Casa Flores

It's Easy to See the Difference Love Can Make...

It was five months ago this morning that I picked up Lucky from his foster mom, Cathy, in Southern Indiana. During the 12-hour trip through pouring rain most of the way I thought to myself, "I'm flippin' nuts! WHAT am I doing?"  As soon as I saw him the next morning I *knew* I'd followed my heart to the right place.  Cathy took this picture that morning.  Lucky might not have been so sure but I was!:

I remember glancing at him constantly during the drive and wondering, "who could do this to a dog?!"  I cried on and off the whole way home and probably for the first two weeks that he was with us.  I didn't know if he was ever going to be really okay.  The first couple of months was one infection and medical problem after another but it's been smooth sailing since his dental in January. Knock on wood.

Let's line up the pictures so you can see the difference in him. Remember that he'd already been in the loving care of a Vet and Lucky Star Rescue for a total of about six weeks before we adopted him.  The pictures taken at the vet on the day he was rescued can be seen by clicking on the thumbnails in the right sidebar. It still makes me cringe when I see them. They didn't think he was going to live through it.  But he did... oh... he did!

Let's take a little trip down memory lane....

From this (after one week with us):

To this (that's what ten pounds more looks like on a little dog):

From this:

to this (and remember, he was just groomed a couple of weeks ago. They took quite a bit off his ears and tail):

From this:

To this (you can actually *see* the confidence he's built up) :

I really wish I'd taken a picture of his tail when I first brought him home.  It was like a rat tail and the butt of much joking by Dan and I (no pun intended).  There was very little fur on it and none on the tip.  We really didn't think it was ever going to grow in on the very tip.  I started taking pictures after he'd been with us for about three weeks:

To this:

Thanks for looking back with me.  Here are a few more pictures I took this morning:

   

      

First Grooming

I entered Lucky in the contest at Bissell.  Please take a moment and give him your vote.  You can only vote once so please help me spread the word. The winner gets to choose a rescue group of their choice to receive 10K!  Lucky obviously chooses Lucky Star Cavalier Rescue.    Here's the link to Lucky:  http://tinyurl.com/2hnprp

I can't believe it but Lucky actually went to the Groomer last week!  They evened out all the long hairs that were leftover from the mange and gave him a pedicure.  He cleans up good, doesn't he?

He is every bit as sweet as he looks.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I have never met a sweeter, gentler dog than my little guy.  It almost brings me to tears to see how great he looks now.

Emotionally, he's still a little timid around Joe (unless he's getting a treat) and he's still takes his time going to strangers but he does go to them eventually and it's taking a shorter and shorter amount of time.  It's obvious now that he's older than we originally thought which really saddens me.  It means we have a shorter amount of time with him. 

Six Months

Can you believe this guy?

Gorgeous and (knock on wood) he's completely healthy!  Yeah!  He weighs... are you ready.... 20.5 lbs.  That's 6 1/2 more than when he came to live with us almost four months ago.  That's a lot of weight on a little dog! 

He loved watching the Westminster dog show with us.  He'd get all interested when they showed the dogs going around the ring.  He also likes to watch the Cavalier trials video.  So funny to see him interested in something.

He continues to get braver and braver.  The after-school routine around here is for the boys to give the dogs a treat when they get home.  The dogs don't know the "treats" are actually the Royal Canin dental food the vet prescribed.  Both dogs get very excited as soon as Daniel gets home.  They are right on his heels while he puts his book bag down and gets his jacket on.  Then they do it again a half hour later when Joe gets home.  The minute he gets his treat though, Lucky's gone and won't have anything to do with Joseph.  Sometimes he'll play a little with Joe but he always keeps his distance.

When we go for walks now he doesn't freak out when you walk behind him.  He's learned to trust that we aren't going to step on him.

His hearing is still bad.  The only thing he seems to hear is Aggie's bark or loud thumping noises or yells.  Oh.  And hands clapping together.  That's what we do when we need to get his attention quick.  Like when he's doing something he's not supposed to.

He hasn't had an accident in the house in I don't know how long.

I'll post again in about a month.  You'll be shocked at how his tail looks.

Five Months to a New Life

It's been five months and two days since Lucky was rescued from the puppy mill in Missouri.  I often look at him and try to imagine what he must be thinking.  He had no way of knowing that his life at the mill wasn't the way it was supposed to be.  For a dog that lived in a cage outside or in a barn he's taken to indoor living pretty well.  Don't you agree:

 

I posted about him on my knitting blog the other day.  I'll repeat it here:

Jan 17, 2008

Lucky has yet another nickname.  Lucky, I now knight you Sir Cha Ching.  No.  That's not Oriental.  It's in reference to the money this sweet, sweet little guy has cost us thus far.  After the initial adoption fee and the gas to drive to Indiana to pick him up he's had a few medical issues.  A few weeks ago he had a skin infection.  While at the vet it was discovered that his teeth are rotting right out of his head due to the lack of nutrition all those years at the mill.  We took care of the skin infection and he had his dental appointment today.  Holy Shnikies.  You know it's bad when you walk in to pick up your dog and the vet says, "I'm warning you... it's not pretty.  The boy is adorable but he's a train wreck.  We had to pull seven teeth instead  of three, he has a ear infection and an anal gland infection."  then she turned the bill so I could see it.  Let's just say it was over $900 and less than a grand.  Did I say Holy Shnikies already?  My first thought was that Dan was going to have my head.  My husband is the sweetest guy there is but he grew up on a ranch.  He loves the dogs but he sees them as dogs.  I see them as kids.  I decided to take the bull by the horns and call him from the vet to let him know.  He said a couple of things and then said, "Well... it had to be done.  Hopefully he'll be okay from now on."   He loves our dogs more than he'll admit.  You only have to see him with them when he thinks no one is looking.

• rescue fee: $350
• gas and hotel $500
• vet bills $1400
• This face:

Priceless.  He's worth every cent and we'd do it all over again.  Just know that if you take in a rescue you better be ready for vet bills.  Lucky was worse off than a lot of rescues are but just take it into consideration....

Haiku for Sandy:

Sweetest little dog

He's learning to enjoy life

One day at a time

Jan 19, 2008

Thanks for all the kind words about Lucky aka Sir Cha Ching.  He was pretty out of it all day yesterday.   Aggie was very gentle with him and sort of hovered over him all day like she knew.  She's usually jumping on him and tugging him around by an ear or a lip or whatever she can grab with her teeth.  Not yesterday.  She sniffed all the parts that hurt and stayed by his side.  It was so sweet.

He Speaks!!

"There she goes with that camera again... Can't a dog get any sleep around here?"

Before you continue to read, I want to warn that there are a couple of pictures that aren't very pretty.  One is of the day Lucky was rescued and the other is one I took of his paw pad this morning.  That said, there's lots of really cute pics of him in this post to make up for the ugly ones.

Lucky doesn't bark very often.   We can go weeks without hearing anything and when he occasionally does, it's doesn't last long.  I finally caught him on tape this morning!  I shot most of this video over the last month.  The bark scene is the treat at the end.  His bark is music to my ears.

He's barking at our neighbor's son and you can see that he's being playful about it.  Trent was barking at Lucky and Aggie (playing with them) and he started barking back.  We were all shocked and loved it.  What you can't see in the pictures is the way his confidence has grown and he's getting comfortable in his own skin.  I think you can see it in the videos, which is why I do them.

His coat seems to be coming in even better and faster since we're past the skin infection.  My thumb is marking the actual bottom of his ear so you can see how much fur has grown: 

Two months ago it looked like this.

A couple of nights ago we groomed the fur from between his paw pads as it was getting pretty long.  I was a little concerned to see this:

It looks like his nail grew into the pad at one time and this is dead scar tissue.  I'll have the vet look at it when he goes in for his dental next week.  I think they're going to have to re-quick the nail while they have him under because it's still sharp at the corner and hard to get at with it right next to the pad.  His quicks are very long.  When you see the photo of the day he was rescued you'll know why.  I know that regularly grooming will make the quicks recede but this one is really too long. I should have pulled the fur back so you could see how long it actually is. He has another just like it on another foot.

At my request, the Angel that rescued him from the mill sent this photo.  I think it's important that people see it.  It was taken at the vet on August 20th, the day he was rescued. Less than five months ago. The people that did this should be shot.  The change is amazing. They may have won the battle but I think Lucky won the war. Least of his worries were his nails but you can see why his pads are in the shape they are in.  There's an outstanding interview with the HSUS Director of the Stop Puppy Mills Campaign to listen to by clicking here.

And here's our guy as of this morning:

The tail continues to grow:

This was a closeup I took this morning while he was sleeping.  That tail tip was completely bald and pink when I brought him home a little over two months ago:

My guy "Bernie"

Seriously... doesn't he look like he needs one of those old newspaper boy caps?  This is his "Bernie" face.  And I still say he looks like a St. Bernard puppy.  Dan absolutely cracks up when he makes this face.

December 18, 2007 - Princessa Aggie and her pal.

Sorry I'm a little late.  Busy with the holidays and all.  I didn't get a video done but will for the next post.

We had a vet visit last week.  Lucky had a skin infection which he's on antibiotics for.  When the vet opened his mouth we were shocked to see the condition his teeth are in.  One was just dangling there so the vet pulled it out on the spot.  Just a little yelp from our guy but it had to feel better once it was out.  He has an appointment for a teeth cleaning and at least three extractions on the 17th.  I hate to put him through the trauma but he'll feel much better once it's done.  Meanwhile, we're continuing the antibiotics for the skin infection (which actually looked cured after one bath with the prescription shampoo).

He continues to grow more confident and his coat is coming in beautifully.  He doesn't clomp around like he used to.  He's a little more graceful.

Our neighbors (the ones who's back yard we borrow for the dogs to run in) just adopted a cute little Blenheim rescue.  I'll post pics of him when I can get some.  Lucky LOVES him.  He actually whines when Briscoe goes in the house.  If you knew how seldom Lucky made noise you'd understand.  Well... that is if you don't count his freight train snoring.... which has actually gotten quieter since he's been here, I think. I've been trying to get video of him barking but we haven't heard him do it in weeks.

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

Christmas morning:

A Month?

In some ways It feels like we've had Lucky forever.  I can't believe it's only been a month.  It's funny because he's starting to switch from being "my" dog to being Dan's.  When we're watching TV at night he now prefers climbing up next to Dan and snuggling in.  He's got a new nickname... Bernie.  It was actually one of the names I wanted because he looks like a puppy St. Bernard and he just looks like a Bernie, so that's what I call him.  Doesn't really matter since he can't hear anyway.

We've been working on the sign language and he's picking it right up.  He knows the one for "Treat" (big surprise there), "Sit" and I think he gets "Good Boy".  We gave him a lot of treats with the thumb's up sign so that he'd learn it means something good.   I won't say much more because the pictures and video say it all but the big news...  He weighs 17lbs!!  That's three pounds this month!  He just needs some more muscle growth and he'll be good to go.

I took these this morning.  What a couple of beauties, no? 

Look!  No more pink tail tip!

The neighbors yard (and just about everyone else here at West Point besides us) has a fence.  We borrowed it yesterday so that the dogs could run and play.  They had a blast and it's a good thing we did it then because we woke up to a lot of the white stuff this morning.  While Lucky wouldn't be any problem, Aggie's coat is a nightmare when it gets wet like that. 

Here's the update video.   Just under two minutes long:

Week Three

In case you missed it, I posted a picture of Lucky in the sweater I knit for him last week HERE.

After this post, I'll just be doing updates every other week or so since he's not changing as fast anymore.

He continues to improve each day.  He has mastered the stairs and doesn't fall down them any more.  After the first fall he wouldn't go near them for days.  We coaxed him down while walking slowly in front of him and he got the hang of it.  He goes up and down them all day now.  He's still a little stiff but he's loosened up quite a bit.  He's still pretty shy of the boys but Cathy gave the suggestion of letting them give him a finger of peanut butter so that's what we're doing when they get home from school and once each day on the weekend.  He's better with Daniel than he is Joe but Daniel is almost adult size. lol.

Next week I'll make the appointment with the vet to have his microchip put in.  I was waiting until he was more secure and fattened up a little.  I'm anxious to see  how much he weighs. I bet he's only a pound or so underweight now.  He doesn't look starving anymore.

He hasn't had any accidents in the house this week.  Last night he even went to the back door and sat and looked at us to go out.  Aggie could learn a lesson or two from him.

He and Aggie are basically inseparable now.  They play several times a day and it's adorable to watch.  We're still in shock that she allows him near her toys, let alone her favorite rubber chicken that they played tug-o-war with the other night.

We've been working on the sign language.  He has "sit" down pat and we're working on signs we've come with for "Want a treat?" and "come".  Of course, Aggie hears it and he goes where she goes so....

Here are pictures we took this morning.  You have no idea how hard it is to get a deaf dog to sit and stay.  Aggie sits patiently as we try to get his attention.  But here we go:

Look at how much hair he's grown on his ears just since last week!  There's a little curl there!  Compare it to this picture from two weeks ago.  Amazing.

I thought we'd have a little fun and do a "Tail Watch" to see how fast his hair grows.  This little tail was almost bald three weeks ago.  The very topside of the tip is still pretty pink and bare but there's peach fuzz there so it's coming along.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!  Lucky and Aggie will be going with us to the White Mtns of New Hampshire to share Tday with family.

Two Weeks With Lucky - Video!

We heard him bark today for the first time!  He joined Aggie at the back door watching those pesky squirrels and chipmunks run around our back yard.  All of a sudden he let out a few very deep barks.  Wow.  So much power behind such a timid little guy.  Aggie even jumped back.   It was a great sound.  A little later he was growling (playfully) and barking while playing with Aggie.  Of course he stopped as soon as I grabbed the video camera.  It's good to see him getting more and more playful:

He still looks like a baby St. Bernard to me, lol, but you can actually see the little bit of hair that's hanging off of his ears now:

I think you can see he's pretty happy with Aggie in this video that I took this morning so turn up the volume, click it and enjoy:

:

Lucky - One Week

Lucky continues to improve every day.  He's an absolute joy to have around.

He and Aggie have taken to playing quite a bit.  He's still very submissive but he's getting braver each time.  He's decided that he likes Aggie's travel bag very much.   She's not thrilled about that so there's a constant rush on to see who can get in the bag first.  When Lucky makes it in first Aggie sits there and barks at him.  It doesn't bother him much.  When Aggie gets in first Lucky just lays across the front of it getting in as much of himself as he can.  It's pretty hilarious to watch.

He follows me everywhere and the housebreaking is almost non-existent.   He's had a total of three accidents in the house and that's counting the first two that were within a few minutes of getting here.  I swear he actually came to get me this morning and then walked to the back door.  I took them out and he did both so I'm convinced that's what he was telling me.  I have yet to hear a sound out of him besides a little whining for a minute or two while we were in Dan's office after the vet visit.  I think he just wanted to go home. 

He's getting very curious and starting to get into things.  Oddly, he loves my yarn.  I cast on a sweater for him last night and he kept trying to get the yarn as I knit.  It was pretty funny.  It's just so good to see him do something other than sleep or lay there staring at you with big, sad eyes.  Today he's been more active than ever before.  He's even gone upstairs and down on his own several times.  Those stairs can be pretty scary.  They're wood and he's not the most agile guy.  He's getting it though.  Now if Aggie would just let him come down without trying to tackle him we'd be all set. 

He actually has about 1/8" of hair hanging off the tips of his ears and it's getting harder to see his skeleton.  I took all these following photos just about a half an hour ago. He's looking pretty good, no?: