End of the World. Beginning of a new one. The Life of Amberwolf.

it's not a certainty, but a pretty good probability, that the ice packs are stopping/preventing the barking stage, maybe inhibiting seizures:

barking/etc happened in cycles as below
2121
2124
2125
2127
every 30sec-min thru 2154
reapplied ice to back at 2141
2155
2157
no more since then (only 5 minutes, but they'd been coming almost continuously by the time I put the ice back on, and then they slowed down shortly after).


It is also possible that her meds kicked in enough to help; there's no way to know which did it. :/


Well, there is, and that's to remove the ice packs again, but I"m not going to put her thru it just to test a theory.
 
Her temp has been climbing again since around an hour after that, and is now (1245am) at 105.6 despite using the cool towels on her lower belly, and alcohol on her pads, and even the ice packs on her mid-back (to suppress the seizure stuff).

I put her on a doggie cooling pad I keep in the fridge (originally to take dogs for trips on trike or trailer when it's a little hot outside), and she's dropped down to 105.2 after about 10 minutes (1am). After another 30 minutes, it dropped to 104.3 (130am). Another 30 minutes (2am) and down to 102.7, so I removed most of the cooling stuff but left her on the cooling mat. 15 min after (215am) that it's 102.6, which while high is much better.

Her breathing is deep, not fast but not as slow as it would be in normal sleep. She is totally relaxed, as if dead, except for that. Every so often (half hour?) she coughs a fairly wet-sounding cough (probably from drool running down the wrong way; I havent' found a way to fix that) or two and her breathing gets labored for a minute, then returns to what is now "normal".

(edit: the above was typed about 130am, the wet-sounding cough went away but she has phlegm or something rattling in her throat now, about 215am. I moved her head around and it got better, but it's still there. I can't hear any wet sounds in her lungs, but that doesn't rule out aspiration pneumonia, either from her own slobber or from me trying to get water into her when I couldn't get the rescue to respond and no fluids or meds were brought on Friday (or the next day, when I really expected them to after not bringing them Friday). So if she dies of this fever then most likely it'll be my fault for getting water in her lungs. :cry:).

I am now waiting on the rescue to get back with me; I've left a text and an email, but that wont happen for at best several hours, since its' about [strike]130am[/strike] 2am right now.

I don't really know what else I can do; there is something else wrong, probably an infection of some kind, and if so she needs more than what I have here to fix that.

If we can get antibiotics I can treat her with them, but I don't know what is actually wrong--it could be something else. I just don't know what.


I want to just sit here and cry, both for her and because this is like when Tiny was so sick when she got MG and I was so sure she was going to die, and still didn't know what was wrong with her yet cuz tests were still being done.

I can only hope that this works out at least as well as that did, but I have this dread that it will not. :(
 
So 245am it's back up to 103.4, so I put the wet towel (with coldpacks in it) back on her tummy. Her ears and paws are still wet from before.

Will have to keep checking thru the night to be sure it doesn't go back up to dangerous levels, and add cooling as needed.

I have the other cooling mat still in the fridge to swap out when this one isn't helping anymore. (and lots of coldpacks)


315am down to 102.8

410am up to 103.0

6am down to 102.9

829am down to 102.0
 
Her temperature would be actually higher than this list, because it's being reduced by the cooling towel and mat, etc. By how much, I don't know. I suspect at least two degrees higher without this stuff.

105.6 1245am
(start extra cooling mat, etc, wet ears&paws)
105.2 1am
104.3 130am
102.7 2am
102.6 215am
(removed some of the cooling stuff)
103.4 245am
(put coldpacks back in towel on tummy)
102.8 315am
103.0 410am
102.9 6am
102.0 829am

Right at this moment she is doing a very weak version of the precursor movement for siezures, whcih is her head trying to move side to side, and her eyes partly open in side-to-side movement, with some stiffness in her legs (rather than complete floppiness).

Thats been going on for at least 20 minutes now, which is different (only a few seconds prior to a siezure normally), and the post-siezure paw waving was happening before, for minutes at a time, with less minutes in between.

At 9am I tried to get her meds down, but I am not sure she swallowed; I can't see them at the back of her throat with her jaws pulled open, but that doesn't mean they went down. I tried the throat massage, etc. but still can't be sure, because she's still in the side-to-side "hunting" stage, even after at least 20 minutes now. She doesn't react to holding or touching her tongue, either; sometimes she is like that for a while, rather than trying to pull it back in and swallow/etc. it just lolls.
 
amberwolf said:
So 245am it's back up to 103.4, so I put the wet towel (with coldpacks in it) back on her tummy. Her ears and paws are still wet from before.

Will have to keep checking thru the night to be sure it doesn't go back up to dangerous levels, and add cooling as needed.

I have the other cooling mat still in the fridge to swap out when this one isn't helping anymore. (and lots of coldpacks)


315am down to 102.8

410am up to 103.0

6am down to 102.9

829am down to 102.0

I think a normal temp for a dog is around 102.5 or so isn't it? Looks like you're in that range.
 
amberwolf said:
Her temperature would be actually higher than this list, because it's being reduced by the cooling towel and mat, etc. By how much, I don't know. I suspect at least two degrees higher without this stuff.

105.6 1245am
(start extra cooling mat, etc, wet ears&paws)
105.2 1am
104.3 130am
102.7 2am
102.6 215am
(removed some of the cooling stuff)
103.4 245am
(put coldpacks back in towel on tummy)
102.8 315am
103.0 410am
102.9 6am
102.0 829am
 
amberwolf said:
amberwolf said:
Her temperature would be actually higher than this list, because it's being reduced by the cooling towel and mat, etc. By how much, I don't know. I suspect at least two degrees higher without this stuff.

105.6 1245am
(start extra cooling mat, etc, wet ears&paws)
105.2 1am
104.3 130am
102.7 2am
102.6 215am
(removed some of the cooling stuff)
103.4 245am
(put coldpacks back in towel on tummy)
102.8 315am
103.0 410am
102.9 6am
102.0 829am

I was going to ask if the rescue gave a reason not to use the ice packs on her back? When it comes to vets and others in the US most seem to get almost offended by the ice thing, if you read around the 'net a lot of other areas seem to really push it. One of my biggest frustrations dealing with our dog having epilepsy has been trying to find vets that really know their stuff vs ones that simply throw tons of meds at the problem. And don't get me wrong, meds can do wonders too. It's a combo thing.

I don't want to give incorrect advice so talk to a vet and read on the internet for sure but I believe I read somewhere that the ice isn't just to cool the body temps but because of the area you put it on their back may do something to brain activity to help interrupt the signals causing the seizure. Again, I might be talking out my ass and every dog is different and it depends on why the dog is having seizures too. Epilepsy is much different from other medical conditions that cause seizures.

We just had such great luck with it that I like to share our experience with others going through that. I do think it works better if you can catch the seizure right away before it's a full on seizure and certainly before it goes into a cluster.

I really think you're going to need some professional help at this point if it doesn't stop very soon. Did you get the rectal valium yet? That's one thing I should have on hand for cluster emergencies but I can't even find a vet to make a dose around here. It's sad because there are more and more dogs having this problem these days.

You're doing the right thing by documenting patterns for sure. It's like a big scary puzzle. But I really think you're going to need help getting her out of a cluster that's lasting this long.
 
I just noticed your profile picture. I'm so sorry if it's what I think it means. You are obviously a dog lover and again, hats off for taking the time to help a dog through a very difficult thing. You're in our thoughts for sure.
 
Teddy died at 1147am Sunday, 10-16-16.
DSC06115t.jpg

I started to type this up yesterday, got as far as finding a personality pic of her and making a new avatar to memorialize her, then just couldn't deal with anything else.

I'd stopped making updates before that because I was too busy holding her and waiting for the rescue to come help take her to the vet appointment they were setting up, but before they could, her breathing changed, the little siezure-like stuff stopped, and shortly after that she just stopped everything.

Even then, her body never relaxed fully, though it had been deathlike-relaxed most of the time between siezures previously. Now, it was as if she didn't want to let go, but she was totally gone; her eyes no longer dilated with a flashlight, and her bowels/bladder let go, though her jaws stayed clenched and her legs were not relaxed, though not totally stiff.

In the hours before, her temperature never went back up, even though I had stopped changing out the cooling stuff, as I waited to see if it was going to climb again; it stayed in the 102.0-102.5 range. The cooling mat underneath was not yet warm, but it was no longer cold. I'd discontinued the cold packs before because they were no longer helping with the seizure-like activity, which had basically become constant, with very short breaks.

They weren't like the ones before, but were like the puppy-dream stuff, minus the barking, with her head moving just a bit off the pads as if it were moving side-to-side, and her feet moving just a little as if she were dreaming of running, but nowhere near as energetically as it would have been in stage two of the original seizure pattern.

I don't know if anyone could have done anything for her...but I can't help thinking that if the rescue had come by with the stuff on Friday, or been able to get her to the vet then, maybe things would have turned out differently. Maybe not. We'll never know.

I told the rescue she died, about a minute after it happened, just before I burst into tears and lost all control over my built up emotions, and they came over to help bury her, which was a great help not only in the physical effort, but also because I needed their support (as well as Raine's, who had already come in here to help as much as he could; just his being there was a lot of help).


While we were digging Teddy's grave, and talked about Teddy's life, I also brought up that since I know that neither I nor Yogi really wants to be just us, that if they had any dogs that needed a home right now, they could bring them over as soon as they liked--sooner the better, because if I have someone else to help and concentrate on, it'll make things better faster. So tonight they will bring by the bigger dog in this pic,
imagejpet.jpg
whose name I don't yet know (I think it was Autumn?), who was one of three dogs taken by authorities from an abusive home where they were literally being starved, and possibly other things (she has an injury on her nose that is healing). She has just been to the vet and gotten a clean bill of health; we'll see how things turn out from there. I don't know how big she is, but the other two she was with were a Boxer and a Collie; if the boxer is the emaciated brown one on the right in the pic with her, and it's typical size, then Autumn is a big girl, though probably not as big as Yogi (probably bigger than Tiny, though).

I asked them to bring one of those Comfortzone / Adaptil pheromone collars for Yogi, since that did wonders for him accepting Teddy...though he doesn't seem to have nearly the reaction to Teddy's loss as he did Tiny. He doesn't go around looking for her, or keep going to her grave, or anything else he did when Tiny died. Doesn't mean he'll accept Autumn easily, either, but if it was because of that that he didn't accept Teddy, then Autumn has a better chance even without the collar...but it'll be there anyway. She is supposed to like the other dogs she's interacted with since her rescue, but that doesnt' mean she really will like Yogi, either.

So partly for that reason, to be here while they get used to each other, but mostly because I don't think I can handle being at work yet, I'll be home at least thru Wed this week, and if they can cover my shifts then Thu and Fri too, unless everything goes well with these two and I am able to cope well enough to go back before then.

I went back early when Tiny died, and it was a mistake, because I couldn't handle it and had to leave and it put a load on other people that didn't deserve it. I'd rather not do that again.

WIll be more pics and info later, once she's here.


For now, a bunch of pics of Teddy's silliness, and some of her in the last few days on the bed while I took care of her as best I could.
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Damn, not what I wanted to hear. I'm so sorry.

My dog having seizures has been one of the worst things I've ever gone through. People just don't know until they have to deal with it. I'm sure Teddy would thank you for all the comfort when she needed it the most.

Again, you're in our thoughts
 
Thank you...I am a little better now, but everything is reminding me she isn't here anymore; just like every time I lose one. :(

And when I see Yogi (or the new one) laying there, I have to stare, or check to make sure he's breathing, or just get down there and hold him until he gets so tired of it that he pulls away and runs off. Everytime he puppydreams I have to check to be sure it's not a seizure (he doesnt' get them...but after the last several days...watching Teddy go thru that has made me see it in everything). I wake up with no dog in the bed or the room and have to go find him...


But there is now a new member of the family, whose name was originally "Bernice", though she doesn't respond to it at all. She doesn't yet respond to her new name of Autumn, and it is not very appropriate either--she's more like Spring...or more accurately, Sproing. :lol:

DSC06129.JPG

She's a little crazy:
DSC06125.JPG


We haven't found her "real name" yet, but I keep making sounds to her and seeing which she responds to. (sometimes I do that with a new dog that doesn't know their name yet, rather than teaching them the one they were given cuz it just doesn't fit). Presently one contender is Dorkothy, (because she's too big to be Toto, by quite a bit).

She isn't as big as she will be, or rather, not as heavy, because even though she is taller than Yogi, she only weighs just under 80lbs; she's practically skin and bones--and she has *put on* weight since she came to the rescue! :cry: Her spine sticks out as much as her hair does; about an inch of it forward of her hips, for instance.
DSC06130t.JPG


We'll fix that, though...got lots of noms here. :)
DSC06127t.JPG


As soon as I can upload it to YT, I've got a video of her eating dinner near Yogi, where she kept looking up at me like "is this really all mine?" "are you sure?" "I get to eat this much?" and when I brought the camera over, she had to check it out, too.

She may not get as big as Yogi, build-wise, because she might be a mix with something skinnier by nature, but I expect she will be at least 120lbs. Yogi is around 140lbs, or a bit more; Teddy was 120lbs; Tiny was only 100lbs at the most, less sometimes.

She is the most active dog I've had in years, though--she's even more active than Nana and Hachi; more like Bonnie the border collie when we first got her before Mom fed her so much she couldn't stand up on her own. :/

She reminds me intensely of another dog, but for some reason I cannot remember which one. This bothers me more than I know how to express, because I am nearly certain it's one of my own. :(

Someone has trained her a fair bit of basic stuff, like sit, down, come, though not stay. And she doesn't always do it right away, but she's smart, and it won't take long to fix it.

Yogi didn't act like he was going to like her bounciness and nippiness, so before we went into the yard (we were introducing them outisde the yard where it isn't "his" place), I put the Adaptil/Comfortzone pheromone collar on him, and we waited a few minutes, talking with each other and them, and letting them see and semi-interact wth us and each other, then we led them into the backyard thru the carport gate, each on a leash just in case.

At first we kept them on the leashes, but shortly afterward we were able to let them both roam off leash, while Yogi followed her around sniffing the spots she peed on and where she walked (so he was kinda far behind), as she explored the yard with a kind of "wow, is this really all mine?" kind of body language. :lol:

It didnt take too long for Yogi to decide she was ok, so we tried out going inside the house, which is where he had a big problem with Teddy at first (before the pheremone collar was tried back then). This worked out well; he seemed a bit unsure at irst, but ended up with a kind of "oh, what the heck; she's already here" kinda look and accepted her.

He's not like he was with Tiny (totally in love at first sight), nor even as close as with Teddy (whcih wasn't very), but it's a start.
DSC06126t.JPG


She's kinda jumpy sometimes, like if I ruffle her butt fur, or she wasn't expecting a touch and I pet her, but she'll hop right up on the bed when I call her, and plop down on top of me. Good thing she doesn't weigh much yet (compared to what she will). She's sleeping now right where Teddy died, (it's both impossibly painful and wonderful that she is there) across the middle of my bed; she was laying on my legs and everytime I had to move a bit to relieve the aches or pins/needles, she'd start to jump up and run off; then she stops and lays back down and goes back to sleep. I don't know that she's ever slept in a bed with her peepulz, but she wants to be here.



She barks like Hachi, a BAAaaAAaaaAArrrk instead of a bark bark bark. But she'll stop when I tell her to, and come right to me; something Yogi took quite a while to learn (though he'll do it now in most cases).


Unfortunately she's even worse than Teddy about wanting to take Mouse (the cat) on a lunch date. :/ So I might have to go ahead and build the gate-door for Raine's room, rather than just the wire-gate presently used to slide across his door, so Mouse can still have a view but there'd be no chance of her getting into the room and hurting Mouse (or Mouse getting out and getting chased or hurt).

That's gonna take a lot more training to work around, and she might not ever get past it; I don't know that I'll ever trust her without a divider between her and a cat.

People she loves them all, though, like Teddy did, though she is overly exuberant about it.
 
More pics of the new one and Yogi. Breakfast...she is a very messy eater...kibble and slobber just splatters everywhere in an arc out in front of her. Gonna have to start hanging towels from the drawers and set her bowl up so she's aimed toward them, or have slime-coated cabinets pretty quick.
DSC06131.JPG

Post-playtime pics mostly for scale purposes, with CB2 right behind them.
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Vids to follow when I can figure out the backdoor to YT uploading posted previously.

They played for several minutes, though it took me quite a bit of that to fumble with the camera and get it turned on, set to video mode, and then get it to actually start recording, so there's only just under two minutes of the last of it recorded.

Now they are both napping in here with me; they had both been up on the bed snuggled up but Yogi as usual got up and is now sprawled against the wall on the floor near the door. She's (gotta find her "real name") snuggled up behind me up against my side/back right now.

And I'm about ready to join them in napping; too many nightmares to get much sleep so far.
 
Short naptime...then finally kludged a process to upload to YT. So here's the vids I couldn't upload for so long.

But first, finally found a name for her: Kirin (means Giraffe in Japanese, and she is certainly long legged enough). I was just chatting with Raine, and at some point I joked we could call her Kirin, and she stopped staring pantily at the cat-access and looked at me. So I said it a couple more times, and she looked at me each time, so since she responds to it and it kinda fits, there ya go. :)



First vids are a couple of Teddy vids of her being goofy, and of playing with Yogi.

https://youtu.be/gLZ0YCWtrmI
[youtube]gLZ0YCWtrmI[/youtube]

https://youtu.be/wpSOWYqJMag
[youtube]wpSOWYqJMag[/youtube]


Next, Kirin the Saint Giraffinard eats her first dinner here, then her first breakfast, then explores a bit, then has playtime with Yogi.

During mealtimes, she looks up frequently as if to ask "is this really all mine? Are you sure? I can has it?".
dinner
https://youtu.be/ZUJpivttp80
[youtube]ZUJpivttp80[/youtube]


breakfast
https://youtu.be/6XfwbOLKrQc
[youtube]6XfwbOLKrQc[/youtube]


exploration
https://youtu.be/hkQtytdPuiY
[youtube]hkQtytdPuiY[/youtube]


playtime with yogi
https://youtu.be/c1Knl1KRZ1I
[youtube]c1Knl1KRZ1I[/youtube]


These two are only for those that want to see what Teddy's seizures were like; please don't watch them if you don't want this burned into your mind; it's pretty awful. :(
stage one (actual seizure)
https://youtu.be/7UXMd3-pCLs
stage two (post-ictal)
https://youtu.be/3nfa7EBcqu4



Note the process I had to use to get them up there and then list them here was a HUUUUUuuuuuuuuuugggggeee OMGWTF PITA.

First I had to transfer them from the Sony Memory Stick the camera uses to the PC, then from there to a micro SD Card, because Bill's old (malfunctioning) tablet will NOT use the card reader that came with it, plugged into it's multi-pin port as intended, as it says it is a "high power device" and can't be used on the tablet. :roll:

(mind you, I can switch it to USB mode and use it's USB port to power and read an external harddisk, which takes WAY WAY more power than reading a freaking memory stick! but I can't transfer files that way, cuz the drive will never show up in the file manager)


Insert the microSD card into the slot on top of tablet, wait about 30-40 minutes while the tablet gyrates and considers whether or not it will let me access it, during which time it will not respond to anything (even it's power button, so you can't even shut it down, and if you pull the card out before it's done you have to wait till the battery dies in anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, before you can even reset it to do anything at all with it).

Open the file manager, and browse to the Pictures folder on the tablet's internal storage, create a new folder.

Browse back to the microSD card, and list and select the videos. Check off all the boxes individually, because the one at the top that should select them all does that and then unselects them, every time. Does not work like it should. touch the copy icon at the top.

Browse back to the table'ts storage and find the Pictures folder again, and then the new folder. (you can't create the folder now, because there is no option, since you have something in the clipboard :roll:) Paste them in.

Open the YT page, and discover there is no upload option on the mobile version. Eventually find I must install the YT app to uplaod. Wont' install because it says thsi tablet is too old. No older version of app availalbe.

Play store finds some apps that claim to work, only one will even install, and it just displays a bunch of ads, with no other functions on screen, no menus, etc. Takes quite some gyrations to get it out of the tablet and removed, along with the other apps it installed without my permission that generate more ads. So much for 5-star ratings.


Search and search and search and eventually find that I can force the browser to use the dekstop site, by typing in https://www.youtube.com/#desktop , at which point I get an upload button...which only works if I choose to sign in, of course. but it won't let me sign in, because it takes me to the mobile site, which won't let me sign in unless I install the app for that. :roll:

So I try signing into Gmail in another tab, then retyping in the address in the first tab, and now the upload button brings me to the upload page.

Click the button, it gives no option to use the filemanager, just the gallery. Fine, that should work, brows to the folder I created, and it sure shows all the videos, but they are all just play > icons, no thumbnails. (unlike the regular gallery view), the photos in the folder do have thumbnails. But the order is not selectable in any way, and they are not sequential in any way, just random, and each time I open it to upload a new one or retry getting the first one, they're in a different order. This is not true in the *actual* gallery app, just in the POS YT page.

So since I need these uploaded in a particular order, I had to create ANOTHER folder, and then cut just one from the original folder, and paste it in the new folder, which can't be inside the old folder, or it shows up in hte random crap view.

Then go back to teh YT upload page, and start over, browsing to the single file in it's own folder. Follow that thru the upload process, which fails about 75% of the time and has to be restarted...but not until you go to the Video Manager page and delete the broken version. :roll:

So after up to several tries to upload just one video, I go to the next, and the next and so on, having to cut and paste each one into and then out of the new folder, cuz there can be only one at a time in ther or I can't tell which is which (it doesn't even show the filename!).

And since it doesn't show me the YT url on any of the vids during upload (just http://you........ ) and the mobile version of the page listing my videos doesn't show them either, I thought I could at least use the PC version for that...but no, YT will not let me open any YT page AT ALL except the homepage. Every other page gives me their "oops" page, whcih just has a stack of TVs on it, and NO INFORMATION AT ALL ABOUT WHY I AM SEEING THIS PAGE!

(this is the whole reason for this stupid "process" to have to be taken in the first place...because I can't upgrade the browser on this ancient computer, and I can't use a different one because all the ones that will actually still install on it either won't run (cuz they need SSE2 or whatever), or YT gives the same error on THEM too. )

So I have to open each and every video, one at a time, and wait up to several minutes until it is fully loaded and playing, before the tablet's browser gets around to showing me the URL in the URL bar (until then, it just says "about blank", or some other random URL that is not a place I have visited, or is in my URL history, etc. Sometimes it's even a YT page...but not MINE!). Then I can pause the video, and manually read off the URL and type it into this post.


Eventually, almost 4 hours after I started, I get the URLs to finally add into the post I typed up during the upload "process".

Geez...
 
A few things about Kirin:

She's got an underbite, where her lower jaw is longer than the upper jaw, and sticks out maybe 1/4" or so. And her jaw is twisted, so that the left side is canted downward a bit at the front corner. Either it was broken and healed wrong, or it's part of the other deformity/genetic condition.

Not sure if that will ever cause her problems; she doesn't seem to want big pieces of any food or treats; if they're bigger than about an inch she might take them but will usually drop and leave them, if they don't just easily break or fall apart into smaller bits. Her gums appear swollen around the base of the teeth a bit, so that might be why, and as she gets healthier as she gains the weight she should
have, that may all go away.

She also has teeth that are smaller than they ought to be; either this is from malnutrition and is permanent, or she is still quite young and they'll grow with her. (I'm hoping for the latter, because she still acts like a puppy...although if it is true, she could get pretty big, given her present size!).

The rescue did a pretty good job of cleaning her up, but since she doesn't like to have her butt or tail touched, and is quite a handful, she still had mats back there.


So yesterday and today, I've gotten most of the mats cut out of her fur around her butt and tail. She doesn't like to be handled back there, and playbites at me (but acts like she wants to do it harder) so I'm doing that as often as I can to get her used to the idea of being brushed and trimmed, cuz that's a shaggy butt back there and she's gonna need it, or it'll just always be matted.

She had a mat about the size of my forearm on her tail, running from just behind her butt to most of the way down her tail, on the underside. It was very dense, and contained various debris, including a few little tiny bits of what might have been the wire that's inside car tires.

I'd started to use the clippers to run under the mat and get it out, but then I hit the first of those bits, and the clippers stopped, and I had to get the blades apart to get that out of there, so rather than risk damaging them I got the scissors out and cut away most of it, and I'll have to comb the rest out as she is willing to let me do it.

I was able to use the clippers to get thru the butt stuff, and to trim down some of her chest fur (as thin as it is in her present state) to help her stay cool (cuz she's very active), but she won't hold still so it's very patchy. :/

The fur around her front right leg where it was shaved to give her IV stuff when she was rescued (before she came here) is just beginning to grow back.

I'm still pondering on what she is a mix with (besides Giraffe :lol:). She reminds me of some Spaniels, the (relatively) large tall ones, for instance.

She's a little "talky", like Teddy and Hachi, when she's with me and snuggled she makes grumbles if she wants attention she's not getting, and various sounds to tell me she likes whatever I'm doing, like rib rubs, or ear scratches, etc. She gets wiggly when she can't contain herself anymore, and wants to run around, but she does what Hachi did, which is to look at me to "ask permission" to run off and play.

I think she may have decided I'm "mom", like Hachi did...and it both hurts and comforts me.


Also, like Hachi, she has "adopted" one of the toys as her "puppy", and carries it around, and goes to get it whenever she is worried or thinks she's in trouble (like when I go out and call them in, clapping my hands, when they are barking at the people across the street whenthey shouldn't). It is the "blue mew" that Tiny sort of liked when she first came to me at the apartment, but mostly just hid it between the bed and wall because of the squeaker scaring her, and pretty much never touched after we came back to the house). Kirin doesn't want to play with it like the other toys; this one is her security blanket.
 

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I really miss Teddy. :cry:

I keep calling her...then realizing I did that, when I meant to call Kirin. Several times now, I've caught myself looking around for Teddy; and wondered where this other dog came from and who she was, then remembered....

I woke up several times in the last couple nights and found Teddy laying across the bed in the middle, having another seizure, and started to reach for her to hold her lips away from her teeth, only to suddenly snap fully awake and realize it was actually Kirin, just puppy-dreaming.

A couple of times I just burst into tears, and Yogi came to see what was wrong, and Kirin doesn't know waht to do; she seems half ready to flop over and snuggle, and half ready to run away.

I've also had times when I called her Hachi, because she has so many little things that are like Hachi's puppy-ish behaviors...and it's hard not to just sit down and cry sometimes when it happens.

A few times I've even called her Tiny, or said things to her that I used to say only to Tiny....


Aside from all that, typing the last bit in made me realize that even though Kirin (I just typed Teddy and had to backspace) is so tall, she actually weighs significantly less than Tiny ever did even when she was at her sickest. :(

Definitely gonna fix that....
 
More Kirin:
 

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Green Machine said:
i know it sucks...but we cannot outlive our dogs (not usually) .... maybe its time for a puppy?
Nearly certain Kirin *is* a puppy...albeit not as small or young as you're probably thinking of. But if she's more than a year old, I'll eat some fur. ;)

BTW, the rescue said she's actually a full-breed Saint Bernard, not a mix, which is very surprising to me given her body appearance and some of her behaviors (though I'm nowhere near an expert on them).

Still waiting to hear back on her actual age, whether estimate or known.
 
Kirin's first bath (here) today; she didn't like it but she stayd in the tub and didnt' fight me over it, not quite as well behaved as Yogi.

No entertaining post-bath stuff, unlike Yogi, and especially Tiny, who was hilarious to watch. Ther is video but won't be posted for a while. Kirin just kinda shakes off water like any wet dog, and runs around just a bit, which is just normal activity for her.

Yogi, on the ohter hand, has to go replace all the dirt and smells right away, so his video is funnier. :)

edit
i forgot to post this before:

According to Raine, they got rougher than just playing while I was at work yesterday, but neither one had any injuries anywhere that he
could find at the time, nor could I find any yesterday, or today when I gave them their baths/

No sign of that roughness yesterday or today, when they played a bunch of times while I did yardwork and stuff, so no idea where it might've come from / why.



As a side note, while giving Yogi his bath, I found his left "armpit"'s lymph node is swollen. Can't tell that any others are,
just that one. Feels about the size of a small grape or maybe a peanut M&M. Dunno when it started being that way; havent' ever noticed it before when doing the "Yogi elbows" rubs that he likes but that's usually on the actual elbow part.

Today (next day from above) it is smaller by a bit.
 
Nobody ate anybody else while I was at work today, so that's good.

Kirin's tummy had been getting full at just under 3 cups of food per meal, plus two cups of water and a smidge of wet food, but this morning she got that all down and was looking for more after cleaning the bowl, but didn't actually want any more when I put a little in there.

Tonight, for dinner, she ate another heaping handful of kibble after cleaing out her bowl, and was looking for more but I think we'll just increase it slowly. :)

She needs the food, but don't want her to explode. :lol:


Yogi is sad because he's on a diet (1.5 cups per meal vs his former 2) because he's been lazy all summer cuz Teddy didn't really play much with him (and he didn't try too hard either), and his chunkiness we'd managed to work out over the several months prior to Tiny's death has come back, mostly.


pics from previous stuff:
 

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So the rescue said Kirin's paperwork shows she is four years old....even though she acts more like four MONTHS. (or really, 8-9 months to a year). That makes her just a bit younger (year or so) than Yogi, as he was supposed to be about three when he came here, and it's been a couple years now.

I guess she's just one of those eternal puppies. :)

Eternally CRAZY puppies. :lol:
 
amberwolf said:
So the rescue said Kirin's paperwork shows she is four years old....even though she acts more like four MONTHS. (or really, 8-9 months to a year). That makes her just a bit younger (year or so) than Yogi, as he was supposed to be about three when he came here, and it's been a couple years now.

I guess she's just one of those eternal puppies. :)

Eternally CRAZY puppies. :lol:
I've got one of those. 8yr going on 6 months. But they sure are fun.

Dan
 
Yeah, Hachi was like that, but not quite to this degree. :)

I think the only bit that might become a problem is when she leaps up onto on the bed, sproinging like a giraffalope forwards and sideways, then flopping over on top of me as she lands. Right now she only weighs about 80lbs...but when she gets up to whatever she is supposed to weigh, it's gonna be a little on the dangerous side. ;)

some snuggle pics, with Kirin and Yogi both on the bed, Kirin sprawled on top of Yogi, and then after he got tired of her wiggling around, they rearranged themselves side by side.
 

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