Thursday, January 28, 2010

Help Sweetie's brother find a home


Here is Sweetie's traveling companion. He is lonely here at Leesburg Animal Hospital and wants a new home too.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Another homeward bound animal


It seems there were two dogs traveling down Philema Road a few weeks ago. Both of which looked to be a lab/pointer cross and possibly a little bit of something else. They most likely are brother and sister as they had similar features, looked to be the same age and were traveling together. One of the dogs was a chocolate male and the other a black female. Our receptionist, Laurel, saw them on their way to work one morning, so she put them in the back of her SUV and brought them in. They did not have a collar, tag or a microchip implanted. We housed them here for 2 weeks in hopes someone would claim them but no one called to report a missing dog. We checked with the shelter and no one called the shelter either, so we decided to put them up for adoption. In just a short amount of time we found the black female a home. Luckily she went to a home of one of our clients so we will get to see her grow up with her new three year old sister and six yer old brother who appropriately named her Sweetie.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Little Fern Grows into a Princess

We are so happy to say that Little Fern found a home. Although we began to love her after the short 11 days she spent with us, we were happy to send her to her new abode. Some frequent clients of ours, Mr. and Mrs Milburn, were in the clinic on Thursday and just happened to meet Fern when she was out wandering around the office. Mrs. Milburn was sure she wanted her the second their eyes met, but Mr. Milburn was a little more reluctant. So Fernie went home with them for a "visit" to see if she liked it there. Mrs. Milburn called us today, Friday, to let us know that Fern is working out great. She said her four year old granddaughter came over and Fern ran up to her just like they had known each other for years, but her name was instantly changed, by the 4 year old, to Princess Bella. Probably the most appropriate name she could have been given because Fern is definitely living the life of a Princess.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

A Diamond in the Rough!


We had quite an AMAZING kitty come into our clinic Monday. He presented to us with a hurt foot. His owner said she let him out earlier that morning but when returned home from work she found him unable to use his rear left leg. An x-ray revealed his left metatarsal bones (which are the bones in his rear foot) were crushed. With the severity of his injuries the chance of these bones healing properly were slim to none. A valiant effort could have been made but would be extremely costly and more than likely end in amputation. So after discussion and deliberation the owner opted to have the leg amputated. Tuesday morning we took Diamond to surgery and amputated his leg at the midshaft of the femur (AKA the thigh bone). Usually in my experience animals who have a leg amputated do well. It may take a few days but as a general rule they go right on to having a normal life. To say that Diamond did well is truly an understatement. The surgery itself took about 45 minutes; a few hours later he stood up, on three legs, and ate some yummy canned food!

Many might frown upon the idea of amputating a leg on an animal, thinking it cruel or unfair. We so often transpose our feelings into the feelings of an animal. But the truth is we are not cats and we are not dogs. We do not share the same feelings, nor think like they do; our emotions are compeltely differnt as well as our thought process. There is a word for this transposing of feelings; the word is anthropomorphize. What anthropomorphize means, according to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary,11th edition, is to attribute human form or personality to something not human. In this case the thing not human is a cat...Diamond.

It is often hard for me not to attribute my feelings to my patients every day. Don't get me wrong...it is good to have compassion and to care and to "put myself in their shoes" but as a veterinarian, I must be careful to remember my needs are not theirs and to not assume what is good for me is good for them. For example, if I were to have my leg amputated I would go through several months of depression wondering how I would do the things I love to do... ride a horse, run a race, or just simply drive my car to work and walk up and down the front stairs to my home. But similar thoughts never crossed Diamond's mind. Personally I do not believe animals think about the past. They do not mope or drown in their sorrows about what could have been or what they would change if they could go back in time . Not to say they are incapable of emotions but rather that they do not have our same emotions. And maybe that is the way we should be as well. Oh what we can learn from a cat!

Diamond went home today. He left us seeming to be happy and ready to take on life with one less leg!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Fern's Story

We ventured to the Animal Shelter Monday and picked out our first "project." The Lee County Shelter is rather small and the conditions there are not ideal, but the good folks there do the best they can with what they have. We knew we wanted to start with a puppy, so when we walked into the kennel room and saw the litter of Jack Russell mix puppies, it was quite easy to get "suckered in". Three small puppies were housed together in this one pen; all of them were female and all were equally adorable. But this one certain puppy sat back on her hind legs and lifted up her front feet. With her two front paws together side by side she pawed at the air. We took it as a kind of "wave" to us. It was as if she was saying "here I am!! Take me! I want to go!" So...we did. We signed the adoption papers and took her back to our second home...Leesburg Animal Hospital. She had her first bath, which she seemed to enjoy; she had her vaccinations and was dewormed and is frolicking around our office winning the hearts of everyone here. Everyone is working on little Fernie's potty training, so she will be ready for a new home soon!

This is Fern

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The genesis of Homeward Bound

Our first homeward bound animal now living in his new home is Buster. It is safe to say Buster's story was the "nidus" of this blog. The feeling we all felt after matching this little guy's personality to the personalities of the members of his new family was completely indescribable. We just new we wanted to do it again.

Here is Buster's story: A high school friend and client of mine, Mandy Deloach, asked me for my help in finding her a new dog after the disappearance of her dog, Sam. We found on the Lee County Animal Shelter website four Schnauzer/Dachshund cross puppies that were just too cute for words. All four puppies had been abandoned at a house where the tenants had moved out leaving them with no food or water. A neighbor called Animal Control to come and rescue them. All four puppies had a shaggy hair coat like a Schnauzer and long floppy ears like a dachshund...really a perfect combination. Of course when Mandy saw them, she fell in love too. So she made her selection and Buster came to stay with us for a few days. He was neutered, dewormed and vaccinated, started on Heartworm prevention and went through our "kid testing" before going home to his new sister, Raeanna,4, and brother,Dalton, 3. Today he is living in Camilla, Georgia with a warm bed, a bowl full of kibble and four tiny hands on him all the time.

Placing Buster in a great home and giving him a chance at a fulfilling life which so many pound puppies are denied, made us feel like we truly made a difference. It may only be one small dog out of millions euthanized, but to us Buster is our first success. He is one less dog that will go unnoticed, one less dog that will be forgotten, one less dog that won't have someone to love.