Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mysteries and Miracles

Mysteriously, a momma Dane and her litter of what seems like 500 pups were turned over to the Rescue just over a week ago. O.k., the term “mysteriously” was used in jest. Under-nourished: check. Filthy: check. And as it turns out, dreadfully ill with a highly contagious and completely preventable condition: check.

Without exception, each of the puppies had Parvo. As a side note here: I have known of several owners who had dogs that contracted Parvo. In those cases, the dogs died. The merciful owners (who did not have the resources to treat their babies) put the dogs to sleep as a pre-emptive measure. In the other cases, the dogs were not treated and died suffering.

Not that I need to remind those of us who commune through this medium, but I am duty-bound to say it: vaccinate. The Dane Rescue has encumbered bills in the thousands of dollars to save these pups for want of someone forking over $15.00 per puppy for the d*mn vaccinations. Parvo is very preventable, but once a dog gets it, life becomes a very tenuous and very contagious proposition for these babies.

Which brings me to my second point, which is that the amazing people involved with the Great Dane Rescue of the Ozarks (and with a nod to Special Castaways in NE Missouri) somehow managed to save every single one of these precious babies, at great personal cost (tears, time, energy), for which no compensation would be adequate, and also at great financial cost. So if anyone out there has some extra bucks, there are some Vets in Missouri who we would like to keep on our good sides by paying in a prompt and full manner. GDRO even has PayPal and a 501c(3), so your donation would be charitable in every sense of the word.

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=JiN87GIVHlHgFRQmgW0N9nRhfgINSw-pPctDeUHyzE2QdBGqbX7BnMFyggu&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1ffc45dc241d84e953c6c47237de2bc4f5b43fafc6513a8a86

I would include a picture of the puppies here, but they are so devastatingly adorable, it wouldn’t be fair.

OK, maybe just this one because I might be secretly in love with this little guy, although I don’t even know his name:

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Real Estate

We have acquired a second king-sized bed. The question has been where we plan to place said bed. There is space in the dog room, but only Emmett uses the room when not otherwise obliged. When he takes his voluntary time-outs to the dog room, he seems to prefer sleeping on the loveseat.

Our bedroom is large enough; I pointed out that we could simply rotate the existing king-sized bed and line the second one next to it. Space for sleeping has become a precious commodity since Trinity and Emmett have taken up residence in our bed. I seem to be particularly vexed by the loss of real estate, notwithstanding the fact I could sleep through the dropping of the A-bomb. K is the one who loses ground each time she gets up to let the old dogs out for middle-of-the-night pit stops.

K nixed my proposal, based on the prognostication that they would still insist on using just the 1/3 of the bed we are occupying. Which appears to be empirically proven.