I'M A STAR!

My picture got chosen for the 2010 NEBCR Rescue calendar!!

ArthurAwesome

My sister Lacy is sick!

Mom says our fun outing yesterday might have stressed Lacy just enough that something she had brewing came out! I wasn't stressed but mom says somethings good stress is still stress.

This morning Lacy was not herself! She would not eat her pills in cottage cheese, she was drooling, and she was real hot - almost 104 degrees, my mom said! That's alot.

So mom took her to see the doctor and they poked her and stole her blood and took pictures of her innards and pumped stuff in her. She didn't like it but she feels a little better and she got to come home but she still has tubes in her arm. She's being good and not licking them though. She's got to go back in the morning to see if they need to put more stuff in her or if they can take the tubes out!

Here are pictures of her at the vets (with mom's crappy cell phone again.) Doesn't she look miserable? Hope she feels better soon!


~ArthurGood!

Fun Day!

Hey everybody!! Today I had a fun day!(I kinda don't look like I'm having fun here because I was trying to get away from the BAD BIG DEER FLIES!)

My mom packed me 'n my sister Lacy up and took us off to Saratoga Springs! First we went to the Saratoga Spa State Park dog park. We met my Auntie Petra and my cousins Mollie
n Murphy there! We hiked the blue trail! Here we are (Below - 'cept for Lacy 'cause she got outta the pic before mom took it!)
Mollie's in the front and me and Murphy are in the back.

When we were done there we were HOT and there wasn't any place for us to swim, so we drove done the road to the Bog Brook Nature Trail! That was great and we got to swim too, but mom didn't get any pics of that. She kept posing us on benches, though! See:
That's Mollie not looking at the camera, then Lacy, then me and Murphy in the front!

Here we are again! Lacy, Me, Mollie (still not looking) and Murphy in the front again!

Mom said I was *super* and I didn't react even once, enough though we passed lots of kids and some other dogs too! Yea me!

We had FUN and I'm tired! Woof at ya later!

ArthurAwesome!!

More sad news.

Firefox's eyes weren't the only bad news we got yesterday.

We got the sad news that Huckleberry Finn has been killed on the highway.
Mom found Huckleberry Finn on September 11, 2007. She on driving on her way to give a lesson to my friend Rosie, and I was in the car too. She turned off of Hickory Hill Road onto 313 heading toward Arlington, VT, when she saw a car pulled over and a person in the road trying to catch a hound dog. So, she stopped to help. Well, it turned out that hound dog didn't belong to that person, they had only stopped to help him too, and they were on their way to work and couldn't take a dog, and mom was wearing her New England Border Collie Rescue shirt and it was raining hard and his feet were bloody. So. She put him in the car. BOY did he smell!
That began Huckleberry's adventure with us, and later my Auntie Lynn who offered to foster him, which mom really appreciated.

Poor Huckleberry was in bad shape, his paws were raw and bleeding - he'd obviously been running awhile. His tail was bloody (it was later discovered he CHEWED it and sucked on it, mom got him medication to help his anxiety and that stopped, but not before our walls got covered in blood - UGH!) He wasn't neutered, either.

It took many months, but eventually his forever family found him. As it turned out, had severe thunderphobia which neither Auntie Lynn nor my mum had realized, since he was found in September and placed in May there hadn't been any storms. The very weekend he went to his forever home, thunder season started with a vengeance! Mom says Huck's new family was wonderful, and worked so hard with him on that as well as some food guarding he did.
He turned out to be a far greater project than anyone anticipated, but his people really rose to the occasion. My mum says everydog should be as lucky as Huckleberry Finn was, so have such a wonderful family. She think Huckleberry must have been terrified and confused at the onset of viscious storms we've had for the past week, plus the 4th of July celebrations, and so he somehow escaped and ran onto a major highway.
Huckleberry was a wonderful teacher of humans and a dear friend to them as well, and they are all missing him right now. Rest in peace, Hound Dog. You were a good one!

ArthurGOOD

Blind!

Hey everyone,
My grandPAW and mom took my foster sister Firefox to the eye doctor today.

They did not get good news.

Firefox can't see very well, and it's only going to get worse.

Here's my mom, giving the details:

"Little Firefox had her appointment with the ophthalmologist today. For those who don't know her history, she was a stray in CT, animal control contacted us for help with her. I think she arrived here about a month and a half ago.

One of the things I noticed about her right away was that while she would chase madly after a toy, it is stopped before she got it, she would hunt and hunt, but wouldn't be able to find it.

I also began noticing that her eyes constantly were "glowing" or reflecting back in almost all types of light, not just when getting her picture taken.

Finally, we noticed that her eyes were always very dilated, even when the other dogs pupils were not.

I asked my vet to take a closer look at her eyes when she went in for her spay, which she did and she couldn't tell if her eyes were just like that with no problem, or if there was something going on. So, she gave us a referral to the ophthalmologist and it took a while to get in.

Anyway, Dr. Mineo took a close look at her eyes and it turns out that yes, all those signs were pointing to something after all. Both of her eyes have severe retinal degeneration in them. The right one is worst, with her not even being able to see any blood vessels in the back of the eye. In the left eye, she can still see a few. When she looked in her eyes, where she should be able to see the main nerve in the back, she sees a black hole instead!

She didn't give it an official name. But it's retinal degeneration and it will progress until she loses her vision completely. It's unlikely she has much right now, really, particularly in her right eye. She could say for sure why - she felt she was too young to have such an advanced case of typical PRA, but that perhaps she didn't have normal development to begin with so when the PRA kicked in, it took less time for the eyes to degenerate to the point they are now.

So, bottom line, she has limited vision which will progress to total blindness at some point in her future. There is no treatment or cure, but it is not painful in anyway. It's progresses slowly enough that the dogs are able to adapt very well. There is no way to know how long it will take before she is completely blind, and due to the adaptability of dogs, you may never realize when she has lost all vision.
In her typical fashion, she charmed everyone she met. She bumbed into the glass doors on the way out, definitely did not see them."

Really, though - if the doors are clear how was she supposed to see them even if she had good eyes. Here's a picture of her! She's cute, huh???

Well, I gotta go! But I'll be back!
ArthurAwesome!

The Answer:

Yeah, it used to be a Chuck-it! And yeah, that darn PortuTEETH Chewing Dog is the culprit!

Woof!!
ArthurAwesome

A Mystery for you to solve, the 4th of July, and the foster dogs room!

Hey everybody!!!
Today I am going to start with a Mystery for YOU to solve.

WHO can guess WHAT this used to be???


Hint* - lots of people with doggies have one of what this used to be.
Ok, if you are stumped, there are two more, slightly more helpful pics at the very bottom of this post. But, think now, what could it be?

The next Mystery is, WHO DID IT??
Hint* Think Presidential!

OK, then, while you puzzle that, take a look at how I spent my 4th of July night. While some of the other dogs were *scared* I was NOT! I was outside watching fireworks with mom! In the rain! Well, she was watching and I was playing FIZ, that is!!!

Hey Mom!! That was so FUN, can we go out again?

PRETTY PLEASE?


Mom also got the Foster dogs room set up better this weekend, and she took a picture to show the HUGE crate that's in there. One foster doggie is in the crate, and one is loose in the room, and they take turns on which one is where. In this picture, Chip in in the crate and Firefox is loose.


But, when Firefox is loose, the gates on the door look like THIS:

'Cause she's a JUMPER!

OK, here are the last two Mystery toy pictures, to help you guess what is used to be . . .

Do you know yet???

How about now?

OK, well, be sure and tell us your guess in the comments section!! No cheating by looking at other people's guesses!
Goodnight!
ArthurGREAT!

I'm learning a new trick!

My mom is teaching me another trick! She says maybe it'll make my hind legs stronger and maybe that might even help me jump better or something? But it's fun to try and figure out what gets her to make the click and give me the cookies!!! Here are a couple of poorly shot videos for you to enjoy! My mom needs an extra arm so she can take better videos don't cha think??

This one you can't really see my trick very well.


Here's another one where you can see my trick a lot better, but not a handsome face very well(that's what my mom says, anyway!)

[I tried for three days to upload the other freaking video and it WOULD NOT. Sorry! - Amy]

She says I'm catching on pretty quick, and once I know how to do that one she's gonna teach me to walk on my back legs like a person!!! Cool! WOL!!

ArthurGOOD!