DogTales

Most adopted dogs have the birthday of January 1, but in Remy’s case, his birthday really was January 1. I adopted him on Valentine’s Day 1998 at the Houston SPCA as a 7-8 week old puppy. He was one in a litter of 4 pointer/terrier mixes that had been surrendered by their owner. He put his paws around my neck when I picked him up. I guess he picked me. He went home with me in a cat carrier.

For the past 10 years, Remy (Remington) has been a perfect dog–sweet, loving, smart. But he’s also has medical issues off and on his whole life. In November 2006, he was diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease. He responded well to meds, but hit a point where his little body was no longer responding to them.

Here is a picture of him I took yesterday when we were spending some time outside together. He looks so tired. 

Today I put my baby Remy to sleep. While I am suffering from the loss, I know my sweet boy will no longer suffer.

When I was in college, I saw a woman and her two kids walking down the street with their dog who was off leash. The dog ran out in the road and was hit by a car. The people stopped, but then decided to walk away, even though the dog was still alive–laying injured in the street. I jumped out of my car to help, then started screaming at the people because they didn’t have their dog on leash and now they were walking away from their dying dog. I remember the woman saying they didn’t have any money to help their dog.

I can’t imagine not being able to afford medical care for my pets. I know medical costs for treating an animal that’s sick or injured can be prohibitive. I’ve put together a list of organizations who help people and organization who are trying to help sick or injured animals. Maybe this information will help someone.

So back to that dog by the curb–he was a shepherd and he was beautiful. A passer-by helped me move him out of the street and over to the sidewalk. I waited with the dog as he struggled to breathe until animal rescue showed up. I helped load the dog into the truck. I’m sure he was euthanized as soon as he arrived at the shelter. I’m so sorry I couldn’t help him.

SNAP is offering to spay female cats free on February 14, 2008. This is open to the whole community, but an appointment is required. I’ve had great luck having several animals fixed at SNAP.

Even if you can’t get an appointment on the free day, their regular spay/neuter rates for dogs and cats are very reasonable. And there are plenty of other discount spay/neuter clinics in the Houston area.

I like to look at my blog stats to see what people search for that brings them here. Lately, I’ve received a bunch of traffic for the term “intusucception” since I reference it in a previous post. After about 10 seconds of my own searching, I realized I’m spelling the condition incorrectly. D’oh! The correct spelling intussusception.

Anyway, here’s an informative article about intussusception in dogs.