Getting Spoiled!

Does this little Sassy gal deserve to be spoiled? ABSOLUTELY for each and every day for the rest of her life!

It's nearing the end of our day, and we're getting ready to come in from the cold, sit and watch a good movie and get ready for Monday!After a nice supper of kidneys and pork necks, the Sunday night routine is kicking in.

The new one is all nicely cleaned up, pills given, ointments applied, stiches cleaned, ears cleaned and eyes checked, is settled in for the night. As you can see here, Sassy Girl has taken a real liking to being spoiled. Shes in her pei-jammies.

The other two angels...same darn thing!I've sent enought pictures today, so I promise to stop!CheersMM

Back From The Vet

Well our visit to the vet went pretty well (until we got to the nail clipping)What drama!!! 3 of us holding her down... we all got quite the work out tonight.Sassy is quite well with the exception of her eyes. The vet doesn't want to make any committements until he can see past the infection. He does think we can look forward to some restored vision in one eye.

Sassy is quite well with the exception of her eyes. The vet doesn't want to make any committements until he can see past the infection. He does think we can look forward to some restored vision in one eye.

His big concern is her neurological state. Her eyes move back and forth by themselves constantly, just like a cat clock. I didn't notice that until this even either. He started to ask me a lot of questions like, does she fall over? etc.... in any case that is his prime concern, and his statement was: "hmmmm... not that's not a good sign at all" - but again, he said, let's get rid of all the infection ... so we will be going back next week after a week of antibiotics. I'll keep you posted.Other than that, she's in good health , except she needs to gain weight. That's NO PROBLEM I assured him. Heck I think she looks fatter already!

Tonight Sassy was feeling really good when we got home. She actually started playing. HEre are some pics of her in her new duds!She's doing really well. Bye the way, we will have to wait until next month for the spaying. For the next little while she's destined for funny looking undies.

She's doing really well. Bye the way, we will have to wait until next month for the spaying. For the next little while she's destined for funny looking undies.

Pyometra - A Dangerous Affair

Just imagine my horror when I picked Sassy up to put her in the truck. Pus squirted out and down over my arm. I could not believe what I saw, nor could I believe the smell. We headed off to the vet immediately who diagnosed this little gal with pyometra. She underwent emergency surgery right away.
We really have to thank Nancy Allen of http://nancy.allen.net - She really was instrumental in saving Sassy's life. Thank you Nancy!!!

If you'd like more information on pyrometra please see the following resources
PYOMETRA in Dogs - What is it.

============== Human Notes =======================

What a day yesterday!My best friend and I went to pick up Sassy only for find out her mother died overnight, so I ended up going with Sassy to the house and house-sit a dead person while waiting for the 911 and the funeral home people......she died peacefully in her sleep while reading her book, I hope I go that way too.Ok... so here's all the Sassy news:

She did not have a tumour nor mastitis.The right side of her pyometric uterus , slipped into the inguinal canal and herniated. This uterus-hernia ulcerated and ruptured. The vet admits he has never seen that before, it's one for the "books", and it's beyond him how she ruptured outside her body, rather than inside her body.He is also convince this happened before as she has some scar tissue in other places from previos ruptures.

His words: "What a mess in there".He cleaned her out really well. NOW she really looks skinny. Her flanks which looked fuller before the operation, in fact was her overinflated, pyometric uterus..... In fact he made me feel better by saying that my moving her around alot, picking and poking her created the awareness necessary to save her life.

Sassy really wants to snuggle in our bed, and we think Sassy deserves at least that much, so to accomodate her drain, I purchased a very large camping tarpolin and put in on top of my bed, then covered in with cozy blankets for Sassy. If she leaks, well, we will just wash and change the blankets, at least the mattress and all of the Under bedding stays clean - so that works for us!She loves staying in bed... and she's finally asking for the door at pee-time HURRAY!!!! I know she wants us to move to Florida.

She hates the cold.Sassy is out of hot water for now. She is still left with a generalized infection and is taking anti-biotics. Her ears are a mess, her eyes need to still be fixed and she also has Central Nystagmus.(all of the above is far from the heart so we will take out time and deal with things)She won't stop thanking me every moment she has!!! What a gal she is!I am now going to take my big, black chow boy out for his morning jaunt WITHOUT the "girls", who like any smart shar-pei, are hidden away under blankets and don't want to know a darn thing about snow. God bless chowlings... they LOVE snow!

Second Clean Up

Sassy was more than willing this morning as we did phase two of her cleanup.Yesterday our bath triage was for the smell, today was for the skin.

We let her sit in a warm bath of more mimosa and parrafin to hydrate her ski and actually exfoliated her with a loofa to get rid of any dead skin cells.Surprisingly we managed to get even more dirt off of her. (I thought we did that yesterday)

She's all nice and dry here and you can see she has a few skin issues but it's nothing major and I am sure the coat will come back soon.To ease her mind and thank her for being so co-operative in the bath tub, here she is with her "recreational bone".It'll keep her busy for a while.

China Dolls Part Two

Click on the individual pictures to read all the captions!



Sassy is running all over the place looking for doors, windows, and places to go OUT!

We Made It Home. Sassy's New Place!

You need not worry! We made it home ok!We took plenty of pics so I-ll send in two batches.This is batch one.We made it home with our China Dolls!! As most of you know, myself and Dawn drove to Maine this morning to pick up our rescues.Our rescues were the most excellent passengers.We calculated that they spent 8 hours between two vehicles.April-May did her very best to try to sneak into the front of the truck, while shy Sassy spent most of the trip staring out the back window.We made it home, into the bath and now Sassy is a true rose. One I started scrubbing, she stood there without any restraint and let me scrub-away! The dirt that came out was amazing and Sassy was a true champion. She let us towel dry her, spritz her with nice cologne. She didn't want anything to do with her new PJ's.. (that's ok), and she didn't want us to touch her over grown toe nails (that's ok to... we'll wait for another day).

We got past the intros and Merlin was a true gentleman and scholar. MeiMei tried to play, make friends, play, jump, play...... she'll have to wait for Sassy to get more comfortable. Sassy is completely NOT interested in MeiMei! She does like Merlin though... but then he's King.She enjoyed a wonderful meal (her jaws are very weak at the moment), and then discovered the dog door. One thing is more than evident, Sassy is very smart and more than capable. She went in and out the dog door by herself for at least an hour. At one time, there was a choo-choo-train of dogs following each other in and out the dog door. She knows where it is an how to use it. She did her business outside (for the first time in her life), without our help. She did have a tiny accident indoors , by hey,,, she's had a HUGE day. She's so painfully thin. We're going to have to put some fat on her.

Her tail has been between her legs since she arrived, We've been giving her some cheese and she loves it. It's after 8:00 pm and her tail is finally up in the air, curled over on her back. She's busy looking and sniffing all over our house, discovering her new world. She really doesn't know what to do with all this freedom and she's showing all the signs of being an escape artiste. I've already ordered her ID necklace from Lucky Pet - it can't come soon enough. She didn't let me put the harness back on either... that's ok, she doesn't know us, and she's just protecting herself. We'll deal with those things tomorrow.Her eyesite is NOT good. We cleaned her ears very well and her eyes as well as possible. The left eye is definitely ulcerated and I'm not sure about the right eye. Her hearing seems to be questionable too. She wouldn't let me look in her mouth, but she did let me clean her ears, which were surprisingly very clean.Unfortunately we arrived back in Montreal too late to make a side trek to the vet. We'll have to wait until Monday... but not to mind, she's navigating well and seems happy, and is becoming more and more confortable.

She's quite funny. Right now she's laying in front of the fire place with Merlin. They are both occularly challenged, but they are both looking into the fireplace window. How funny.What is also clear is that she's never been handled, touched or loved. She's never seen snow, carpets, breathed fresh air or felt warm hands. She has so many new discoveries to make. We're already looking forward to our first walk tomorrow morning. That should be fun!Enjoy the pics.Sassy is really a China Doll!... and so is April-MayWe also met new friends.Roxanna, Lisa... thanks for making the long drive to the border. It was really great meeting you both. We will take great care of Sassy and April May you need not worry!