Tamera now Sadie is Adopted

Here is another wonderful "foster flunkie" story; this one is from Mary C. in Brookfield, IL. There are several reasons I like this story:
1. Mary C. is a very special lady
2. Cairns, especially those in precarious situations, give lots of love.
3. We never know who the "flunkie" will be

I am flunking again this time with Tamera who I call Sadie. She came into CP when her health was determined to be too bad to adopt out by the shelter she was in and rescue was asked to take her in. When she got to me she quickly developed kennel cough, with runny eyes and nose. She spent three weeks in my basement trying to get better. I took her to the vet and it was determined that her lingering cough was due to heart issues. So off we went to a heart specialist. It turns out that she had Left Valve Prolapse, which means when the heart pumps the blood from one chamber to the next the valve between does not close properly. After it was determined she was stable she left me and went to a foster home, where she did horrible with her integration and came right back to me. When she was at foster home #2 it was discovered that she had dry eye and was mostly blind in her left eye. I had to clean her eye and apply ointment two times a day She hated to have her eye cleaned and sometimes showed her teeth or snapped. She is very food aggressive and did major resource guarding i.e. she would keep the other dogs from the water bowl. Time went on and I worked very hard with the food aggression feeding her from my hand at first with heavy leather gloves on, later off a potholder. Making her work for every bite. Things changed slowly, but you cannot trust her around food and she needs to be crated when people or dogs are eating.

I was getting fed up with this little girl and tired of all the energy I was putting into her at the cost of my other dogs. The day I decided that I was going to ask that she be moved to another foster home she slipped on the kitchen floor and hurt her leg. So off to the vet we went an x-ray later the vet said that she had arthritis in her hip and if it weren’t for her bad heart she would be a candidate for hip replacement surgery. You could see on her x-ray that the hip that was supposed to be a nice smooth ball was really oval and worn down. The muscle in the leg was strained from her need to walk differently on it. So with pain medication, some Glucosamine and lots of rest her leg got a little better. She could do the stairs but sometime needed to be carried up the stairs. (The pet sling that we sell on the CP mall is really wonderful) I was feeding her in her crate and had it far away from the other dogs when everyone was eating.

One day as my mother-in-law was putting her food into her crate Sadie bit her on the thumb. It wasn’t too bad of a bite but a bite nonetheless. Feeling very frustrated and over whelmed I e-mailed Mo who gave me a bunch of really good advice on how to handle her. I ended up (on Mo’s advice) giving Sadie “her own space” in an ex-pen with her own bed, toys, and water bowl. She really liked this arrangement. I would often find her in the ex-pen she seemed calmer and less stressed. Yet, I worried about her constantly what if she bit someone else? What if the forever family had a child visit and she took food from the child’s hand and bit the child? What if she hurt a dog? It was possible that she could get into a fight over treats, water, or food. My fear was that she was going to really hurt someone and be put to sleep. For the most part she is a good dog, I felt that it wasn’t her fault but her previous owners who must have let her get away with too much, and she was never socialized to other dogs. She had a routine at my house she was managed well. One could tell by looking at her that the routine was good for her and she was less stressed.

I thought to myself I really don’t want 4 dogs as I still wanted to foster for CP. I prayed long and hard about it, I asked for a sign. I knew with everything going on with her that being 10 years old with multiple health issues she was not going to be around a long time. Yet, I didn’t want 4 dogs I also felt that I did not want her end of life issues to be by committee.

I asked for a sign. Well it came I was sitting in my back yard with the dogs, thinking about what I was going to do when Sadie came up to me and put her two front paws on my knee something she never does because of the hip pain and just looked at me. I thought to myself well there is your sign. Sadie AKA Tamera is home.
Mary - Brookfield, Il furkids Charna, Jeffery. and Vonnie Leeca at the Rainbow Bridge.