Canine hip dysplasia, not words I like to hear

Yesterday was one sad day.  The last few days Sammy was having trouble with her hip.  As you may have read earlier, reiki has helped her tremendously to the point where she was able to jump in Candy’s SUV! But we noticed only after the weekend, she was having trouble getting in my car. And in a matter of just 2 days, she was unable to go up the stairs to the bedroom.  My husband had to carry her 2 flights of stairs for bed. When I processed that information in the morning I became quite concerned. I had already made an appointment with the Vet for Friday but being Wednesday could I wait? While I was getting ready for work, I sent Sammy reiki while she was downstairs. While still sending reiki,  I could hear Sammy coming up the stairs! Next thing I knew, she was sitting right beside me receiving her reiki.  That of course made me happy. So off to work I went.  I had emailed my friend Heather up in Seattle mentioning Sammy’s hip. She sent me several emails urging me to call my Vet to see if it would be okay to wait till Friday morning. After feeling more guilty, I called the Vet. They said they really couldn’t answer until she was evaluated. They mentioned that they could take Sammy in that day and keep her while running x-rays etc. So since I could not leave work, I called my best pal Candy if she wouldn’t mind doing me a huge favor and drop Sammy off at the Vet.  Candy was unable to get Sammy in her SUV this time. So her hubby, Gordon took her in his Porsche. (Later that evening when I was thanking Gordon for taking such good care of Sammy, he told me she had no problems getting in his Porsche at all!) She was stylin!   Candy followed behind in her car.  Now, Sammy loves her Auntie Candy, she always feels safe and loved by her. If she had her choice, she’d probably live with her! She gets all kinds of good treats and rubs by both Candy and Gordon. So I knew she was in good hands. Candy saw that there were 2 big dogs waiting to be seen at the Vet, but she snuck Sammy right behind the counter so she would be not be bothered by those big dogs!

Waiting is always the hardest. Waiting and waiting.. worrying… waiting… I called the Vet several times. Finally after lunch, I got the call. Sammy had several x-rays. She said that the disease had spread to her other hip and that it was rather extensive. She said part of it was dysplasia telling me she had been born with it. Part of it could be some arthritis. Regardless, she was in pain. Part of hip socket was slightly out. She had tweaked it some how. As I was hearing this I felt such sadness for my Sammy Diva. I know, she must really be in pain.  The Vet was wonderful however, she spent enough time giving me details and what her plan was going to be. The fastest relief would be a steroid shot. I said yes, of course.  They would have to draw blood on her before I could get her medications for pain. I agreed to that as well. The Vet said, Sammy was giving her kisses and I thought, this is not my dog. She HATES the Vet. When I used to take her to VCA, she wouldln’t even get out of the car. I hated taking her.  But I was relieved and happy to hear that Sammy liked her new Vet.  Then I didn’t feel so bad leaving her there while I was at work.

This canine hip dysplasia got me researching… I know reiki can heal it. And that is why I learned reiki, for my pets.  The Vet was shocked at how well Sammy was doing. So in reading about hip dysplasia, I came across a well written article from a Vet. This has lead me back to breeders… and that this is genetic, it’s passed down. Is this part of the puppy mill thing? All I know, is that I rescued Sammy. She was the mother of the seeing eye puppies.   She was two years old and they were done with her. Thank God, I found her.

When I went to pick up Sammy, I was bracing myself for the bill. I figured it would be $1000, I mean, x-rays, blood work, that has got to cost.  The steroid shot itself was almost $40. But to my great surprise, the bill was $400. I was so happy. We love our new Vet!

The assistant was surprised I was so happy as she thought that was a lot of money.  They brought Sammy out. She seemed tired. I walked her to the car and she couldn’t get in. I tried to lift her myself but could not. I finally with great effort got in the front seat but I didnt feel she was comfortable and felt bad for her hip. The steroid shot had not kicked in yet.  Luckily the Vet isn’t far from home.  Brought her home, gave her a big carrot and on the couch she went for a nap. When I brought Lucy home from Candy’s, she ran to Sammy and gave her about 15 kisses. So sweet, Lucy was worried about her big sister. ( I think she remembered the day Ry was taken away and never came home)

I’ll be giving Sammy Diva reiki every day for the rest of her life. The reason I learned it anyways.

This weekend I’ll be looking into ramps so I can get Sammy in and out of the car easier. Much cheaper than buying a Porsche!

The Liberation of Lucy

This story goes back to when Ry was still alive. So this is taking all of you readers backwards. This is a tender story about animals and their intuitive nature. It begins with Ry being very excited this particular morning. He is jumping and looking out our front window. Yes, he has my curiosity piqued. So I take a quick look and see my neighbor Susan with a designer leash in her hands. Attached to that pretty pink leash was a matching motif collar on the cutest little puppy I had ever seen. I quickly opened the door leaving Ry on the other side to investigate. I sound like a sleuth detective here, don’t I? This turns out to be a beautiful pembroke corgi. All fuzz and smiles, the happiest little girl I ever met. Her name was Lucy Lu. (yes, after the actress- Lucy Liu) The designer leash was Juicy Couture of course. They continued down the street as cute as could be.  On the return trip, I picked the puppy up. I could not resist. Kisses and all sweetness, what a doll. I make sure I rub the puppy all over to get her smell on me. Bye, bye and in the house I run. You can see where this going. Ry is all over me like a rash. Sniff, sniff, happy boy. I don’t see or hear anything about the puppy for a day or so. But Ry is frozen to the chair looking out the window on puppy patrol. The scene continues. Susan and Lucy walking down the street and then back in the house, once a day, 3 minutes spent at best. Now, I’m more curious since I only see this puppy once a day. I go over to her house, next door to find out what’s happening. I see the designer crate in the corner of the dining room. This is where Lucy lives 22-23 hours a day. I’m a little startled by this. The 1-2 hours she gets out so that her twin 5 year old boys can play with her. That was the first time I realized dogs can scream, cry out in pain. So Lucy learned how to hide when she got out of her crate/cage. This was a sad situation for me to see. I started to go over and offered to take Lucy out and bring her to my house every day and look after all.. knowing Susan was too busy with her boys, and life in general. I would be more than happy to watch Lucy much to Ry’s joy and happiness. I can’t even tell you what this picture is like. Ry was very tall boxer and this tiny corgi coming into our lives. Ry was so excited he was shaking. The first time they met, Ry laid down. I put Lucy on the ground and she climbed all over him with those cute puppy needle teeth, sunk them into his face. His tail never stopped wagging. It was love at first sight. This was his baby and she was in charge.

I wish it was all fun and games. But there were some horrific times for Lucy. I remember many mornings picking her up while my husband was still in the shower handing him Lucy because she was covered in her own feces. My husband was such a good sport, he took her in and would wash her. He had a big warm towel waiting for her, almost every day now. I was also lucky because my girlfriend’s husband Mark lived down the street and he pitched in whenever I needed help with Lucy. I think we were all falling in love with this little girl. This was a reciprocal love affair. I can remember one day standing out front of my house, holding her, Lucy would fall asleep in my arms. Susan’s husband came home and was amazed. I asked why? His reply was, we have never been able to hold her, she bites, cries and shakes all the time when she’s with us. I felt so sad for them, but more for Lucy.

I think it was very poignant that I met some house guests of Susan’s for a weekend. We were chit chatting and told them I was coming in to get Lucy, the puppy. Now, they had been there 2 days already, and they said to me, puppy? what puppy? They didn’t even know there was a puppy living in the house. Lucy’s visits became more frequent and her stays became longer, up to even 8 hours. It was harder and harder to take her home. Her heart would break, when I put her back in the crate and had to leave. I had to remember this was not my dog. Lucy belonged to my neighbor, and I was only puppy sitting.  Well, my girlfriend Ming and I had to go out of town. I was nervous about leaving Lucy. Up to this point, I had things under control. We are gone for the weekend. We get back home. First thing, I check on Ry who is a wreck. He is running around the house and I understand what he is asking. So I immediately go next door to check on Lucy. This when the horror story begins. Lucy had run away.  Not just once, but seven times. On top of that, she was at one point kidnapped by some boys and a couple noticed that Lucy was trying to get escape so they approached the boys and the boys let her go. The one good thing is that Lucy did have a collar with a phone number. 

So Susan goes on and on about Lucy running away and away. I felt guilty of course Lucy was looking for me.  I had found Lucy many times on my door step and then I’d just let her in. No one even realized she was gone.  Of course, I wanted to bring Lucy home to see Ry so he knew she was safe. 

Later that night, I had to return her, again. Monday morning, I am getting ready to leave for my work out as I do every Monday. Now Ry is acting absolutely crazy this morning. He won’t let me leave the house, he’s pushing on me. I finally get out of the house leaving the house keeper with Ry to help try and calm him down. I am running late at this point. I open the garage and get in the car, and all of a sudden in comes running this little Lucy crying. I pick her up and can’t figure out what is wrong. Next thing I know, I pull her away from me and I am covered in dog poop. Oh no! I am yelling help, Teresa! She brings a towel and wraps Lucy. I cannot be late for my appt. I run upstairs to change. I grab the puppy and drive down to my girlfriend’s house and ring the bell and hand the puppy to Mark. I explain what has happened. Now, Mark takes Lucy to bathe her. 

I come back later to check on Lucy and Mark. They are fine. Lucy smells wonderful and looks very happy to be so loved. 

I have now made a decision. I was going to talk to Susan and her family about Lucy. I could not take Lucy back there again. I promised Lucy, Ry, Mark, myself I could not do this. That evening, I went over I understood they loved the dog and what was best for her. I appreciated that their schedules didn’t allow for the time and energy that a puppy needs. I felt that I had to find Lucy a good home. Susan did admit she was overwhelmed with the boys, the house and her many commitments. She did feel guilty she did not have the time that Lucy required. Her husband admitted he wanted Lucy as a distraction for his wife. In the end, they agreed to give me Lucy. 

This is not the end, with me, it’s never that easy. Now, I decide I need to find Lucy a good home. I told you, it’s not the end. I did, I found her a great home. My trainer at the gym, his sister had just lost her dog named Lucy. Her and her roommate would be interested. So I thought, this is great. Lucy will have a great home close to me. He came and picked Lucy up. He gave me their address so I could check on her because she was still taking some medication at that time. Probably for the diarrhea she had from living next door. She is gone only 2 hours. I drag Ming and her close friend Heather who is visiting from Seattle. We go to visit Lucy. She is running in the yard. No one is around. She runs right over to me. I scooped her up and kiss her. Finally someone comes out of the house, I explain to her what Lucy needs, her medications, food, sleeping etc. We spend about 30 min looking at Lucy’s new home, seems ok but I find it very difficult to leave. 

I get home. 3 hours have now passed since I have given Lucy to a good home. I then tell my husband, I want Lucy back. That he has to call the house to get her back. I feel they are not taking good enough care of her, I was going crazy. Of course my husband said no. He was no help. So I call Ming and Heather for moral support. I finally called the woman back and said I had made a mistake. I did not realize how attached I was to Lucy. That I loved her and this was her home. And that I hoped she would understand that Lucy had been with me for a couple of months.  They hung up and refused to give her back. Now, I’m really losing my mind! How could they be attached in 3 hours? They didnt have to wash the caca off of her! Mark was already attached and wanted her too. He wanted to kill me for giving her away to anyone but him. I finally call my Trainer and plead with him. He says, he’ll handle it in the morning. What a sleepless night Ming, Heather, and myself had. Even my friend Marilyn called Ming continuously to get the dog back. Everyone knew of the attachment I had to Lucy which more than I realized myself. Well it turned out ok, because Frankie the trainer came driving up the next morning with a very happy Lucy in the car. Ry was jumping for joy, his little sister was home safe. 

So, see, even a person that loves Boxers when rescuing another dog can fall in love along the way.

Ry was the rescuer and I was the facilitator. 

Our Corgi, part dog, part cat.

Lucy and her laser beam. Sometimes I think Lucy is part cat. You know those pens that have laser beams? We have one that emits a red light.

Her Daddy has a routine every night when the sun goes down, Lucy runs to the table in the living room stands on her hind legs and says Dad, Dad is it time it is time? When Mark was in Seattle for work, I attempted to play laser beam with Lucy. She would run past the red light with me trying to catch up with her. She would then stop running and look at me telling me that I am just so lame and don’t seem to know how to do it. Thank God, Mark is back. Last night again, she ran back and forth from the living room to the office, now around 8:30pm when the Venice sun sets..

While running,  at the same time she barks with absolute glee in her voice. Up and down the stairs in and out of the kitchen, running at mach speed, a blaze of fur flies past Sammy and I who are quietly sitting in the dark, on the couch watching the evening show.

An adoption party for a dog? Only in LA!

Well, if you have been keeping up, you know that Lucy is our dog now. Why, you’ll just have to read Candy’s blog. But this story is all about happiness. And perhaps, only in Los Angeles do you get an invitation to a dog adoption Party! My girlfriend even flew in from Seattle for it! But it was also a great excuse if you may to have a big bash.

 

Catered by the wonderful Chef, Edwin Tomyoy. (Contact him if you ever need some good food to be catered

Contact Edwin at e_tomyoy@yahoo.com. All of my friends can attest he’s awesome. Invitations went out to about 45 plus people for the event. And the most amazing thing is that Lucy knew the party was for her. She went to the door and greeted every single person that came. She knew that this party was about her. Only Sammy was there.This party was all about Lucy and her big coming out party to the Brown household. Her name was changed, papers were signed. Even kids came, they saw the presents that Lucy received and thought they were theirs. HoweverLucy ran over and grabbed her toys, saying hey, those are mine! After the big party, we opened presents but Lucy was too exhausted to care. She was not interested. But come Sunday morning, you would have thought it was Christmas morning because she REMEMBERED and ran down the stairs saying, hey, time to open presents. She ran around the living room enjoying what new toys she received!

How It Began

Welcome to our blog.

We just want to share some heartfelt stories about the wonderful furbabies in our lives. For those of you that have pets or have had pets, I think you will agree there is no greater joy. The unconditional love every single time they greet you with when you walk through the door is like no other. As my husband says, if you could only be that happy when I walk through the door! The smiles and laughs that our pets bring whether it be my blond Lab wiggling her butt ( a true trait of a Lab -wiggle butt, google it!) because she is so excited to see me or my Pembroke corgi that herds me down our stairs lightly nipping at my ankles every morning. These are stories to be shared in our blog.

Rescue– What is it about rescued animals? Don’t they seem already grateful that you have rescued them from some unknown world or planet. I myself don’t want to know the details of where they have been. All I know about my Lab is that she is a retired seeing eye Mommy. She’s not a seeing eye dog, but the Mommy of them. What a noble profession eh? But then at the age of 2, “they” retire her after I don’t know how many puppies. Living on a mountain somewhere in northern California, because of a wonderful thing called the Internet, she and I find each other. “They” called her “Diva” because she won a beauty contest. And what a beauty she is. When I got her, I thought, I cant have a dog named Diva! What are people to think. I myself love names that are female that can have “male” nicknames. Why? To pay tribute to the tomboy in me perhaps. SO I went with Sam, aka Sammy (for Samantha). And then, heck, why not keep Diva. So her name is Sammy Diva. I bet you’ve never heard of that name. The day she arrived by car, an odd day in LA.

It was pouring rain. But love at first sight. We were off to a wonderful journey called life together. Sammy had never seen stairs, cars, a TV. The one thing she had seen was a cat. Well, good thing, since I have a cat named Mochi. Mochi is now 13 years old. She’s a mainecoon, my little angel. She is very tolerant of life’s changes. There is no retaliation of furballs in welcoming her new sister.

For all the years I was single, and I think all you single women will concur, if my dog doesn’t like you, there’s not going to be much of a chance for you. They must and do have a more acute sense of knowing if a guy is right for us. They may get along, but then there’s staying power. Well both the lab and the corgi know Daddy as Daddy. That answers that question.

The Corgi. You’ll have to read all about her in my friend’s blog and then come back to get my perspective. There is no other more special, amazing , intelligent, sweetest dog other than Lucy. The Pembroke Corgi who from a baby had 2 homes and 2 families. She adopted to two different routines depending on which house she was at without being confused or unhappy. Equally getting loved by all. Lucy can talk, grab her leash.

Hardly received any training whatsoever. The funniest story comes to mind, we just had a big adoption party for her to make her “officially” ours. The very next day, my husband’s company snatches him to Seattle for 2 straight weeks without so much of a warning. We were worried in how Lucy would do as she is Daddy’s girl. She did look for him in his office from time to time. After several days, I let her listen to Daddy’s voice on the phone. Upon hearing his voice, Lucy cocked her head to one side slightly and then ran around the room in glee and BODYSLAMMED Sammy 3 times, bam, bam, bam!! I imagined her saying “he’s alive, someone in this universe, he’s alive!”

Reiki is such a great way to give back to the animals we love. They give us joy unspeakable. For me, to give them something to make them happy is worth all the studying, the learning, the practicing.

It’s just another level of loving them. When I learned reiki, I could not wait to try it on my own pets. Sammy is now 8. The Vet told me that her hip was weaker and it was harder for her to move around. This made me profoundly sad. I always have told her how much happiness she has given me over the years. I used to sing to her, “you are my sunshine, my only sunshine..” So of course, after learning first degree reiki, Sammy’s hip was first to receive. After several days, my girlfriend called me to tell me that she JUMPED right into her SUV! She was already having trouble getting in my back seat of my 4 door. I was so excited I could not tell enough friends of the miracle. Now, Sammy gets regular reiki to maintain a healthy and balanced life. This doesn’t replace the Vet. And we’re still working on her weight. DO you know of a Lab that doesn’t like to eat?! Upon learning 2nd degree reiki, again, Sam was the first to receive. The difference in 1st degree is that wiggles around when my hands on her. With 2nd degree, she just sleeps soundly not seeing any result immediately. However

Again, my friend calls me and said her husband said, did you know, Sammy was RUNNING today! When she was a 2 year old she used to run figure 8’s in the house. Just hearing that she was running again at 8 made me smile. You know she has to be happier if she’s running. The other new thing she does is lay on her back with her legs sticking straight up into the air and while letting out these happy noises. Ah, the life of a dog.