Bella 12-301

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Sponsored by:

Joan Barnes
"In memory of Bogey"

A portion of Bella's medical care was paid for by a generous grant from the Golden Retriever Foundation's April Fund


September 18, 2012

Introducing Bella, a 1 year old female golden mix who came to us from North Carolina. Here is Bella’s story: Bella was brought to a shelter in North Carolina after being hit by a car. She eventually found her way into foster care, and after an initial misdiagnosis of Bella’s injury, her foster was told by a new vet that Bella’s hip had been damaged in the car accident and that she needed FHO (Femoral Head Ostectomy) surgery in order to be able to walk without pain. Fortunately, another rescue in the Twin Cities, Happy Hounds, has “adopted” Bella’s North Carolina shelter and frequently brings dogs up to MN. Happy Hounds contacted RAGOM to see if we would be able to get Bella the surgery she needed, and we said yes! Happy Hounds arranged transport for Bella to the cities, and she arrived here one week ago.


Me and my new friend Rosie

Two days later, Bella visited a surgical specialist who performed FHO surgery on her that day. Turns out the break was in the neck of the femur bone, not the hip bone. In FHO surgery the surgeon removes the head of the femur bone (the “ball” that goes into the hip socket) plus the upper “neck” of the bone. The body then creates a false joint out of scar tissue so that when Bella walks, her leg bone will push against the sling of scar tissue instead of pushing on the hip bone and causing pain.

Bella is now one week into recovery and is doing well. She is listed as “unavailable” right now, as we want to wait until her stitches come out and her “lamp shade” can come off (she wears it so that she doesn’t lick the stitches) so we can see what kind of personality she has before finding the right forever family for her. Here is what we know about Bella so far: she is very sweet and loves to snuggle, has done well with dogs, cats, and kids. We think she will love playing with other dogs, she’s tried to play here a few times but we have to stop it until she is 2 weeks post surgery. She also still chews (as puppies this young often do) – this may be exacerbated by the fact that she’s bored to tears wearing a lampshade all day and not being able to run and play – but when she walked up and started gnawing the edge of my coffee table it was definitely a sign she likes to chew!

Bella’s recovery is different then most surgeries – she has to stay quiet for only 2 weeks while the incision heals, then it’s all the exercise we can pack into each day to develop the scar tissue and muscle mass she needs. Day 14 is going to be one fun day around here! Many thanks to RAGOM for paying for Bella’s surgery – saving dogs like Bella is costly but one look at her face and you know it’s worth it. Bella would love it if you would donate to help cover the costs of her care, and she would be ecstatic to find her own sponsor – every day she wakes up and kisses everyone in the family to let them know how grateful she is that all the wonderful RAGOM supporters made it possible for her to be rescued and live a pain free life.


Naptime on the couch with Macy, my favorite person
Bedtime – boy do I have a good gig going

Bella will be at GOLDZILLA this weekend – look for her being wheeled around in her very own retro-fitted Burley bike trailer! She would love to meet you and give you kisses. She can only stay until noon so be sure and say hello to her before then!


Check it out – I have my very own Burley and I get to go on walks even though my leg has stitches!

At a Glance #12-301

Golden Retriever Born: August 2011
Female Weight not specified

Status: Adopted

Profile

Sponsored by:

Joan Barnes
"In memory of Bogey"

A portion of Bella's medical care was paid for by a generous grant from the Golden Retriever Foundation's April Fund


September 18, 2012

Introducing Bella, a 1 year old female golden mix who came to us from North Carolina. Here is Bella’s story: Bella was brought to a shelter in North Carolina after being hit by a car. She eventually found her way into foster care, and after an initial misdiagnosis of Bella’s injury, her foster was told by a new vet that Bella’s hip had been damaged in the car accident and that she needed FHO (Femoral Head Ostectomy) surgery in order to be able to walk without pain. Fortunately, another rescue in the Twin Cities, Happy Hounds, has “adopted” Bella’s North Carolina shelter and frequently brings dogs up to MN. Happy Hounds contacted RAGOM to see if we would be able to get Bella the surgery she needed, and we said yes! Happy Hounds arranged transport for Bella to the cities, and she arrived here one week ago.


Me and my new friend Rosie

Two days later, Bella visited a surgical specialist who performed FHO surgery on her that day. Turns out the break was in the neck of the femur bone, not the hip bone. In FHO surgery the surgeon removes the head of the femur bone (the “ball” that goes into the hip socket) plus the upper “neck” of the bone. The body then creates a false joint out of scar tissue so that when Bella walks, her leg bone will push against the sling of scar tissue instead of pushing on the hip bone and causing pain.

Bella is now one week into recovery and is doing well. She is listed as “unavailable” right now, as we want to wait until her stitches come out and her “lamp shade” can come off (she wears it so that she doesn’t lick the stitches) so we can see what kind of personality she has before finding the right forever family for her. Here is what we know about Bella so far: she is very sweet and loves to snuggle, has done well with dogs, cats, and kids. We think she will love playing with other dogs, she’s tried to play here a few times but we have to stop it until she is 2 weeks post surgery. She also still chews (as puppies this young often do) – this may be exacerbated by the fact that she’s bored to tears wearing a lampshade all day and not being able to run and play – but when she walked up and started gnawing the edge of my coffee table it was definitely a sign she likes to chew!

Bella’s recovery is different then most surgeries – she has to stay quiet for only 2 weeks while the incision heals, then it’s all the exercise we can pack into each day to develop the scar tissue and muscle mass she needs. Day 14 is going to be one fun day around here! Many thanks to RAGOM for paying for Bella’s surgery – saving dogs like Bella is costly but one look at her face and you know it’s worth it. Bella would love it if you would donate to help cover the costs of her care, and she would be ecstatic to find her own sponsor – every day she wakes up and kisses everyone in the family to let them know how grateful she is that all the wonderful RAGOM supporters made it possible for her to be rescued and live a pain free life.


Naptime on the couch with Macy, my favorite person
Bedtime – boy do I have a good gig going

Bella will be at GOLDZILLA this weekend – look for her being wheeled around in her very own retro-fitted Burley bike trailer! She would love to meet you and give you kisses. She can only stay until noon so be sure and say hello to her before then!


Check it out – I have my very own Burley and I get to go on walks even though my leg has stitches!

Updates

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Bella is making slow but steady progress on her back leg, so we are changing her status to available!

Here is Bella’s wish list – these aren’t all must-haves; some are certainly more important than others:

  • Until Bella grows a little more out of this puppy stage, she needs a safe place to be when she is left alone. I think a crate would be best.
  • Bella needs someone who can spend time with her each day exercising her leg. This includes stretches, walks, playtime, and hills if possible for the next 1-2 months. Please be willing to commit this time to her as the next few months are critical in scar tissue and muscle development, and long term muscle maintenance is important.
  • Bella would love another energetic dog to play with frequently, either a resident or a friend’s dog that she sees frequently.
  • Bella needs a house that is puppy proof, and owners who understand and can handle going through the puppy chewing stage. Bella redirects well, but she can find a non-puppy toy and chew it up in a matter of 5 minutes (just ask my kids), so if this bothers you Bella is not the pup for you!
  • Bella would love a house with at least one designated place (bed, couch, etc) where she can snuggle with her people. She is a big snuggle bug.
  • Bella would love to have a yard or dog park nearby where she can run to her hearts content. Tired dogs don’t get into trouble at home. :)

Give her some thought and email your placement advisor if you are interested!


Friday, September 28, 2012

Just a quick update on Bella: she continues to get better, but she is not using her leg again as much or as frequently as she should be by now. It’s not surprising given she was injured over 2 months before surgery; her autopilot now is to not use the leg. We’ve tried all sorts of tricks to get her to use it: playing tug (didn’t work), backing up a step or two (nope), letting her run (unh-unh), climbing stairs (3 legs is plenty for her), but we have finally figured out one that works every time. If we take her to a steep hill (we have a fairly decent one in the park behind our house) and walk her up at a snail’s pace, she puts full weight on the leg. So, we’re going there as many times a day as we can, then we poke our way up the hill. I’m a fairly impatient person so this slow thing just kills me. I just don’t DO things slow. Unless it’s for Bella. Today we drove to the river bluffs and hiked a few miles up and down there and we are still seeing the benefit of it tonight; she is using it more in the house. We’ll keep pushing the hills as it seems to be the only thing that works; I believe I will have calves of steel by the time she is using the leg full time. The other thing that did seem to help a little was putting a bootie on her good back leg. The bad thing is that the bootie lasted for one hour, then became bootie-confetti (see #1 below).

I am keeping her as unavailable for just a little longer until I’m sure she has re-trained her brain to use that leg. Until then, here are more facts about Bella:

  1. She likes to chew. It’s very puppy like, if we redirect her she is very happy to chew the bone we give her instead. Anything is fair game: the ipod cord, my daughter’s flip flop, the squeaky cat mouse (not any more!), Dad’s favorite baseball hat (that was today, we haven’t told Dad about it yet...), the coffee table leg...you get the idea. Now, this is easily solved if the children (and others, ahem ahem) in this house keep their stuff off the floor and the coffee table. Wish me luck on that.
  2. Bella luuuuuves to sleep on the bed. Last night she was on my daughter’s bed and when I peeked in this morning and patted her head she was literally sleeping so deeply she could hardly focus her eyes on me.
  3. Bella has some hunting blood in her. Imagine the cartoons on TV where the cartoon bloodhound thwops his jowls on the ground and slides them along as he sniffs: that would be Bella in a nutshell. When we do our hill in the park she buries her nose in the grasses/weeds and literally digs her head down in the brush up to her ears. Each time we pass the deer path near the top she tries to pull me into the thicket of sumac. Over, and over, and over. No matter how many times we go up the hill, we get there and she’s like “LOOK MOM! It’s a deer path! Let’s go in there, I bet there’s a deer, huh? Huh?”
  4. Bella walks really well on a leash, even when passing other dogs. Except, if she sees a squirrel. I won’t elaborate but to say “hold tight.” Wink

That’s all the new I can think of for tonight, I’ll keep posting more as we continue to learn about her!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Check out these pictures of me this weekend – I went to the Goldzilla picnic, what a HUGE party!

I wasn’t allowed to walk around yet so I rode in my Burley – Foster Mom said I was an angel because I sat so quietly in the Burley and didn’t try to get out. Well, except for that time that I leaped out of the back. But who’s counting. Anyway, I met all kinds of new doggie friends and I was very well mannered when I met them. And the people – I’ve never gotten that much attention in my entire LIFE! They were so kind to me. Not only did they pet me, but can you believe a whole bunch of them put money in my donation bottles to help pay for my surgery? Person after person after person donated – Foster Mom and Foster Sister were totally blown away by everyone’s generosity. The RAGOM community is just awesome: by the time I left the picnic (and I could only stay till 1!) people had donated over $225, just for me. Thank you to EVERYONE who donated, you are all my new best friends.

Now, having everyone donate to help pay for my surgery was really special. But, something ever more special happened yesterday. Let me tell you the story. A friend of Foster Mom’s had a really special dog named Bogey. Bogey was 9 years old, and last week, just a few days before the picnic, Bogey passed away. It was very sudden, and very unexpected. We saw Bogey’s owner Joan at the picnic and Foster Mom gave her a big hug. Everywhere we saw Joan go, more people gave her hugs, because they knew how incredibly important Bogey was to Joan, and what a huge hole he had left in her heart when he crossed the rainbow bridge. A little while after we saw Joan, she walked back over and told Foster Mom that she had decided that she was going to sponsor ME, plain ole Bella from North Carolina, in memory of Bogey. Do you have any idea how special and loved I felt? Foster Mom told me that now Bogey is watching over Joan AND me from heaven, and that she knows he must be awfully proud of his mama. I feel very, very loved – thank you Joan for loving Bogey enough to honor his memory by helping a dog like me. You’re just wonderful!

So, since I was sponsored in Bogey’s memory, I want to tell you a little bit about him. First off he was awfully cute – take a look at this picture:

Bogey came in from a puppy mill in Missouri. On his first day in Minnesota Joan offered to help her friend Jane give Bogey a bath, and the rest is history. It was love at first sight – Bogey wriggled his way into Joan’s heart.

Joan taught Bogey how to go up and down stairs (he refused at first and had to be carried), and loved him to pieces for the next 9 years. Word has it that Bogey was obsessed with tennis balls, and would play with them until he was “just stupid tired!” He would go to doggy daycare at Jane’s house on workdays, and would pick one tennis ball out of the bazillion balls on the ground to be his ball for the day. If any of the 30 other balls in the yard were thrown for him, he would sniff them, and walk away once he realized it wasn’t his “chosen” ball.

Bogey had his very own cat who he would snuggle with, and his best friend Mike who he would play with until they both collapsed on the bed.

As one person said, Bogey had the biggest bark a dog could have, but was the most gentle soul you'd ever meet. On the other hand, Bogey's tail was a weapon of mass destruction. It was always in motion and could knock a grown man off his feet. J

You know, when a dog comes into RAGOM our goal is to find the perfect forever home for that dog: a home that loves them inside and out, cherishes every moment with them, and looks back after they have left this world knowing they loved that dog with their very soul. Bogey found heaven on earth with Joan and he cherished every moment with her. Thank you Joan for donating to Bella in Bogey’s memory, it is the highest compliment Bella could receive.