Nicki Betters

Good Luck George! Happy tails

George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.

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Wow it was a tough morning. Last night was difficult too.

I know that George is going to a really good rescue, and I’m glad to have been a part of helping him, but I’m not really good at saying goodbye.

George’s health is so much better overall, but the heart worms make him cough. Once he gets to his rescue foster, he’ll have another vet appointment and will start treatment for heart worms.

Last night, the poor little guy coughed a lot and so neither one of us slept much. Plus I was dreading having to let him go today, so even when he stopped coughing and fell asleep, I couldn’t.  I finally got out of bed at 5 a.m. and started getting ready for the drive.

I woke George to potty and eat, so he could take his medicine before we left. I felt terrible waking him up because he was finally sleeping, but I had no choice. He didn’t each much and fell back asleep. For George, this morning was going to be no different from any other morning and he would normally have plenty of time to sleep and eat and eat and sleep.

So I got ready and packed George’s things –food, meds, and instructions for the person taking care of him tonight (he will drive for 2 days before reaching Virginia); his paperwork and health certificate; his harness and leash; his medicines; his collar and tag; and a sweater because he might be cold up in Virginia. I also sent his little bed and two cases of dog food.

George’s stuff

I packed everything in a tote bag except the harness and collar. I went in to wake George again and started to cry just watching him sleep! I woke him up and he stretched lazily, still thinking that today was like any other day. He let me put his collar on, and his harness, and he walked happily to the door.

After I took this video, we walked into the garage and George looked up at me, expecting me to open the door and walk him into the house, as I always do. My heart broke, but I put his bed on the passenger seat and put him in it.

George in the car on the way to Virginia

My eyes were so puffy from crying and poor George didn’t know what was going on.

Crying

George and I got to Clearview at 7:30 and met the two really nice folks that would drive the next leg of George’s trip. They were truly kind and I’m sure that with all my crying, I didn’t make things any easier for them! They put George’s things into the trunk and put his bed in the back seat. One got in the back with George to comfort him and make him feel secure, while the other drove.

I said goodbye to little George and sat in my car in the Exxon parking lot where we’d met for the transfer. I sat there for a good 20 minutes, crying and blowing my nose, and then finally drove home.

I know that George is off to a wonderful foster home and to get the care he needs to get rid of those heart worms, so I am happy for that, and grateful to the rescue that saved him!

And I think I proved my point. There is no reason, and frankly, no moral excuse to ever buy a dog from anyone who profits from the breeding and sale of animals. There are so many dogs like George, diamonds in the “ruff,” in high kill shelters all over. Whoever adopts this little guy is going to be a lucky person!

This is how I will always remember my little diamond in the ruff, happy in the sunshine. Happy tails George!

George in the Sun

05. March 2016 by Nicki
Categories: animals | Tags: animal rescue, dog, dog rescue, houston | 1 comment

George’s Last Day With Me

George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.

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Today is George’s last day with me and I’m so sad. I just love this little guy. Even though he needs to stay calm because of his heart worms, we tried to make the most of it today!

We stretched out in the sun.

George in the Sun

We got lots of scratches and rubs.

We relaxed.

George Next To Me While I Worked

We hung out upstairs in a nice big quilt.

George Upstairs in a Big Blanket.

We ran with the pack.

We ate dinner and then played a little more and had a good shake.

We groomed.

And finally, we went to bed. One of us slept, one thought sadly about tomorrow.

George’s Bed Next To Mine

05. March 2016 by Nicki
Categories: animals | Tags: animal rescue, dog, dog rescue, houston | Leave a comment

George, a Rescue Dog: Week Three

George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.

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I’m in love with George, and I’m going to be torn apart when he goes to his new rescue foster on Saturday!

Ok, since I got that out of the way, I need to say, this week, George has made incredible progress! He’s gotten so much stronger –his worms are all gone, fleas are all gone, and he’s gaining weight from eating really good quality food.

George loves his walks, just loves them. Look at him battling the strong winds during one of our walks last week.

I’ve mentioned before that I had to quarantine George because of his kennel cough. I have a large room/closet with a nice big window, so that’s where I’ve been keeping him quarantined away from my dogs. I have a kennel in there, with his bed and lost of blankets, but I leave the kennel door open so he can go in an out. I’m just trying to get him used to the kennel for his trip to Virginia.

Here’s George relaxing on one of his blankets.

George in Quarantine

I really knew that George was getting a lot better when he stopped sleeping all day and started to want to get out of quarantine. I walk him about six times a day, short walks, but he wanted to explore the house.

Here he is, pleading for me to let him out.

George Wants Out of Jail

On Tuesday, I left for about two hours for a meeting and came home to find that George broke out of jail and was finding his way around my house, mingling with my dogs.

When I put him back into quarantine, I heard something and I couldn’t believe my ears! George barks!

I felt badly and was laughing at the same time because even my dogs were surprised to hear George bark.

After consulting with our vet, I decided to let George out for limited time periods as long as he wasn’t coughing (mainly because my dogs are vaccinated). He went to sleep next to me as I worked on my computer.

My little work buddy.

What a sweetheart. I just had one more thing I wanted to accomplish with George –getting him groomed.

George is very sensitive about his face. He didn’t like it when I trimmed the hair out of his eyes. When he gets upset, he starts to cough, and it’s not good for dog with heart worms to get worked up, so I’d originally decided just to give him a bath, and not to get him groomed just yet. Plus, with kennel cough, he couldn’t go to the groomer.

But since he’s been so much stronger, I called my dogs’ groomer, Courtney, and asked if she could help me out. Instead of bringing George to her, I asked if she could come to my house and groom George. I warned her that he was really matted and would probably get really upset about being groomed, but she wasn’t dissuaded.

Courtney came over this afternoon. We set up my folding table in the garage and Courtney got to work.

And sure enough, the dog who got so upset when I trimmed the hair in front of his eyes? Yea, he totally let Courtney groom him without a problem. That’s just because she’s awesome, truly, and dogs love her.

Here they are in my garage.

George and Courtney

Courtney did an amazing job! George is older, so he’s got lots of skin tags that she had to work around. He was super matted –he was even matted in the peds of his paws. She took care of all of that. If you are in Houston, and need a groomer, Courtney has always been wonderful with my dogs, and she took such good care of little George today. (She works at Patti’s Pet Depot on Memorial, 281-531-1456 and ask for an appointment with Courtney.) 

Are you ready for George’s big reveal?

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George with a haircut!!

Here’s George with his buddy, Meow, having lunch after his spa day with Courtney.

George and Meow

George has the softest fur! And I know that he loves it that I can lightly scratch him now, without getting my fingers caught in all that fur.

Courtney and I decided to take George’s fur pretty short. I usually have my dogs cut this short because I love my dogs, but I don’t love dog hair everywhere. Plus for George, his hair was so matted that it had to come off. And besides, his new foster will have some time before she has to take him to get groomed, and by then his kennel cough will be all gone and he can go to a groomer.

But I just love George’s new ‘do!

04. March 2016 by Nicki
Categories: animals | Tags: animal rescue, dog, dog rescue, houston | Leave a comment

George, a Rescue Dog: Week Two

George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.

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George was originally scheduled to leave on a transport from Houston to Virginia this past Saturday. But after he had a really rough time on Thursday night, we decided to postpone his transport for a week or two, until he has time to get better.

Since I figured out that chicken is my ticket to George taking his pills, he’s been taking 75% of his medicines, and I’ll take that! He’s a stubborn little guy about those pills. Even on just 75%  of the medicine, his cough is so much better. He’s still coughing but not that awful, hard cough. His cough is suppressed a bit and he’s getting more rest.

I’ve been trying to give George chewy things to help his teeth, but he hasn’t been interested. Last night, he took his first treat from me! Rabbit jerky (ugh).

22. February 2016 by Nicki
Categories: animals | Tags: animal rescue, dog, dog rescue, houston | Leave a comment

George, a Rescue Dog: Day Nine

George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.

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George had a great day yesterday, but a really rough time last night. The two medicines for cough, overall, have really stopped him from having that continuous, wheezy cough that dogs get with kennel cough. But he’s still getting coughing jags here and there. Last night, though, they were more frequent, and lasted for long periods of time. He had a coughing jag around 9:00 p.m. that lasted almost 40 minutes. He had another one at 11ish lasting about half an hour, and another around 1ish for 40 minutes.

Each time, I woke up, got up, checked on him, but couldn’t do much. The vaporizer was full and running on high. He’d taken his meds. I’d try to soothe him by rubbing his little back and he’d just keep coughing and wheezing. It was a terribly dry, unproductive cough.

Then I’d get back into med and listen to him whimper a bit from the pain. And I’d toss and turn and think. Is there something more that I can do? Maybe I’ll call a more experienced rescuer in the morning. Maybe I’ll call the vet in the morning and see what else can be done. I wonder if this is normal and I just have to wait it out? After speaking with George’s rescue the day before, we’d decided to postpone his transport a week. Maybe I should have let George travel this week so he can be cared for by someone with more experience? And then I’d finally notice that George had stopped coughing, and I’d fall back asleep.

Around 3:00 a.m. it started again and this time I didn’t wait for it continue. I got out of bed and went into the kitchen. I got two bowls. In one, I mixed George’s cough pill with chicken. In the second, I mixed a teaspoon of honey in water. George ate the chicken and drank ALL of the water, the whole bowl. I was hoping that the honey would soothe his throat. He coughed a little more, and then fell asleep in his bed.

Today, so far, so good. He’s just coughing a little bit.

Hopefully, tonight will be better. Poor little George.

19. February 2016 by Nicki
Categories: animals | Tags: animal rescue, dog, dog rescue, houston | Leave a comment

George: a Rescue Dog, Day Five

George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.

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George had a wonderful Monday!

George has been eating really well for me, and gaining strength. He’s eating canned dog food, which I think is much more nutritious and healthy than kibble (it doesn’t have any binders, it has a higher water content). I’ve had him on Party Animal Organic Turkey. He loves it. Plus we’re getting rid of all the nasty worms inside him, so he’s getting to be quite the spunky older fellow. When I first got him, it was easy to give him pills –I would just mix them right in with his food and he’d scarf up everything. Well now that master George has been eating well and regularly, he’s decided to eat around the pills and to forego the food that’s attached to the pills. I don’t know why, but this makes me laugh. I guess that I’m just happy he’s healthy enough to make these kinds of snotty decisions. Maybe we should rename him Georges, with his newfound discriminating taste?

And here we have Georges during one of his short walks yesterday:

You can hear the kennel cough, right? It sounds terrible, I know. It takes weeks to clear this up. But on the positive side, look at the tail wag! Yes George, you are loved.

I had two goals for George on Monday. The first was to deal with his cough situation. My vet came to the rescue. She stopped by last night and brought him a second pill to help with the cough (but will Georges take the darn thing??). While she was here, she also looked at his eyes for me. Even though he’s blind, I think that his eyes are bothering him because when we go outside, he tries to rub his eyes in the grass (did you see it at the end of the video?). Well after spending several hours in the bathtub with George over the weekend, that’s the last thing I want him to do! Anyway, the vet made sure that George doesn’t have any ulcers on his corneas, then she removed a small tumor on the eyelid of his left eye, because she thinks that might have been causing irritation. Then she gave me a steroid to put on his eyes every day until they clear up. Here’s the mobile vet van in my driveway last night.

South by South Vet mobile vets

My second goal for George was to change the ownership on his microchip. Yes, he’s microchipped. His previous owners microchipped him, but didn’t want him once he got older. Is it ok to cuss in a blog? &%$#%^

Once a chip is registered it seems to take an Act of Congress to get the registration changed. There’s a form to complete, plus all kinds of documentation to show. I wasn’t able to get this done on Monday, but it’s on my to do list. I’d like to get it done and changed over to George’s rescue before the end of the week.

16. February 2016 by Nicki
Categories: animals | Tags: animal rescue, dog, dog rescue, houston | Leave a comment

George, a Rescue Dog: Day Four

George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.

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On Sunday morning, I decided that I wanted to do two things with George: 1) get him a harness and collar, and 2) try to alleviate his coughing from the kennel cough. The first goal was easy, of course. I went to Patty’s Pet Depot in the morning to drop my other dogs off for grooming. While I was there, I picked up a super soft and gentle harness. Using a neck collar or choke chain to walk a dog is a horrible thing to do. Not only does it hurt, but it also can damage a dog’s throat! In George’s case, with kennel cough, it would hurt him even more to pull him around by constricting his throat, because he’s been coughing so much.

George’s new soft and gentle harness!

So I got the harness, and I also got George a collar that I will put on him, loosely, when he goes on transport. I got the tag engraved with him name and the number of his rescue group.

George’s new collar and tag.

I got him a nice soft new bed to match his purple harness, but I’ve wrapped that in a garbage bag and then put sheets over top of it. Because he has kennel cough, I don’t want him to contaminate the bed, and I am washing and changing his sheets every day anyway, so the germs don’t spread. I also picked up a nice warm sweater for him, because he’s headed up north and little old bones get cold up there. He’s going to look really handsome wearing it!

My second goal of the day was to try to alleviate some of the terrible coughing that George is going through. My sister Dawn helped me with that. Our vet put George on all the medicine that will help him with the cough, but it takes 2-3 weeks for a dog to recover from kennel cough. So Dawn helped me research some holistic ways to try to soothe George in the meantime. If you’ve never heard a dog with kennel cough, it’s really rough. The cough is a dry hack, although sometimes they cough up puss, saliva, or blood. I’ve actually covered the floor around George in newspaper so I can just roll up the paper and replace it every day, because of the mucus and blood.

Anyway, yesterday we read that three things can help alleviate the coughing, besides medicines. First, honey helps, the same way it helps humans, by coating and soothing the throat. Second, coconut oil apparently works similarly, but also kills a lot of germs too. Finally, a vaporizer also helps to calm the inflamed tissues. I decided to try the honey and the coconut oil. So I put a little bit of coconut oil in George’s dinner. Then later, I added a little drop of honey in his water.

I was going to wait to see how the honey and coconut oil worked after today before I decided to turn on a vaporizer, but after listening to poor George cough through the night last night, I got up this morning and put the vaporizer in his room right after I brought him in from doing his business outside. So let’s hope that some of that coughing calms down and George is able to rest peacefully for most of the day!

15. February 2016 by Nicki
Categories: animals | Tags: animal rescue, dog, dog rescue, houston | Leave a comment