Rescue from the Rescue

For the last couple of years our family has been living in rental properties. We had one cat, but we've really really wanted to get a dog. Unfortunately, most rental properties don't like dogs.

We recently moved into a nice large house, with a big fenced back yard. We acquired a second cat from the pound, and decided it was a good time to get a puppy.

After weeks of contacting breeders and finding out they were too high priced, and scouring websites, we stumbled upon a group called Saving Paws of Washington. They are a local rescue group that specializes in finding homes for dogs from disaster areas. They were planning on bringing up 90-120 dogs from the recent Oklahoma tornado disaster. They have volunteers go down, and video tape the dogs for prospective adopters. We fell in love with a little puppy they called Elisa. She is a lab-hound mix, reddish brown fur and friendly waggy attitude. She is 8-weeks old at the time of the video. We immediately contacted them, and put a deposit down for her. We went out and got various doggie accoutrement, excited and impatient for this new addition to our family. Best of all, she only cost $250 so that was much cheaper than a breeder, and we're giving a needy dog a home!

They told us they were bringing all the dogs up yesterday, they should arrive around 9am. We arranged to pick her up at 5pm. It took us less time to get there than anticipated, so we arrived around 4:30pm. As we walked into the little boarding kennel, the smell hit us. It was rank.. a combination of wet dog, dog urine, and dog feces. The place was rather run down, and dirty, and I was very glad we weren't letting our new puppy stay here a second longer than it took to get her unloaded and into our van. Well... we waited. and waited. They told us that the first of two vans had recently arrived, but that the van with OUR puppy on it was still running behind. We went to hang out at the mall and get a bite to eat for dinner, and then came back around 6:30. Finally at around 7:20 the van shows up. By this time there was a crowd of people all waiting to either adopt or foster, some that had reserved dogs like us, others that had just come to see what was available. We are told that they brought 25-30 dogs in each van. PER VAN.

As we waited a stream of workers started down the path from the van on the other side of the main office to the kennel. Each one was carrying a dog crate that reeked. As we watched, we could see that every single crate had two or even three dogs or puppies in it. Surely, we thought, that was just to bring them from the van to the kennel, right? Wrong. As they started to open up the crates to retrieve the animals, we could see feces and urine matting the shredded newspapers in the bottom of the crates. The animals were FILTHY, and stank so badly it was literally stomach turning. We continued to wait as they slowly processed each dog, bringing some out to the waiting families. They put water bowls down outside for these dogs, who proceeded to drink them dry. We were told that our puppy, whom we renamed Belle, was "in pretty bad shape" along with her brother, who was in worse shape. Wait, what?

In talking to one of the drivers, she tells us they drove 3 straight days from Oklahoma, with only one stop halfway to let the dogs out briefly. No food or water was given to the dogs during the trip. Let me repeat that. NO FOOD OR WATER WAS GIVE TO THE DOGS DURING THE TRIP. We are stunned. The older dogs and older puppies seemed to make the trip in better shape, though some of them are clearly traumatized, they won't allow anyone near them. The little puppies fared the worst. We wait as they get a can of dog food into the puppies, and then bring Belle out to meet us. She is a mess. Her fur stinks, and is coarse. Her eyes are so filled with gunk it's surprising she can see. Her nose is dripping yellow gunk every time she breathes out. She is lethargic and seems numb. Her belly is distended, probably from parasites, and her sides are gaunt. She is shocky.

The volunteer coordinator tells us we can take her to a 24-hr veterinary clinic close by, that they have an account with, and they will pay for treatment for her. We jump on the offer, and hurry her out of there. Her breathing is labored, she is wheezing with each breath, coughing from phlegm in her lungs. We head over to the clinic, finding it in a bad area of town. It's dirty inside, and hot, and they are short-staffed so we wait and wait to see the one vet. While we wait we use their little water cooler and get little cups of water to give Belle water. She drinks 3 little cups rapidly, then subsides back into lethargic suffering. As we're waiting, two more of the rescue puppies get brought in by their families, including Belle's little sister Ava. She is smaller than Belle, and black. She is so listless that she won't even drink the water they offer her.


Belle's sister Ava


Waiting to be called back to the vet / Waiting for the vet

The vet finally comes in to check over Belle. He confirms she is severely dehydrated. There is noise in her lungs when she breathes. She has a fever. She probably has "an upper respiratory infection." He says she can either stay with an IV for fluids, or he can give her a shot of fluids under the skin and send us home with antibiotics and a cough suppressant. We'd rather she stay, but when they check with Saving Paws (the rescue people who caused this trauma to her in the first place), they say they don't want to pay for that, to send us home with meds. They give her an antibiotic shot, a shot of fluids, and we're sent home with two pill form antibiotics and a liquid cough suppressant.

We get her home, upon setting her down on the floor she immediately wobbles over to a corner in the foyer and pees on the floor. Well, at least she's eliminating. We feed her some wet food and give her water. She inhales both of them voraciously, then seems to run out of energy and flops onto the floor. We put her into her big doggie bed (she's supposed to grow into it), and she falls into a restless, cough-filled sleep. The pile of doggie toys that we had gleefully picked out lays to the side, she has no energy to even show interest in them. This pattern repeats all night. Lem stayed up with her through the night monitoring her breathing, taking her out to go potty and trying to get as much food and water into her as she can hold.


Belle, exhausted


Sebastian: What the hell IS that thing??

I got up at 6:30am to take over for Lem, he went to bed, and again it was feed/water, wait about 20 min, try to take her potty, then let her collapse in wheezing sleep for a couple of hours at a time.


Briefly on her feet to go potty


No, really.. what the heck IS that?!

I give her a super-quick bath to try to get rid of the stench of her, she wasn't thrilled by it.

Can I go back to sleep now?


Sebastion: You still stink.


By the time Lem got up later this morning, it was obvious she wasn't doing much better. Her breathing was more labored, she was still completely lethargic. We decide to take her in to see our vet, who has Saturday hours. Her temp is up to 103.9 (normal is 100-102). After a vet check, she recommends we do x-rays of her lungs. They look filled with fluid, and the vet fears pneumonia. She also finds parasites in Belle's stool that she's taken an internal sample of, since Belle has still only urinated since we got her. The vet sends us over to a 24-hour emergency vet hospital so they can get her on IV Fluids, and shot antibiotics.

While we're waiting the 40 minutes to see the vet there, Belle starts going into periodic respiratory distress. Her lungs are so full of fluid she is finding it too difficult to fight to breath, so stops breathing for several seconds interspersed with her rapid, frantic gasping wheezing breathes. I run out the lobby and grab the vet that is debriefing the previous patient's owners. He runs back with me, and immediately rushes her back and starts her on oxygen. That was scary as hell. We finally see him, and he lets us know it's pneumonia. He's going to send the x-rays to the guy that reads them to verify. He says she has to stay minimum 24-48 hours, maybe even up to 5-7 days. She'll be on oxygen, they'll do IV fluids and antibiotics, and she may or may not live. They also need to run an array of tests to make sure it's not distemper (since Saving Paws has yet to give us any shot records, though they claimed to have given her 2 sets of shots already), or heart worms, or lung worms, or anything else gross and fatal. The estimated cost of the stay, depending on if she's out in 2 days, or has to stay up to 5 days, is anywhere from $1400-$3200. Our $250 dog has now surpassed the cost of any of the dogs we had coveted at the breeders. We've had her less than 24 hours.

We now wait to see if she makes it, and how long she'll have to be there. Not sure how we'll pay for it, but she's part of the family now. If we had tried to take her back, even if we wanted to, she would have died in that place for sure.

This is Belle, sleeping in exhaustion and trying to breathe, right before she started having serious breathing issues and had to be taken back and put on oxygen.




Here's hoping she pulls through this and becomes a permanent part of our family.

ps. And yes, we're reporting Saving Paws for animal cruelty.

UPDATED 6/26: As of this morning, Belle is still alive. She's slightly improved, eating, done a bowel movement. They hope to have her off oxygen by the end of today. No idea when she'll get to come home.

UPDATED 6/27: Belle is still on oxygen. She has ring worms and they have to test for distemper since we still have yet to get the shot records (if any) from Saving Paws. She has a good appetite, but gets winded easily and is coughing a lot. No ETA on when she'll come home.

Scent Elves

It's time for another edition of.. Stuff I've Seen while out and about!!




Yes, that's right.. Edward and Bella, side by side. Now if only it was Jacob's Pizza.

Just in case you're on a long road trip, and you want to keep track of your deceased mini-passengers:




Possibly repeats, but in case you haven't seen them:



Careful, that stuff will go right to your head. Don't lose it!




Mmm.. A Puffin in every bite!




The only time this phrase is acceptable.



I'm tempted to get this, and send it to everyone I don't like. After I torture The Bieb by poking him to make him sing.

Ok this last one has so much WIN I almost bought it JUST because I wanted to encourage their marketing dept. to continue to think this way:



SCENT ELVES.

Library

Stopped at the library last night to return/pick up books with my daughter. As we were leaving, we passed by the little mail boxes at the curb that the newspaper delivery people use.

Daughter: HA! Look! Someone who lives at the library has a last name "Journal"!

Me: .... um. That's for the newspaper delivery. *snicker*

Daughter: Oh. I just thought it was a funny coincidence that someone's last name would be "Journal" because it's on the side of the mailbox, since they live at the ..library.. if people lived.. at the library.. UGH! You're NEVER going to let me forget this, are you?!!!

Me: Nope!!

Guilt Wash

Earlier this week I cleaned out the inside of our minivan. I'm the primary driver of it, and between myself and the kids it can get cluttered and crumby. I did a thorough cleaning, even vaccuuming it out. It was beeeutiful. Until I stepped outside of it. Months of road crud means don't ever lean against the outside of the van, your clothes will be a mess. I resolved that the next time I had to get gas, I'd get a car wash.

Last night I had a dream in which I actually stopped to get gas, and the station had this promo going where one customer a day randomly won a discount on their gas. As I was pumping, the pump flashes that I've won a half-price discount (WOOHOO!), but it wants me to swipe my ID, and suddenly I realize that it's LEM's ID we signed up with for their little promotion, and he's not with me, so I can't get the discount, and I was sad. Then I woke up. This is relevant, because when I got in the car this morning to head to work, I was therefore shocked to see my Get Gas Stupid light on.. hadn't I already gotten gas??? Oooh yeah, stupid dream. I forgot to mention the total for my gas in the dream was $89, AFTER the discount. I figure the way gas prices are going, this will probably be accurate in a couple months.

I stopped to get gas, and chose the cheapest, don't-have-to-mortgage-your-house-to-afford car wash they offered. It was the uber basic one, still cost $7. Pumped my gas, and drove around to the back of the station for the car wash.

Some car washes are all automated, where you punch in your receipt number and it wisks you along inside the building. This one you have to wait for the attendant. He came over, and I handed him my receipt. I then thought he would motion me to drive forward to get my tire hooked by the little dragging mechanism they have. WRONG. He then goes over and gets a long scrub brush out of a big soapy bucket of water, and proceeds to start scrubbing the back window and back of the van. No big deal, I thought, it makes sense since the van is sort of flat there so I'm sure the automated swirly brushy thingies can't really get it clean. And then he started on the sides. And the front.

At this point, I'm feeling awkward. Did Basic mean "by hand"?? I quickly note that it's mid-40's temp outside, and although grey and gloomy out not technically raining so at least he's not scrubbing in the rain, or freezing his tush off. He spends a good 5 minutes scrubbing all parts of the van. I'm desperately trying to NOT make eye contact because wow, that job must really suck and I'm feeling rather guilty for even GETTING a car wash because who knew it would force some poor shmuck to scrub my huge minivan by hand.. why do I have a car this big??? He finally gets done and let's me get pulled into what now seems to be the Car Rinse, not car wash. But it didn't end there.

As my car emerged from the other side, he's WAITING THERE for me, squeegie in hand. He then proceeds to squeegie and cloth off as much of the rinse water on my van as possible. Now I feel guilty for not just telling him I'm going to hop on to the freeway in a few minutes and it can air dry so please oh my god STOP trying to get every speck of water off!! And then I'm wondering if the guys that work there draw straws and whoever loses has to work car wash for the day. He finally got done and of COURSE there's a sign that says "Tips welcome" but I never carry cash and I've already paid $7 for this so now I feel guilty because he actually did work marginally hard, and probably makes minimum wage. Great now I feel like an asshole.

p.s. As I started driving on the freeway to work, I was munching on a breakfast of baby carrots, and I got one that had those nasty bitter green ends, so without really thinking I tossed it out my window (it's biodegradeable!). And then I realize there's a cement barrier there, and it's just going to lie on the INNER part of the freeway, so that when some poor woodland creature emerges from the forest on the OTHER side of the road, and attempts to get the carroty morsel, they will get completely SPLATTED by the busy traffic. OH GREAT JOB ME. I blame the Guilt Wash, I wasn't thinking clearly.

Frozen in Time

As you go through your life on this earth, you come in to contact with so many people. Family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and even the people you watch on tv and movies become People You Know.

If you picture your life as a line, then all those other People You Know's lines intersect yours at some point. It could be they run alongside each other for your whole life, or theirs, or maybe they only touch briefly.

During that time when the lines touch, you KNOW something about that other person. It could be what they look like, how they act, what kind of music they are into, shared experiences, etc.
Maybe you watched one season of a show, so for that brief time you "knew" those actors, what they looked like at that time, those characters.

When your lines diverge from each other, what you know about each other may no longer be accurate. That old high school friend may have been a heavy-set person in their youth, but has since gotten more fit and looks very different. You may even have someone else tell you this, but you can't actually update the picture in your brain of that person without actually seeing it. In your head, they are forever remembered a certain way, and until you see them again your brain cannot concretely imagine them any other way.

This can apply to things as trivial as actors you love in a show, when the show ends and you don't see them again for a long time, then suddenly they are there and Oh My God they're OLD! And their hair is different?! They're fat now! When did this all happen?? It just seems like a minute ago they were young. Your brain just got an update on them, and has to process the new information to catalogue it and put it into the little box it keeps for that person. We were just watching the first couple episodes of Dexter last night, and Denise Crosby was on it. She played Tasha Yar in the first season of Star Trek: Next Generation many years ago. I haven't seen her since, so it was very jarring to see her older, with wrinkles and heavier set. Now that's how I'll see her in my mind's eye from this point on.

It can also apply more personally. Someone you know dies, and although you continue on, their line stops. My brother and mother are both dead. They are forever in my head as they were when they were alive. They will never age. They will never change. My brother is forever pulling coins from behind ears, and juggling, and going on enthusiastically about That game or That music. My mother is forever walking in the woods, pointing out nature to me, painting, forever suffering from various health issues. I clearly remember how they looked in death, but my brain rejects that as a temporary state, it wasn't what they REALLY were. They are frozen in time and will not get an "update" in this lifetime.

I don't think having People You Know frozen in time is necessarily a bad thing. It's just something our weird brains do as a way to keep track of stuff. It's a little sad that as you get older, this happens more and more as people drift apart or die. I guess that's just life.

Driving To The Store

Megan: I want to get dogs!

Adam: Is it true that female dogs tend to be less aggressive?

Me: I believe so. That's why when we get dogs, they'll probably be female. And spayed.

Megan: Good thing. Unless they've been mutated with frog genes. Then they'd still reproduce.

Me: True. You can never tell.

**********************************************************

Me: See that? That's the HUGE mall (points)

Megan and Adam: WOOAH!!

Adam: Geez how'd they make it that huge??

Megan: See.. there's a Girl store, and that one's a Boy store, and they sort of got together, and had a bunch of minimalls.

Adam: Oh, yeah, right!

Megan: And then they had a McDonalds inside, that BURST out and made it's own company.

Goodbye, My Dear Friend

Once in a while, you come across someone in this world that is just genuinely a nice person. Someone that is patient, and kind, and supportive. My friend Gayle was such a person. Gayle died today after fighting with all her might against cancer. I count myself among a large host of people that are mourning right now for our friend that we, and the world, have lost.

I first met Gayle at the community college where I was taking classes in Sign Language back in 2000. I had taken ASL 1 the previous quarter, so I could sign my name, ask basic questions like "How are you?" and knew the signs for some foods and other vocabulary. In my first class we hadn't been allowed to use our voices except at specific times allowed by our teacher, who was hearing. The first time I walked into Gayle's classroom, I expected it to be similar. There was a lady standing at the front, greying hair, careworn face, with soft eyes and an easy smile. She moved slowly and deliberately, as if not to spook us in our first-day-of-class nervousness.

Her hands started moving, and suddenly someone sitting next to me started to speak! I glanced over and realized it was a sign language interpreter.. my someday goal. Gayle explained that for today, and for a few more classes, she'd have sign language interpreters to help us all get started. After that, we'd be on our own so we better learn fast!

Gayle was the first Deaf person I ever truly interacted with. She had been born hearing, and gotten ill and lost her hearing later in life. I never actually heard Gayle use her voice until several years later, when I volunteered to help interpret for the local Special Olympics where she helped coordinate. I hadn't even known she *could* speak with her voice, it just never occurred to me and in my head I had always "heard" her speak when she signed anyway.

Gayle was an awesome teacher. She had the patience of a Saint, repeating things over and over, and finding different ways of explaining things until we all could grasp what she was trying to convey. She had a great sense of humor, joking around in class and keeping learning FUN. You could tell she loved what she was doing, that she loved the language, and she was happy that we all wanted to learn it.

She gave us assignments that required us to *gasp* TALK to other Deaf people! I was brave and went to a Silent Weekend the college sponsored each quarter, where you couldn't talk all weekend, and instead it was hands flying with Sign, and me using a notebook and pen to try to ask people what they were saying. It was scary, and overwhelming, and yet as fun as hell and completely addicting. I went to almost every Silent Weekend after that. Gayle continued to help us all grow in our skills, I fell in love with the Language, and I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Over my years at college, I'd run into Gayle and chit-chat. My then-husband took ASL classes too, and had her for his teacher, so one year for Christmas we got Gayle the ASL Teacher Barbie toy as both a gag gift, and a homage. I think it really tickled her, I still have the matching one we bought at the same time for us. Every time I look at it I'm reminded of her standing up at the front of the room, with her hands dancing in patterns slow and elegant.

After I graduated, I started helping out with the Silent Weekends. I joined the committee, and once the instructor retired who had been running them (the amazing Chuck Gramly, who deserves a whole 'nother post), Gayle eventually took over the job. It was so much fun to be able to meet with a bunch of my friends, Deaf and hearing, and plan and scheme and just have a great time. Gayle brought her warmth and giving nature to these events as well.

I went through a really rough time in my life a few years back. With my marriage in shambles, my life in total upheaval, Gayle was like the Rock I could cling to in the storm. She was absolutely supportive, understanding, and sympathetic. She listened when I needed a friend, she didn't judge, and she was there for me. I thank God every day that I had the privilege to count Gayle as one of my friends. I have missed her since moving cross country last year, and now knowing she's not there anymore, my far-away Rock still teaching, breaks my heart. I'm glad she's at peace finally, but I sure feel sorry for myself and everyone else stuck here on this earth without her.

I love you, Gayle, you'll be sorely missed.