Tess' Christmas Present

The animals received extra treats on Christmas day, the kitties had new fuzzy mice to play with, the goats had a special grain "casserole", and the dogs made out like bandits with squeaky toys and tennis balls. Tess goes wild for any ball, or anyone who says the word "ball" so it seemed strange to find her playing with a blanket. Well, there was a tennis ball in the blanket - so I thought, "Poor girl, your ball is caught, let me get that out for you." I pulled the ball out and threw it, went on about my day, and not 5 minutes later, Tess is back chewing on the blanket (with the ball in it). I pulled it out again and threw it, but watched her afterward. She was rolling the ball into the blanket, then working on getting it back out again. Who knew there were that many games to play with a tennis ball?

The Holidays...

bring time to celebrate and share with friends and family. It wasn't a completely quiet time this year, as Waldo began feeling poorly. He ran a low fever and didn't want to eat on Christmas morning, so he spent the morning curled up in a blanket on the couch. He also started antibiotics and received some subcutaneous fluids and baby food too! A little extra TLC had him feeling better by later that night.

Scooter still continues to have intestinal trouble too. We're watching him even closer than before, making sure he stays "regular". He enjoys the extra attention, and he really enjoys sleeping in his crate at night. We only use crates here at feeding time or when introducing a new kitty, but Scooter grew up sleeping in one as a kitten. He's gravitated back to enjoying his own bed complete with water and litter box at night. He really enjoys snuggling down in the blanket until just his head is sticking out!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Lily Left Us Today

Sweet Lily quietly passed away today. It's still such a shock. She was a happy, apparently healthy kitty when we left for work this morning, playing with her toy mice. I found her this afternoon when I returned home for work ~ there was no struggle, no injury, it looks like she just lay down for a nap and didn't wake up. It's amazing how someone so young who's been with us such a short time leaves such an imprint on our hearts ~ we're really going to miss her...

Meet Sylvester

A bit camera shy, Sylvester is our semi-feral kitty, the only one who has the run of the property. I finally caught a photo of him, and as you can see, he's a handsome fellow, with beautiful white whiskers against his black fur. He started hanging around the property several years ago, making the mistake one day of investigating a storage room in the garage, which was my opportunity to nab him & neuter him! As you can imagine, when I released him, he left for quite some time.

When he returned and decided it was okay to stay around for mealtime, as I got closer to him, it was obvious he had an eye problem. He didn't seem painful with it, so with time and kitty tuna, we became friends & I was able to catch him for an exam. At some point in his adventures, he sustained a puncture to his eye, a nasty wound which caused the eye to shrivel up and scar over time. Ouch!

Blind in one eye, Sylvester spends his days pretty close to home now; his primary job is that of mouser, as we don't use rodent bait (or any pesticides) on the property. He also helps with watering plants and feeding the other animals too. As he gets older and slows down, he may even settle down enough to live with the Cabana kitties!

Oh, Hot Rod...

Has never had the best coordination, thanks to the neurological damage from early on in kittenhood. His love of heights and his lack of coordination collided 2 weeks ago, and resulted in a good wack to his head and spine. He's pictured above in a cat tree which is about 8 feet off the floor ~ we have since lowered all the cat trees to sit no more than 4 to 5 feet high to help lessen his chances of re-injury.

Medication is on the horizon for Hot Rod now as he's having petit mal seizures; he either stares off in space for long periods or decides to attack all other cats he lives with (even Rocky, who he grew up with). Phenobarbitol is the medication of choice, at a low dose to see how he responds. To his credit, he doesn't realize there's a problem at all, and it certainly hasn't slowed down his appetite!

Oh Those Stunning Blue Eyes!

With new camera in hand, now I can post pictures regularly once again! These are the latest additions to the sanctuary, a couple of handsome blue-eyed guys. There are some "hazards" associated with my job as a veterinary technician, both good & bad. Poppy is the result of one of the good ones - he has the chance for a new life while I have the opportunity to help a really cool kitty. He suffers from IBD (irritable bowel disease) which flares with stress. The household he was in has kitties who liked to beat him up, and with multiple cats his family found it difficult to medicate or do diet trials to help ease his symptoms. Here, he is one big love bug who loves everyone including the dogs (and he kind of likes MeiLi too!) He's eating a boiled hamburger/potato diet now, plus taking supplements, antibiotics and steroids. He appears to be feeling much better!

This is Austin, who also has beautiful blue eyes (trust me on this one, he closed them for every picture I took!) He has a very sad story with a happy ending, thanks to Hannah at New Beginnings for Animals in Orange County. His former owners relinquished him to the Orange County Animal Shelter after they found him injured as a result of being caught in the family car's fanbelt (yes, they threw this poor boy outside in their garage to live). He suffered from burns on his body which healed with lots of TLC from New Beginnings. They noticed that he drooled some too, so he went to the vet to address his dental care. His pre-anesthetic work-up found an enlarged heart. The diagnosis - hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease in which areas of the heart muscle thicken and enlarge. It can be medically managed, but definitely reduces his chances of finding a forever home, so he came to spend his remaining days with us. He takes multiple medications including low-dose aspirin therapy to lower his chances for blood clots in the wrong places. He's living in the Cabana, where Leonard has made sure he feels welcome!

In Or Out?

Here's where two hard-heads meet. Pepper wants outside, Rocky wants inside. This provided quite a stand-off for what seemed like an eternity, until Rocky finally abided by the "ladies first" rule. (What you can't see ~ the main door was open the entire time!)

The Graduate

Here's a picture of Tess at her graduation from her obedience class. She's not only proud of her diploma, but she really liked the biscuit that came with it too! Now that class is over, she's still looking for things to do on weekends, so we've started agility training.

Here she is learning to go through a tunnel, which at first she thought was very scary...

And here she and I are navigating the weave poles.

She goes pretty quickly even on 3 legs (much faster than me!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

From all of us here, we wish you and your families, including your furkids, a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

We count our blessings everyday ~ the wonderful animals that live with us, the celebration of life and spirit that surrounds us, our family, and especially you who believe in a safe haven for all critters, no matter how fast they walk or run, or how many teeth they have left, or how much hair they have.

Thank you for caring, we couldn't do it without your help!

Meet Lily!

Lily came from a litter of kittens a private rescuer was fostering in Santee. She was the only tailess kitten, and the only one with urinary and fecal incontinence too - a definite problem in trying to find her a forever home. So, when asked if we could take her in, how could we say "no" to this cute face? She's been with us for a little while now, and has definitely won over all of our hearts!

We're working on finding a diet and medication combination that will work for her. She's sharing Scooter's prescription I/D (much to his dismay!) and so far, it seems to be helping; she's happy to have fewer baths during the day. She's very sweet and also pretty darned opinionated too. We don't know what other problems she may have, so we'll be watching her closely, and I'm sure she'll have lots to say about that!

We're Back Online!

With some patience and tech support on the phone, finally, the "blue screen of death" is gone and it's back to blogging! So it's time to catch-up with what's happening here at the sanctuary...

The Rancho Bernardo Park Dog Walk event not only gave us the opportunity to receive donations, spread the word about the sanctuary and hospice care, but also put us in contact with a North County Times reporter who wrote up a little about us; you can read the story here ~
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/09/news/inland/vc/20_34_5511_8_06.txt

We had one "reporter" day and one "photo" day, so the critters were really excited to have so much attention from visitors!

Watch For Us This Weekend!

Looking for something fun to do with your dog this weekend? Why not take a walk - a Dog Walk, at Rancho Bernardo Park. They are holding their annual dog walk fundraiser this Sunday, from 8am-noon.

There are many rescues and vendors who will be there too - including us! Stop by and say hi to Luna, or pick-up information about animal care and animal hospice, or even sign-up to volunteer.

We look forward to seeing you!

Time To Catch Up...

It's hard to believe so much time has gone by since I last wrote anything about the sanctuary happenings. Now it's time to bring you up to date:

Bob was neutered almost 2 weeks ago. The picture above was taken before surgery (when he's still happy!). He's healing very well!

Waldo is in the small crate, he went to see Dr. Booman the same day for a recheck of his mouth. We're still struggling with getting him to eat. I've been syringe feeding him twice a day, but he's having trouble swallowing. He's on a heavy-duty medication and supplement regime in the hopes his mouth will heal very soon. He's now spending his days in the Cabana with Leonard and friends, which he really enjoys.

Roger Rabbit

Meet Roger Rabbit. He's darn lucky to be here. Remember the last hot spell we had? Well, this poor guy was out back in a cage in at a local feed store basically left to die. As they were trying to sell beautiful tan and grey lops, this guy sat at the back, in a dirty cage, not even under the shade. Who wants an overheated, urine-soaked rabbit? No second thoughts, I "bargained" for his life at a measly $5, hauled buns (pun intended) out of there to get him cooled down, and called animal control; the store got a visit from them, and many of their animals are now gone (yeah!).

He's been with us for a couple of weeks now, gradually starting to trust us, really enjoying fresh produce and fresh hay. He's learning about playing, he loves the dogs and the cats, and as he's shedding out his coat, he's becoming a beautiful grey chinchilla color. He's a real sweetheart, and I'm happy he got a second chance at life!

Wrestle Mania

TV is not the only place you can catch wrestling - I tried to catch these three during their morning wrestling match, but of course they had to stop and look at the camera! Part of the morning and evening routines include a post-meal wrestling match for Maverick, Melody, and Tess. Generally, one is on the ground, upside down, while the other two are tugging on legs or ears. Then they switch, and the game continues until naptime. Hulk Hogan - look out!

Tess Goes To School!

Tess & I started Basic Obedience class today with our favorite trainer Liz Palika of Kindred Spirits Dog Training. Tess was a little unsure of the car ride at first (after all, she did go by herself) but then became very excited when she saw dogs of all shapes and sizes ready to play - at least that's what she thought!

Today was an introductory day, so most of our time was spent sitting and listening (or trying to in a class of 25 excited dogs or so!) We then worked on the "sit" command and did some more talking afterward. Obedience in a group class is an important step in the overall socializing and training process for Tess as she works toward her career as sanctuary ambassador. This last picture is a tired Tess on her way home, where she took an even longer nap!

Where's Waldo?

Sleeping ~ at least for the next couple of days. Waldo went to TriCity Veterinary Clinic yesterday and had a dental. Not just a simple clean and polish, Waldo had all of his teeth removed (yes, every last one!) to effect a cure of his dental troubles. Waldo has all of the symptoms of Lymphocytic-Plasmacytic Gingivitis Stomatitis, in which the body becomes allergic to the plaque around the teeth. You can find more information (and pictures) of it here. Waldo has a very severe case of it - his gums were swollen and his mouth not only had ulcers in the back of it, but on his tongue, causing difficulty eating and swallowing. There was a very poor prognosis when 3 weeks after a steroid injection and antibiotics, all symptoms returned worse than before.

Waldo's spending the next few days with some really good pain medication, a quiet carrier to sleep in, and all of the baby food he'll let me feed him by syringe. He will be on antibiotics for several weeks until his gums are healed too. This picture shows the "recovery ward" with Waldo sleeping behind the towel-covered door. The empty crate next to him is Scooter's dining hall, and dog toy basket is on the other side.

Dental procedure: $263.70 ~ Pain-free life for Waldo: Priceless!!

TV Kitty

MeiLi has found a new location to spend the day - it's clean, free of dogs, and gives her a great perspective on what's going on in the house. The TV! Though I'm not sure why she's watching a Christmas movie (it's way to early to think about that!) she spent most of her morning sleeping up there. I'm hoping she doesn't fall off - that would be a rude awakening! Her favorite part of her new location - she's right by the front door, so she's almost at eye level with anyone walking in. It's quite a surprise the first time she meows at you!

Friends Come In All Sizes

It took some time, but Waldo's finally come to accept there are dogs in his life now. He's even taken to snuggling up with them at naptime too. Here he is with Luna while he waits for breakfast - she doesn't mind, she makes sure that all the canned food is completely cleaned up!
Waldo went to TriCity Veterinary Clinic yesterday to see Dr. Porte. We talked about the best way to deal with his ouchy mouth problems. On Tuesday, Waldo will go in to have his teeth pulled and the growth in his mouth will be evaluated and biopsied. Mouth problems such as his are often remedied by pulling all the teeth, as the body "attacks" them. Aside from "gumming" his food afterward, he should do just fine, without the constant need for steroids. Dr. Porte will also be able to get a close-up look at everything going on in Waldo's mouth without poor Waldo being awake for it!