My Story
Well here I am, all mucky and stinky just arrived at the dogs home. My human dad used to starve me and then try and train me with a big horse whip, my real dad’s here too just next door but I can’t see him I can only smell him. My human dad brought us here as he said he couldn’t afford to feed us any more, I think my doggy mum’s still sat out in the dirty back
garden where we all used to live.
The dog rescue isn’t a bad place but I’m really scared everything's strange and there’s a lot of other dogs here too. It was a really long two weeks in the rescue centre. One day I was taken out and put in a car and overheard the girls talking about going to the vets, when we got there the man gave me an injection and I fell asleep. When I woke up I was very sore and my ‘watsits’ had gone, where I don’t know but they’re definitely not here anymore and awwwww! Don’t think I like the vet anymore!!!
Not long afterwards a lady called Leanne came to get me and I was put in a car and we went to her ‘home’. Two more dogs were there and I was happy to see them but they weren't too happy to see me. Kiara the black one kept growling at me and Poppy just ignored me, I didn’t mind too much as I’ve never been in a house before and was busy exploring. I kept bumping into things but my new mum was there to give me some hugs when I hurt myself. I tried to get upstairs at bed time but I just can’t seem to figure them out.
Kiara’s being really horrible and keeps growling, how am I supposed to know that she’s hidden treats in nearly every corner!!!
Don’t think my mum was happy about me tying to climb on her knee though.
I went for my first walk today, only just made it as my mum was trying to put a collar on me. I don’t like collars they remind me of when I was back there. I was really scared and kept putting my head between my legs so she couldn’t get at me!! In the end she just wrapped a lead around my neck and gently coaxed me along, I was still waiting for the whipping but she just put me in the car. When we stopped mum tricked me into a collar and I didn’t want to get out of the car, I really thought this was it 'nasty time' but my mum gave me a hug and a sweetie WOW! how cools that? So I decided to get out of the car, we were in some woods and it has a large pond I’ve never known so much water and I followed Kiara and Poppy as they were swimming and splashing about. It’s great, I’ve never had so much fun, my mum and her friend were laughing at me. When we got home mum took the collar off and put it away so I wasn’t scared anymore.
I heard my mum say that she thinks there’s something wrong with my eyes and we need to go see someone about it.
A couple of days later we went to the vet and he said I had congenital cataracts. I'm tottally blind in my left eye and 95% blind in my right, the vet said he thinks I can only see movement and shadows. My mum was quite upset about it and asked if it was because of the beating and whipping I had at my old place but the vet said he thinks it’s a birth defect which made my mum feel a bit better. He said something about a specialist but we’re waiting to hear.
Yippee! went back to the woods today I let her put my collar straight on now as it means we're going for a walkies now not 'nasty stuff', sometimes I forget though and get really scared but only for a minute then I remember I’m with my new mum now. I had a splash about and while we were there my mum got chatting to a man who was a dog psychologist and was asking about some training tips and he invited her along to his training class on Saturday. Mum was all excited and kept telling me I was going to school, must be good if she’s this happy about it.
I really like this home thing I get to go out for a walk everyday. There’s always food and water and no-one shouts or hits me, I’m really starting to enjoy myself here but not too sure mums impressed when I start jumping around in the lounge. I think I’ve totalled 2 glasses and a mug so far with my tail.
Me and Kiara are best mates now and she’s teaching me how to play. I chase her around and try and pinch the stick from her then we have a tug of war.
Today is school day, we had to go out without Kiara and I’m not too sure about stuff without her. Mum took me to a field with I think it was 5 other dogs with their mums and dads. I played this game where you had to find some chicken under a plant pot, there were lots of pots but only one had chicken under it, once mum had shown me where the pots were I could smell them and I found the chicken. I like this game, mum says we can play it again at home.
After a quick sleep at home mum took all of us out to the woods where Brian the guy from training was, I like him he has chicken!! I think I was supposed to sniff out some chicken hidden in the woods but wasn’t quite sure what I was doing so I didn’t make a good job of it!! I was listening to Brian talking to my mum and he said he trains Search and Rescue dogs. He’s going to help me find my way around with my nose and he’s going to train my mum to use a whistle so I can hear it and do what it says like come back to her and turn left or right, sit, lay down etc ha ha ha can’t wait until she tries that! I’ll let you know later on how we get on.
We go to a local nature reserve most days and I like it there as there are lots of grassy places where I can let loose and run around . I’m getting quite confident now in the places that I know and my mum says I’m totally different to what I was like 3 weeks ago.
I went back to the rehoming centre yesterday as they were having a fund raising dog show day, there was lots of people and dogs there and after the first 10 minutes I wasn't scared anymore and really enjoyed myself, lots of people came and gave me hugs and mum bought me a sausage sandwich as a treat cos I won 'best Rescued Dog' in a show!!!!!
Gosh so much has happened to me in the last few weeks so I’m going for a sleep now and I’ll update what’s been happening soon.
SEPTEMBER 2008
I've been quite poorly at the beginning of the month, mum noticed when she got up and the floor and walls in her lounge and kitchen were covered in blood! Think she was quite scared she had a quick look at me and saw blood coming out of my nose and phoned the vet, we went to see him straight away Huh I didn't even get my breakfast!! I had an upper respirotary infection - lots of tablets to take now! I'm all better now though and making up for the few days I was quiet, ha ha ha. I'm still going to see Brian every saturday morning and I'm really good at the plant pot game now. Mum's been trying to teach me about the whistle and after about 3 weeks I decided to give in and listen to it, mum just wouldn't give up, so she can now recall me and I sit too but only when I'm not playing I pretend not to hear her then!! Got to keep some independance I reckon! Still waiting to go and see the sheep dog lady but mum had to put that on hold for a couple of weeks as I was contagious.
OCTOBER '08
Well I've been to the specialist and I have Bilateral Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, my right eye has some sight but I can't focus everythings a bit wavy about 10% sight according to the guy. My left eye is definatley dead too, there is nothing they can do so I guess I've just got to live with it but thats ok as I'm really very happy now anyway, I go out for walks in the same place and I know where I can let loose and run amok so I get loads of excercise and Kiara is extra helpful we've made up our own language so I can understand her when she wants to play, or if I'm about to walk on her!! She likes to play hide and seek in the back garden which isn't really fair as she's black and it's really easy for her to hide then she jumps on me, I run away and she just lays down and waits for me to come past her again! It's great fun!
JANUARY '09
Well I've had a few chilled months here, not much out of the ordinary has happened until today, when I went out for my morning wee wee it had snowed, never seen snow before it's great fun really fluffy and WET!! On my walkies I had a good time playing in it. Mind you it's never too cold for a paddle in the pond where we go!!!
FEBRUARY '09
Mum took me to some swimming lessons at a local hydrotherapy centre, she's scared that I'll try and swim in the pond where I paddl and splash about and maybe get confused and not be able to swim back to shore so she's trying to bulid me up!! I just think she likes the peace when I get back as I'm sooooo tired!!!! Not sure if I like it, they put this doggy life jacket on me and there was this lady in the pool with me holding onto me and I couldn't swim anywhere but i did get a nice shower and blow dry afterwards, the people were really nice and gave me lots of cuddles and biscuits! Mum says were going again so maybe I'll like it better when I get used to it, it's really scary when I can't see whats happening.
MARCH '09
Managed to get nose to nose with mums parrot today, don't think she likes me though as she managed to pull a beak full of hair out of me and then bit me!!! Mum laughed and found it really funny, cheers mum!
I still see Brian the dog trainer, we all go for walks together in the woods which is great fun as there's only Brian and mum with 8 dogs between us!! I'm getting better at the swimming now, still not sure I like it but it does get rid of all my excess energy so I'm a bit mor chilled around the house, mum's eventalking about getting some new mugs and glasses now !!!
AUGUST '09
Things have been going along nicely then I got fleas! yuck !! Mum tried everything to get rid of them but because of my fur we just couldn't get rid so I went and had a hair cut, grade 1 all over for me, that'll teach the pesky little things!! I do feel so much better now though and it's so much cooler for me.
OCTOBER '09
Phew how busy have I been This last few months, I've been really poorly too!
Let me see. where to start, ummmmmm . . . .
Oh yeah, My mate Kiara, well she's smart, so smart that she's learnt to open the cupboard doors in the kitchen and after mum had been shopping to get stuff for her xmas cake making she thought she'd hidden all the dried fruit at the back of the cupboard but Kiara watched and waited !! When mum had gone out Kiara opened the cupboard door and we feasted on about 3lbs of dried fruit. Yum Yum, well the yummy bit lasted until I started feeling a sick, Kiara and Poppy were feeling a bit off it too and were off thei food for a day or so but not me, I couldn't eat for 3 days so mum took me off to the vets who told her to just feed me chicken and rice - Yipee - and they gave me an injection, that'll teach me to steal !! to settle my tummy, that was on the saturday, by Tuesday I still felt really poorly and was drinking loads but not eating so mum took me back to the vets, when she explained what had happened with the fruit the vet was very concerned and went off to check something out, he came back 2 minutes later and told mum that dried fruit was really poisonous to dogs and that he thought I'd gone into renal failure and if I had the outlook wasn't good!! I was admitted straight away and put on a drip. Mum was really worried, they came and took blodd from me and phoned mum the following day to say that the blood work had come back and it wasn't renal failure and I was booked in for x-rays the following day. Mum got a call the following afternoon to say that there wasn't anything definate on the x-rays but she had two choices 1) treat me for an upset tummy and see what happens, bearing in mind I hadn't eaten now for over a week so if it was left much longer I'd be too weak for the anaesthetic or 2) operate and check my intestines out, mum asked what he would do if it was his own dog and the vet said he'd go in as if his hunch was wrong at least it ruled out most major causes! So operate he did, I don't remember much but listening to the vet talking to mum I was lucky to surviv, there was something weird in my belly like plastic stuff which had perforated my lower intestine in one part and blocked another part and all the goo in my intestines had leaked out into my belly!! I was cleaned and stitched up and within hours of waking up was able to eat a little bit and keep it down!! Almost a week from when I was taken in I was allowed to go home, phew, never tought I'd get to see mum again. Mum eventually after she'd stopped chanting 'thank god he's insured!!' worked out that not only had I eaten the fruit I'd eaten the bag too and the sealed bit at th bottom was what had caused all the trouble.
I'm ok now though just not allowed out on my nice long walkies for a while.