A dog’s life

Or to be exact: Two dogs lives in our house.

Sam (right) ist the youngest furbaby here, but he has to battle the most health issues. One, he has vasculitis at the ears. Vasculitis is an inflammation of the blood vessels, which results in bad itching in his case. Back in the shelter, the diagnosis was confirmed, but Sam’s head shaking and scratching were explained with nervousness and stress. When it got worse, we mentioned this to our vet. He gave us a lotion to put on the ears twice a day, and head shaking and scratching stopped… I am so sorry he had to live with that for two and a half years. But we trusted the vet from the shelter.

Second, he suffers from hypothyroidism. This condition is also chronic and has to be treated as long as he lives. But like the vasculitis, we got it under control. I would say, he can live well with his health issues right now.

Janet (left) is twelve years old, but in very good health. Sometimes her teeth cause trouble. When she came to live with us, her teeth were in a very bad condition, and four of them had to be removed.  Last week we had her teeth cleaned properly, and one tooth had to be extracted, but she can live with this and recovered well from surgery.

In my opinion we are responsible for the health of our pets. They rely on us to look after them. In the future I will ask for another opinion and listen to my heart if I think something is wrong.

 

Me and eight paws…

…are strolling around the neighborhood every day. Since I returned from my last inpatient stay last summer/fall I really stayed on the ball, not walking the dogs is a rare exception from the rule. My form of the day decides how long our walk is.

Dealing with Sam still can be difficult. But my biggest fear, not being able to handle him, didn’t come true. I deal with the tricky situations the best way I can and am able to calm down quickly afterwards. And the daily excercise is good for all of us.

During the last months, I attended seminars about handling difficult dogs. My goal is to understand Sam better, because this will help me to react in the best possible way. Sam has two faces: At home, when everything is quiet, he is very cuddly and listens to commands very well. Outside, or if somebody comes near our house, he is tense and anxious and tries to scare away every human (especailly the mail man, cyclists and joggers) or dog by barking loudly. We try to show him that these situations are not dangerous, but his fears run deep.

It’s a good thing Janet is the complete opposite. Her good spirits and zest of life make us all very happy. Two problematic dogs would be too much for me to handle, but so everything is balanced out.

Since I was a little girl, animals had a positive effect on me. It doesn’t matter if it were budgies, hamsters, horses, cats or dogs. I don’t care what happens to me some days, but our furbabies always are important. On the other hand, some pets from the shelter found a new home and live with us now. Win-win!

 

Janet

Janet is the one in our pack who sometimes is a little bit neglected. Jackie is a Diva, and Sam gets lots of attention due to his behavior.

 She is not young anymore, approximately ten years old, and she likes a quiet environment. She looks for a place where she is out of the trouble, but can hear anything what’s going on.

 When I check on her, I am met with a soulful gaze, and when I talk to her, she wags her tail. Of course it makes things easier for us that she is so easy to handle. We take care that she has quality time with us, when everything is about her. 

She seems to be happy here, and we hope we will have many more happy hours with her.