Introducing Libby & Trooper

It's been a month since I took home Libby, so I thought I'd better finally get around to introducing her.  She is a partially deaf Jack Russell Terrier who was found in a ditch on the side of the road.  Her owners were never found, so she came to All Paws Rescue.  This is Libby:

Libby is around eight years old, and she's extremely quiet and laid back.  She's not at all a typical Jack Russell - she sleeps most of the time, never barks or gets excited, and seems to live in her own world.  She was at my house for several weeks but when an opening came up at another foster home, she immediately asked for a transfer.  She said she'd prefer a home with fewer dogs, and I said so would I.  But in the end, she got to go to the other foster home, and I had to stay at my house with all the dogs.  I knew that she was happier in her new foster home when she saw me at an adoption event and pretended that I was a total stranger.  It'd been less than two weeks since she'd left my house, but there was not even a glimmer of recognition in her eyes when we met again. 

Natasha, the Sheepdog or Labradoodle or some other mixed breed, was also at another foster home but decided that she missed me.  She decided the fastest way to get sent back to my house would be to attack another dog at her foster home, and sure enough, she did it and back to me she came.  She seems happy to be back, and she's a very easy dog to foster, so I don't mind at all having her back.  She's actually very good with other dogs unless she has to share her humans.  But we're working on that and she's learning the only way she gets attention is if she is willing to share.  She's hoping for a home without other dogs so she can have all the attention for herself. 

A few weeks ago I was driving to work when I saw a black Lab standing on the side of the highway.  I live in a rather rural area and many people let their dogs run loose, so it's not uncommon to see dogs in the area.  However something about this guy made me stop.  I think it was that he was all alone, surrounded by fields with no houses in sight.  So I turned around and went back to where he was standing, and walked near him and called to see if he'd come to me.  Most dogs in this area would not go to a stranger, and this guy was no different, but he also didn't run away.  So I decided to see if he'd come up to another dog.  I had Jill the Beagle with me because I was dropping her at the vet on my way to the office, so I took her out of the car and walked her on a leash along the highway near the Lab.  As we approached, he took a few steps toward us and sniffed Jill.  This gave me the opportunity to put a slip lead around his neck and lead him back to the car.  It took awhile for me to figure it out, but finally I realized something wasn't right with him.  He wasn't bleeding, and he could walk, but he just didn't seem to feel well.  So off to the vet we went, and they took some xrays and called to let me know that the dog, who I named Trooper, has a broken spine.  It turned out to be broken in two places, an injury that is common with dogs who have been hit by a vehicle.  So this explains why he was standing in the ditch on the side of the highway. 


Trooper

Trooper is about a year old, and he had no collar or microchip when he was found.  All Paws Rescue kindly agreed to take care of whatever he needed, and he ended up going to a specialty 24 hour veterinary hospital for several days for monitoring and pain medication.  There was some talk of doing surgery to help him heal, but the vet felt that he would be better off letting the fractures heal on their own.  So he recently was able to leave the emergency veterinarian and go to our regular vet's office for another ten days so they could monitor him during the initial recovery time and make sure his pain medication is sufficient.  After that if he's still doing well he will either come back to my house or possibly another foster home, and will have to be on crate rest for at least six weeks before he gets additional xrays to see how he is healing.  Trying to keep a one-year-old Lab puppy quiet for six days, much less six weeks, seems like an impossible task.  He has to stay in the crate 24/7 except for going outside on a leash to potty.  So the poor guy is having a rough time, but he should make a full recovery.