Benny's Home!

Benny has been spending the last two days at the vet. He came home last night, but tonight when I went to pick him up was the last visit he has to make to the vet for quite a while. I bet he's relieved! I sure am, it was emotional to say the least.

Benny was Heartworm positive when he was accepted into ARF in Glen Ellyn, in April. When we adopted him in July, they told us he had undergone treatment in April and he wouldn't be due for another Heartworm blood test until August/September, to make sure the treatments were successful in eradicating this terrible parasite. Alas, two vets and three blood tests later, he was still positive.

So we had to undergo another set of these treatments. There are two shots, one administered one day, and the second the next day--this is because the dosage includes some very powerful poison (arsenic) and the shots in the muscle are quite painful.

He is now on some anti-inflammatory chewables once a day. He can't go up or down stairs, nor get too excited, nor exercise, for the next 7-8 weeks. The next Heartworm blood panel is due in about 6 months.

Here's hoping this treatment, as the vet said, works a little better for him. I really like his vet, he's a calm and knowledgeable person whom I trust (and trust me, it took me 2 other vets before I decided to stick w this one!).

Here's to a healthy future for Benny! Meanwhile, he's enjoying lots of chopped chicken as a treat ;o) to get his energy up.

To learn more about Heartworm, please see the ASPCA canine heartworm page.

Benny

THEN

NOW

A Hiking We Will Go

Bought new hiking shoes from the nearby Timberland store so I can trek with young Master Benny, the 2-time runaway hound. Got good use out of them yesterday when we took a 45 minute walk in rough field terrain. He definitely loves breathing in the new smells and checking out the rabbit population.

He was super well behaved over the weekend, even when our niece dropped by to meet him. He really enjoyed taking dog biscuits from her and he definitely enjoys the petting and cuddles he's getting from everyone!

Needless to say, we're all holding on to his leash unusually strongly lately, and securing any open doorways leading to the outside world whenever he's nearby.

Last night was the first night he didn't use our cream carpeting as his restroom, instead waiting until this morning to do his business like the wonderful boy he is.

Stay tuned for more updates as they become available ;)

Benny's Been Back a While

Benny found his way into one of the large, racoon traps (coon trap) that we had out in front of our house Monday night at 11 pm CT.

The cage was well hidden under loose greens the significant other unit had placed around and on top, among the tall and weedy trees, bushes, and grasses. We set chicken, dog food, cat food, and water inside the cage, and hoped for the best.

Since his dissappearance on Wednesday evening, plenty of people called us via the numerous lost dog flyers or findtoto.com voice mail messages, letting us know they had spotted our dog but he was running too fast away to catch him. We ourselves had ran into him numerous times but he had vanished just as fast as he had appeared.

And I wondered what he had been eating, and drinking, what may have attacked him in the night. Whether the mosquito bites were bothering his irritated skin as much as they were me and mine.

I cried when it rained Friday night because it was also lighting and thundering.

But on Monday night we finally caught him and he hadno idea why we were saying "ha-ha" and pointing at him as we lifted the heavy, huge metal box out of its hidden greenery home and up the steps into our front door. Neither why we barricaded the kitchen entrance as we let him out and continued to laugh at "stupid dog."

The very next day he got a bath as soon as I came home, and his ears cleaned with a special liquid I had bought at the veterinarian. He would need another veterinarian visit now to make sure he was ok. It wouldn't be the same vet I'd taken him to on Tuesday, because they didn't inspire much professionalism. I'd have to find another one.

I eventually took Benny to the vet our next-door neighbor suggested, since they take their three cats there, and it was also open on the day I wanted to take Benny. These guys are much better. They gave me some deworming pills to give Benny on a full stomach, and a stool sample container that I need to bring back in about a week, with stool that is no older than 3-4 hours.

Benny's getting his coat brushed about once or twice a week, and he's getting chopped cooked chicken mixed in with vegetables and his dry and wet dog food. Plus snacks such as sweet potato and venison mini dog biscuits and fake meat treats. As soon as the fake meat treats are finished I wont' be buying new ones since the product contains too many artificial ingredients and corn syrup. Why on earth are there still businesses selling crap like that? All the other products I'm buying are much more wholesome with clearly understandable ingredients. You can tell if a product's good or not by what ingredients are at the beginning of the ingredients list. If it's filler or "meal" or "byproduct" run screaming the opposite way as fast as you can.

Here's hoping Benny gets used to indoor life with us and we find a good, trustworthy obedience training program that can get us both talking the same language.

Benny's Gone

My husband accidentally let go of the dog leash and now Benny has been gone 24 hours, as of 1 hour ago.

I am researching GPS pet tracking, because that microchipping bullshit that they keep pressing on people does shit for finding a lost dog. Shit.

I know what I'm talking about. I searched 3 hours until 1:30 am yesterday, then again from 5ish until the rest of the day. I was going almost door to door, and parking lot to parking lot. I have mosquito bites the size of halved golf balls.

Back to the pet GPS. The first step in my search is always a super generic Google search, in this case for "pet GPS." Otherwise, I can search Amazon.com for the same products that sound interesting and this way I obtain a new perspective and additional information.

This page helped me orient myself to the general world of pet GPS devices. From Google and Amazon, I found the following results of particular interest:

• Petsafe - 4.2 oz, 4-5 day battery life with Internet tracking. Cost of $99.99 for GPS. The service plan is $16.58 a mth ($199/year) OR $19.99 a mth ($239.88/year)
• Zoombak - 2.5 oz, 5 day battery life of collar piece with Internet tracking. Cost of $70 for GPS. The service plan is $9.99 ($29.97 for the first 3 mths, then $14.99 a mth), $14.99 ($164.88 a yr), OR $154.99 per one year.
• DogTracs - 2 oz, 5-6 day battery life of collar piece with Internet tracking. Cost of $219.98 for GPS and 1st year of svce (easy pay available for 3 payments of $74.98) OR an annual service plan at $149.99.
• RoamEO - 6 oz (the heaviest), only 10 hour battery life of collar piece with handheld device. Cost of $499 plus $69/per annum service plan. [Expensive and stupidly lowbattery life. Waste of dough.]
  
• Garmin Astro - 6.5 oz, 24 hour battery life of collar piece. Cost of $599.99 for GPS. [Way expensive and stupidly low battery life. Meant to be used by hubters, in dog's proximity, and thus, not good for lost dogs. A waste of dough.]
  

Master Benny the Baying Hound

Master Benny's been doing really well. Yesterday we took our first long walk in the prairie path and he peed! I'm so proud :o) He's been keeping both his liquid and solid outputs to himself, which is not a good thing.

Today when I came home, he wasn't in the kitchen so I panicked. He had escaped the gate and ran upstairs to do the forbidden: sleep on our bed! That was the first time I shouted at him really loudly: Noooooo! I hope he remembers that. He had already piddled on the bedsheets in the am, and significant other unit told him to get down. Then piddled on the mattress when I found him on it in the afternoon. Little stinker! Yesterday he piddled on the sofa cushion. But he knows that the bed is off limits, no matter how puppy-eyed and adorable he looks up at us.

We went to the vet today to get a stool sample test and a general checkup. The ride to the vet was drooley but comfy on his very own navy Ikea blanket. He really liked it. The vet said he looks great and we need to wait for the stool results. His next heartworm preventative should be taken in mid August, and a second heartworm blood test shouldbe done in late August. The trip back home was much better, since he knew he'd get a chance to relax.

Before coming home, we went to the discount supermarket to get him some frozen grilled chicken breast strips and some mixed frozen veggies. I'm planning on giving these to him intermixed with his all-natural doggie food. The canned stuff smells disgusting, no matter their saying that it's human-grade--stupid wording, marketing guys take note! The dry food might be making him constipated, so I will be making that a little soupy if possible to help him get his share of liquids.

When we finally came home, I did my homework for tomorrow--how journalistic to procrastinate until the deadline loomed its dark, cold, menacing shadow over me. We had a great, long walk with young master Benny the Baying Hound, where he chased all the rabbits he could, and bayed to his heart content when he felt he had found a really good scent trail. I wonder if he would know what to do with a rabbit if he ever caught one?

During our walk we progressed under the main road's concrete bridge, where we observed all sorts of fascinating graffiti. Some samples were actually quite nice, like a woman's eye that I could spy in-between some later work that tried to eclipse it. I would love to take pictures, but I think there's more than enough graffiti photos on flickr.

Tomorrow will be a long day for Benny, we will see how he does. It's a new adventure every day.

Meet Ben

Say hi to Ben, he is our new child.

On the outside, Ben's a handsome, if skinny, two-year old Beagle. Inside, he has emotional scars the size of the Grand Canyon.

Ben came to us via petfinder.com and the excellent work that The Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) of Glen Ellyn does. We want to thank Ann and Tom for being the best foster parents in the world.

We don't know what someone did to him, when, or where. We know he was saved from a kill shelter in Southern Illinois. His foster mom provided the possible reason that he may have been beaten into submission during hunting training then rejected. If this is true,we wish the hunter goes hunting with Dick Chaney and gets accidentally shot in a very painful place.

Today was our first meeting with Ben, and time just ran away from us because we spent over an hour (!) with him sitting on our lap while we massaged and petted him, and talked up a storm with his foster mom Ann.

We thought he would be too timid because of his emotional scars, but we both felt he is unique and perfect. We called his foster mom about an hour later and told her we were ready to take him to his forever home. Soon after he took his first mommy lap car ride -- where he was interested but suspicious and drooled a little -- and visit to Petco -- where, I might add, he was the darling of every staff member.

Sadly, he doesn't seem to like snacks. Yet.

He just napped on the sofa for a few minutes at a time, between me and his dad, earlier this afternoon. Right now he is sleeping, fitfully, I must say, on his leopard and brown fur two-sided blankie, on the floor next to me and the bed. He often opens his eyes to check that I'm still here. I say hellooo, and he resettles. Once he mini-wiggled his tail.

He has nightmares. He twitches. He squints. He kicks with his legs. Kind of like he's trying to run away from something awful. He doesn't have to run anymore, not unless he wants to fetch a ball or come get cuddles!

We hope that he'll come out of his really thick shell. We finally got him to drink some water with our water-dipped fingers dabbed on his lips. He started licking our fingers. The finger licking is a pretty earth-shattering show of love and trust...we couldn't be happier.

We hope he soon turns into his true Beagle self: funny, cuddly, lively, and inquisitive. We also hope he goes pee and poo. We took him for a longish walk in the nearby grassy park as soon as we came home from Petco, but no sale.

He has adopted me as his mamma, and looks to me to understand what's going on and if it's ok to do as his daddy asks him to ^_^ how cute is that?

Will update more, and probably more than anyone wants to know, on this totally cool and joy-filled journey ahead of our furry forever baby. I've started a PicasaWeb album just for him.