Feb 28, 2011

Meet Da Pack -- Day Four

Well, good mornings out dere in Blogville.
Dat was quite a banquet over da weekend.
I eated so much food......tacos, pizza, bbq,
cheesy toes, KFC, you names it......I ate's it!
And I won't evens tell you's all da stuffs I
was drinkin'...cept dat I sure has a big
HEADACHE
todays.  Dis is a good week for sleepin' and
I is goin' to do jus' that when I finish up wit
dis postee.
Sees my RED eyeballs...dat ain't da fault of
da flashy beast!

I lets Mom take it from here (butt only for a few minutes)
********
Good morning everyone....what ever has my little Amber done to herself?  She's walkin' around here this morning like a drunken sailor.  And the tootin'.....we won't get into that.

Anyway, today we'll introduce you to
HOLLY.
As mentioned in our last post, Holly is one of Bailey's daughters from a litter of nine puppies born on November 5, 2000, making her just over 10 years old.  She is a Jack Russell Terrier and looks very much like her father, Jack (who is now at Rainbow Bridge). 
Holly and her sister, Sarah, were given to us as a Christmas present by our daughter that year.


Holly and her sister have always been very close...two peas in a pod is a good way to describe them, much like Amber and Max.  They are definitely not the norm when it comes down to the Jack Russell breed.  They both prefer to be couch potatoes and watch the action from the sidelines.

Today I'll focus on Holly and leave Sarah for our next post. 
Holly is rather the "prim and proper" lady of the house.  (Except when she chooses to roll in some smelly stuff in the back yard.)

She has a short, smooth coat (as opposed to the shaggy coats of her mother and sisters).
She is solid white with just one brown ear.
And speaking of ears, she is prone to the
"Cauliflower Ear"
(Did you hear that, Thunder, from the OP Pack!!)
This picture was taken during a flareup a couple of years ago.
We were fortunate that this time around we were able to cure it with antibiotics and a lot of flushing.


The first time we were faced with this problem, we weren't as lucky.
The "cauliflower" went deep into her ear canal.  She had to have surgery but there was extensive damage in her ear.  Ultimately the flap to her ear was sewn shut and her ear canal opening was relocated to the side of her head and appears as a small hole.  It looks very strange, indeed, but at least her hearing wasn't affected.  When someone says "you have a hole in your head", they aren't kidding.
(Hope none of you were eating while reading this as it does sound a bit gross)

Here are a few additional pictures of our "quiet" girl.



And, of course................


Back to Amber now..
(Hey, wake up!)
*
*
*
*
*

Oh...is I back?  I means...I is back!
(Oh, whatever)

Don't forgets to go HERE to visits da
auction for Richie and Ronnii.
We has a handmade "crocheted by Mom" afghan thingy in da auction dat is specially endorsed by me...
AMBER DaWEENIE
  
Also, stops by to sees my dear weenie friend...none odder den FRANKIE FURTER... to gets da details bout helping our friends wit green papers by getting a ticket to a raffle.

Dat's All Folks
Now I really has to recuperate from my
pawty hangovers!
SO
*
*
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GOOD NIGHT EVERYONES
AND HAPPY MONDAY
(but I'll be sleepin')


Amber



Feb 25, 2011

Meet Da Pack -- Day Three

Before I introduce you to Bailey,
I wants to thank Brian
for dis Awesome Award...
**
AWESOME BLOG AWARD

I will tells seven more tings bout
me on a future posty.

THANK YOU BRIAN
************
On dis postee I would likes to introduce
everyones to anudder one of my pack mates...
BAILEY

I will give da Momma one more chance to tell
you 'bout Bailey.
It's all yours, Mom!
*****
Mom Here:

Bailey is a 12-year-old Jack Russell Terror Terrier.  She joined our family in early 2006. 

Bailey originally lived with our daughter and her family (as did Reno).  She had two other Jack Russell pack mates....Jack and Sadie.  Jack departed for Rainbow Bridge in 2005 leaving Bailey and Sadie behind.  When Jack was gone, Sadie became aggressive toward Bailey.  We feel that she was feeling insecure without her friend, Jack, and began to cling to our daughter and started to see Bailey as a threat to that relationship.  We decided it would be best to remove Bailey for her own safety.

Bailey seemed to flourish with the change and settled right into our home.  Of course, the transition was easy as we already had three of Bailey and Jack's daughters living with us.  Bailey had two litters of pups with Jack while living with our daughter.  Her first litter in 2000 consisted of nine puppies.  Our daughter gave us two of the puppies as a Christmas present that year.  Their names are Sarah and Holly and you will meet them in a later post.  The third daughter born to Bailey and Jack is named Jennie and was born in late 2004.  Jennie was very tiny and no one was interested in purchasing a pup that small.  So this time it was my hubby that decided he wanted to bring Jennie home as well.

Bailey is extremely active for a 12-year-old.  In fact, out of our family of 11, Bailey is probably the most energetic of all of them and is a very good specimen of the Jack Russell breed ... always on the move and bouncing off the walls.  In picking out some pictures of Bailey for this post, I had a hard time finding pictures that didn't include a ball.  It's very rare to see Bailey without a ball or toy nearby.

Bailey is also a very good swimmer and loves to spend time in the pool.  Diving in for her balls is her favorite pool activity and she can keep this up for hours if we allow her to.  The person throwing the ball into the pool is more apt to get tired before she does.  And when there isn't anyone available to toss the ball, she'll drop it in one end of the pool herself and then run to the other side and dive in to get it.

I will now turn the post back to Amber.

*********
Dis would be
Bailey


Ok's..jus so you knows dat
Mom was telling da troot,
here are all da fotos of
Bailey and hers balls and toys.
***






She even sleeps wit da
ball


UhOh...Must have losted
da ball in these next fotos



Here is a couple for those of you
in da holiday spirit



I hasn't introduced you to
dese three pack mates yet but
I needs to mention dem in dis
postee since dey are
Bailey's daughters.
Sarah and Holly are 10 years old
and
Jennie is 6 years old.
Holly has short furs like her Daddy, Jack.
Jennie and Sarah have long furs
like dere Mama, Bailey.

*********
Here you can watch Bailey
doing da two tings she luvs da
best...playing ball wit Dad
and
getting hers ball out of
da pool.


*****
Dat's bout all I has to says bout
BAILEY.

Mom and Dad has a lot of stuffs to
do dis weekend so I made my own plans
for da weekend.
I plans on doing a lot of dis on da weekend!

HAVES A NICE WEEKEND
EVERYBODY.  DON'T FORGETS
DA BANQUET FOR PIP AND BUNNY!
I IS GOIN' TO TRY AND MAKE IT
BUTT
LIKE I SAYS, MOM AND DAD MIGHT NEEDS
ME TO STAY HOME AND MAKE
SURE DA REST OF DA PACK DON'T
GET INTO ANY TROUBLES.

AMBER


Feb 23, 2011

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Howdy Everyones

I jus' thought dat I would try and
answer a question....
(Note:  Notice dat I say "tries")

I jus' knew dat I shouldn't have
let Mom do my postee toastee da
last times.  I tink she was getting a lot of
you confused.
She mentioned dat Benji came to
our house wit a big chain padlocked
to a...
CINDER BLOCK
and hads to drag da cement block all
da ways to our house.

Well, dumb Mom forgots dat lots
of peoples call dat block by different names.
Kind of likes my Dad calls all of us
by different names.
(A topic for anudder postee)

Anyways.....backs to my story.

Dis is what we calls a
CINDER BLOCK
and it probably weighs at least
50 pounds.
(Actually more like 87 billion pounds)
Benji hads to drag dis ting wit a chain 'round
his neck and da odder end of da chain
padlocked through da holes on da block.
*****
  
Hopes I x-plained dat better den da
Mama did.

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

Now for da 87 million dollar
question....

Is is trues dat 2 tings is better den
1 ting????

Well, I tinks I has.....

TWO CHINS
(Just like Mom)
*****

MY NEXT POSTEE TOASTEE WILL INTRODUCE
ANUDDER PACK MEMBER OF MINE BY DA
NAME OF BAILEY


HAPPY WEDNESDAY EVERYONES...

AMBER


Feb 21, 2011

Meet Da Pack -- Day Two

Todays I wants to tell ya'll all bout our pack mate, BENJI.  But since I was jus' a wittle baby when Benji arrived, I will turn my bloggy over to Mom...(I don't likes to do dis....really).
*******
Mom Here and Signing In

Well, we live in a rural area in Central Florida.  Our home is in a sub-division with most of the homes being on one-acre lots.  There is one way into the sub-division and the same way out so there is very little traffic except for the residents themselves.  It was on our way home late one night in the summer of 1997 when we first met Benji sitting right in the middle of the road that goes around the sub-division.  As the headlights of our car caught him and brought our attention to him, we slowed down and stopped, waiting for him to get out of the way.  Instead, he sat up in a begging position and refused to move.  So, what else could we do?  We got out of the car and he ran right over to us.  We took him home with us and let him spend the night in the garage since we didn't know anything about him or if he had any hidden illnesses we didn't want our own dogs exposed to.

The next day I put a leash on him and walked him around the neighborhood hoping he would recognize his home or that someone would recognize him.  This approach was unsuccessful so the following day I dropped him off at our vet's office on my way to work so he could be checked out and given shots so I could bring him into the house.   He remained at our house and seemed very happy to be there.  Then a couple weeks later there was a knock at the door.  The people told us they had seen "their dog, Shaft" playing in our backyard and were there to pick him up.  They did live in our sub-division down the road from our home.  So we said goodbye to Benji and sent him back home.

A couple days later I came home from work and was greeted by "Shaft" sitting in front of our garage door.  Now that we knew who his owners were, we called them and informed them that we had a little visitor at our house.  They didn't come to pick him up until the next day.  A few days later, there he was again....sitting by our door waiting for us to get home from work, but this time he had a chewed up rope still hanging from his neck.  Once again, we sent him back home again.  The third time he showed up, he had apparently slipped his collar off from wherever they had him tied, because his collar was missing.  Then one time he came in with a broken chain hanging from one of those chain spikes that you push into the ground to keep a dog tied up.  The real kicker was on another occasion when he showed up with a big chain around his neck and the other end padlocked through the hole on a CINDER BLOCK.  The poor little 17-pound dog had dragged a heavy cinder block all the way down the road to get back to our house.  There he was, in his usual spot, waiting for us to come home.  I still wonder how long it took him to drag that hunk of cement from his house to our house.

Each time he came to visit, it took his owners longer and longer to come pick him up.  Once he was with us for 2 weeks before they showed up.  We didn't even call them anymore to let them know where he was, because they knew exactly where he went every chance that he could get away from them.  But we already loved him and didn't really care if he came over whenever he wanted.

Then on Labor Day in 2002 when his owners came to get him, they informed us they were moving away to a town about 30 miles from us.  So we had to say our final goodbyes to "Shaft" that day. 

We thought of him often over the next year and wondered how he was doing and if he ever thought about us.  One of the vet techs at our vet's office was having a Christmas candle party at her home just before Christmas of 2003.  I really wasn't planning to go but then something inside of me told me I needed to go for whatever reason.  A few of the other vet techs were also at the party and started talking about the little dog that was brought into the clinic the day before and how he wasn't expected to live.  His owners had him tied up outside and a group of stray dogs attacked him and injured him so badly that it was considered a miracle that he was still alive when he was brought in THE DAY AFTER THE ATTACK!  His owners didn't even realize he was near death until the following day.  The vet tech also mentioned that the dog's heart had stopped beating twice during the surgery to try and repair the many wounds he had.  The vet had to use paddles on him to bring him back to life until he could finish patching him up.  He was injured so badly he wasn't expected to live. 

During the conversation at the party, one of the techs mentioned the dog's name.....SHAFT!   Now how many people name their dog "Shaft"?  I started asking questions about the owners and where they lived.  The answers were enough to tell me that the Shaft who was dying was actually our Benji.  They apparently never took him to a vet for anything and only knew his original vet from when he was still a puppy.  Even though it was late at night, the tech said she'd take me over to the clinic so I could see him.  I called my husband and he met us there, as he loved Benji too.  Benji was just laying there unable to move.  His entire body was shaved and looked like nothing but a series of little zippers where all the staples were holding his wounds together.  We were told he hadn't responded to anything and wouldn't eat, probably because he couldn't even lift his head.  He was being tube fed.    We walked in and started speaking to him very quietly and suddenly he started wagging his tail.  Could it be that he remembered us after not seeing us for over a year?  The next day and every day after that, we returned to visit him.  After only a day he was able to sit and we hand fed him.  He would only accept food from us, and not from the techs. 

After a couple of weeks his owners were able to take him back home again with instructions that he was never to be left outside alone so he wouldn't get dirt into his wounds.  The owners just didn't believe a dog should be a house dog, so I'm not sure what they did with him.  They also traveled a lot and would take Shaft to the vet's office for boarding.  The techs always called us when he boarded so we could visit with him.

Then it finally happened.  There was a knock on the door late on a Sunday night in May of 2004.  It was Shaft's owners.  They told us they just couldn't keep a dog if they had to keep him in the house all the time and it was getting too expensive to board him every time they had to leave for the weekend.  So they said they were planning to turn him over to a shelter but wanted to ask us first if we wanted him since he seemed to want to live with us so badly.   Of course we said he could live with us.  They said they would drop him off at the vet's office the following day and pay all his remaining bills from the surgery after the attack.  We were to pick him up from the vet. 

When we picked him up, we were also told he had active heartworm that needed immediate treatment.  So we left him there until the next day after the first heartworm treatment.  Apparently he had never been on heartworm preventative medication, but that was no surprise.  He came through all the treatments and we had him neutered.  He just seemed so happy to finally come back home to the only home where he was ever happy.  Of course, he was no longer "Shaft" and seemed to smile whenever we called him BENJI.

According to our vet's very first records he kept when Benji was just a 6-week old pup, Benji was born in May of 1996, making him nearly 15 years old.  He is in the best of health and certainly doesn't act 15 years old.  He is Reno's buddy and will often go out to lead Reno back into the house when Reno forgets where the doggie door is.

Now, for a few pictures of Benji.
**********************
One of the scars from the dog attack is still visible on his upper rear leg

This picture was taken when he finally came back to his forever home



This is just how he looked on the road the first time we met Benji











Benji loved digging tunnels in the sand on a hot day



A haircut helps

An even shorter haircut
'HELP ME...I'M NAKED'


Silly Boy!

A nice restful evening in "my chair"

*****

Ok....I is back again!  Thank you for putting up with Mom's commentary.  I didn't tink she would ever shuts up.  Next time I will have to tink twice befores turning over my bloggy to her.

And...since dis is my blog....here is a foto of me as a wittle one when I first met da Benji!


HAPPY MONDAY, Y'ALL!
AMBER







Feb 18, 2011

Meet Da Pack--Day One

Hi Everyone's..
Dis is MY blog and every so often I let's my
brudder Max (DaOdderWeenie)
host MY blog, but da Mama is
insisting dat I at least introduce da rest of my Pack!
So......
You has to be really patient wit me cause
Dis will take NINE post toastees
to introduce all of dem.

YES

I comes from a very BIG family.  Most of da
BIG family consists of rescues of da
less fortunate (if you knows what I means)
**
**
**
I guesses dat I will start wit da oldest...
Dat would be da RENO.
Many of you have seen my earlier post called


Reno will be 16 years old in June of dis year.  He originally belonged
to my hooman sister who lives in anudder part of Florida wit
her family.  When dey had dere brand new house built in
2003, Reno was very allergic to someting in da new house
or da new yard.  His footpads broke open da first week after
he moved into his new house.
So...he came to stay wit us until he healed up.  Den he went back
home and....da same darn ting happened again.
So....Reno moved into our house...
PERMANENTLY
*******
Reno has good days and bad days.  He is very
senile (jus' like Mom) and also very
arthritic so sometimes he can't even
stand up.  But den someone changes his batteries and one of his buttons gets pushed and...
WOW....Cracker Dog on da loose.
*******
Here are a few fotos taken at various
times during his stay wit us.
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***
One of his BABY PICTURES
(From his HARLEY days)

***
And one video...He wants da toy
dat Bailey has!


*****
Dats all for Reno for dis posty!
My next posty will feature
BENJI
*****

Jus' so ya'll don't
forgets what I looks like:

Till Da Next Time....

Amber