So first we had Agnes, like I told you in my entry on May 25, but Mom was not happy with Agnes. This was not the fault of Agnes, because she was a nice girl, and she couldn't help it that she came from a puppymill and didn't have any social skills. Agnes went to see Dr. Vodraska, and Mom pointed out some strange places on the bottoms of Agnes's back feet. One foot had sort of a callous on one of the toe pads, and the other foot had a swollen lumpy thing between the toe pads and the foot pad.
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| Agnes |
Dr. V said that the lumpy thing was kind of like a pimple, and it was caused by the hair follicles being all clogged up. So she squeezed some of the plugs out of the follicles, and that was supposed to let the lump drain. If it fills back up again, the only way to fix it would be surgery. Dr. V prescribed some antibiotics to help it heal up. The other foot might have a corn under the callous, but Dr. V wasn't sure.
It turned out that all of Agnes's canine teeth had their tips cut off, so they wouldn't be so sharp. We also think she had been de-barked, which is why she never barked, except a couple of times she made sort of a coughing sound. These are the kinds of bad things people do to dogs in puppymills.
We had Agnes here three nights, and she started sleeping on Mom's bed, but Mom always had to carry her up and down the stairs plus lift her on and off the bed. Since Agnes was kind of plump and weighed almost 12 pounds, Mom's back started to get sore. Also, Agnes kept peeing in the house, and not even on the pee pad Mom put down for her, which is what the foster mom said Agnes would pee on. And when Agnes went out in the yard, she would sometimes run around a whole bunch, like grass was the best thing ever. And sometimes she even peed out there. But other times she just stood around like grass was the scariest thing ever, and she didn't want to move from where she was.
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| Dustin |
So finally, Mom called up Ginnie, the woman with New Beginnings Dog Rescue, and told her she had made a big mistake in trying to adopt Agnes. Ginnie did not seem very happy until Mom said she might be interested in one of their other dogs, who was a papillon mix named Dustin. Then Ginnie said if Mom wanted to try Dustin instead of Agnes, that would be great.
Dustin was only 3 years old, and he had lots of energy. He was very friendly, and he loved to go for walks, and he pottied in the yard (except for marking in the house a few times), and he was all the things that Mom wanted in a dog. So Mom was happy, and we dogs didn't really care, as long as Dustin didn't pester us to play with him. At night, Dustin slept in bed with Mom, and everything was great, and Mom thought we would be keeping Dustin.
But then Dustin started chasing the cats, and he did this all the time, especially with Jason and Latifa. Chloe and Charlie just avoided Dustin by staying up on high furniture or in the cat room. They didn't sleep with Mom anymore, and in fact, we hardly ever saw any of the cats. Or if we did, Dustin went tearing off after one of them. And if he cornered it, he would start barking at it. Dustin would even jump out of bed in the middle of the night to chase cats, because that's how much he liked to do it.
Well, Mom decided this was not a good way for the cats to have to live, so she called Ginnie again and said she would have to return Dustin, too. Mom thought Ginnie would just give her check back, and that would be the end of it. But Ginnie said maybe Mom should try a chihuahua they had who was named Razzy, which was short for Raspberry.
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| Dorrie (who used to be Razzy) |
So Mom agreed to try Razzy, who is 5 years old and weighs 7 pounds. This is exactly the same as what Dustin weighed, but Razzy has short hair, so that makes her look smaller. Anyway, we got Razzy on Thursday, and we have decided to adopt her. Except we didn't like her name, so we had to find a new one for her.
Mom went through some long lists of names to try to find a good one, and she sent a couple of short lists to Aunt Cheryl, and finally Mom decided on Dorrie, which I agree is the most perfect name ever for my little chihuahua sister. On Friday, Mom took Dorrie to PetSmart and bought her a harness and a little collar and a matching leash. Oh, and also an ID tag.
Dorrie likes to sleep in bed with Mom, and she sleeps under the covers. I have heard that some basenjis like to sleep under the bed covers with their people, but I never liked to sleep there. Dorrie is very clever. She can go up and down stairs all by herself, and she can jump on and off the bed by herself. She has had a couple of accidents in the house, but mostly now she goes out and does her pottying in the yard, even if the grass is wet. Mom says this should be an example for me, but I'm not sure what she means by that.
The cats don't mind having Dorrie around because she doesn't chase them or bark at them or anything like that. And she doesn't pester Mel or me either. And Mom likes her because she is a good lapdog and she is also pretty good at walking on a leash. Plus she doesn't bite people -- or at least we don't think she does -- and that is always a good thing in a dog.
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