauseous with worry over a sneaky, broken dog.

I sat on the bus taking me back to my car, fuming over its slow progress and feeling my fear in my stomach like I'd swallowed a cup of peach pits. What are they doing? Are they still in the yard? Are they okay? What if they get out? What if they get hurt? Can't this bus go any faster? I bet they're hungry...

Bursting through my back door to see them - all of them, Bastas and Grendel, too - in place, intact, and ecstatic to see me unwound all of that fear in the time it took me to get showered in doggy kisses.

I know that we have months and months of stress, fear, and worry ahead of us. I know the girls are a terrific amount of work and will probably break my heart over and over again, wear me down physically and emotionally, but they're here now, and they're happy, and we're going to get them healthy.

And that's worth a few gray hairs on my head.

Black and White Surprises

Sorry we've been sort of quiet recently - things got busy with a special surprise. We welcomed two little foster girls, 7 month old sisters who are guessed to be around mid content (so a little higher than Bast).

These girls are a horrifying lesson in why it is so important to do your research - all of it - before owning a wolfdog. Although the people who owned them were sincerely nice people, they were very misguided on how to take care of wolfdogs. After reading that wolves only eat a few times a week, they applied that factoid to these puppies... And now I have two very hungry girls who have only been given food a couple times a week for most of their lives.

These girls are constantly scavenging. They are extremely food aggressive (big shock), and, most worryingly, they seem to have problems with their joints caused by malnutrition and calcium deficiencies. Their ribs - and you can count every one of them - show signs of being frayed and badly formed.

Although we have already gotten them started on supplements and a weight gain plan, these two pretty girls may be permanently physically disfigured by the ignorance of well-meaning people.

Do your homework, friends.

New Toys

Apologies for the dearth of posts - we've been out of town for the past week, enjoying the beautiful scenery in New Mexico and letting Bast run his little heart out in the woods.

In fun news, I was gifted a fantastic new toy from my parents - a DSLR camera, which is way fancier than anything I've played with before. Lucky for me, I have a very handsome super model to help me learn the settings on my new camera, and since I know you all like pictures, here are a few of my favorites from our weekend in the mountains.

Okay, so that was more than a few, but I really like taking pictures of Bast with my new camera....

I won't apologize.

Black and White Sundays

Happy National Black Dog Day!

We love our dark-furred, spooky dogs around here!