Gator

This is Gator. He is Rhodesian Ridgeback / tenasee curr hound according to his paperwork from the Humane Socity.
When I walked in there the lady asked me what I was looking for and I told her a large dog. She said "oh thank god. Everyone wants a little dog and our big dogs get looked over"
We (my stepson came with) looked at all the dogs and Gator just struck my heart. We brought Sirus (our red doberman) to see if they would get along. They did and we signed the paperwork and tried to bring him home. He had never ridden in truck cab before and I had to wrestle an 75lb dog inside a truck.

The lady told me his story. Gator had been dumped behind a vets office, beaten so badly he could not move on his own. He spent a month at the vets office before he was well enough to be taken to the human socity. He had three days left before he would be put to sleep. He was cris crossed with scars and on his back left leg was a clear scar of a ] , it was from a 2x4 that he had been beaten. And his cellmate attacked him and his neck was cut open.

When he came home in 2005 he stayed in my bedroom for a week. Then he lurked in my hallway for two weeks. Everytime i looked over he was just staring with those eyes that had the wairness. We could not get him to come near us while in the house. And if he was sleeping on the floor and you stepped over him he would freak out, growling and trying to plaster himself into a corner. He would not eat if you were watching. It took weeks of intensive just sitting near him and talking to him. And I hand to use my hand with wide gestures so he would get used to us being loud.
The first time we took him to the creek where we go swimming during the summer, he refused to get out of the truck. He was shaking and I had to use all my strength to pull him out. He kept trying to run back to the truck. He thought we were dumping him.
Then we got to the water and he bacame his namesake. He swam and swam and swam, they he found that he could dig in the sand and roll around and noone yelled at him for it. We took him everyday that summer.

Now, four years later, he will sleep in the bed- hogging a pillow, because he has to sleep with a pillow when he is inside. I have tripped on him when he is laying down and he will not budge. He just cracks an eye open and looks at me like "duh". He dances during dinner. Nikki would sit on his neck and clunk his head with her toys and he did not care. She brings her tea sets over him and dresses him on necklaces and clothes. He takes it all in stride. And now I hook up a harness to have him pull her wagon during walks. It helps with his mobility to get fluid moving to his joints.
At a minimum he weighs 80-90 lbs, it is like having a person in bed, and he does not move when you try to roll over. His arthritis is very bad during the cold, and he has tumors all over as a direct result from the abuse he recived. He smells horrible, even after two or three baths. He does not listen, and can flatten a 20$ decrative plant in no time. I still connot get him to sit.
But he is a scary dog when people come over and it is just me an Nikki. I have to walk ppl in and out of the yard so he leaves them alone. But when he is out and about he has good behavior. Considering the gang tagging is getting closer to the house every year I am grateful to my nuerotic rescue dogs. They love us to death for giving them a chance and I love them for keeping people nervous and keeping me company during the day.

Judd

This is Judd. He is a Redbone Coonhound. We think he is fullblooded. A friend of ours brought him to us after he rescued him from his cousin. Judd was in a 6x6 pen with no shelter, no food, no water. He was in inches of mud and poo. Our friend had Judd for about a month before he came to live with us.
We had him inside for about 5 min to see if he was ok with Nikki (he was 7 months old and she was 18 months old) and he guarded her from the cat and our other dogs. So we kept him since Gator is getting older he is not as fast guarding the yard.
Because of the filth that Judd was in he was in poor poor shape. We could see all his ribs and spine. He had the wariness that severly abused dogs get after too long. He had a hard time bonding with any of us. We still have issues we are working on.

Now a year later he is a little more filled out, his metabolism is incredibly fast. Which is what saved him last week.
Ivamec is the pestiside that is used to heartguard, ivomec, ivamectrim etc. Same ingredent, different name. I have never had any problems giving my dogs Ivamec, because they are large dogs, it would cost 60$ a month just for heartguard. Judd has never had it but is heartworm free (somehow) and I was able to get the meds to give it to the dogs. I gave each one a third of the dose.
Ranger and Gator who both have heartworms were fine. Judd had a reaction which is the first time I have had a dog have a bad reaction. Everything hinged on his metabolism, if he could get it out of his system fast enough then he would survive.

Ivamec attacks the neurologic of worms and other pests in the animals body. It does not kill the adult heartworms, it only kills the juvenile heart worms and all the rest of the round, long, whip worms. The adults die of old age eventually and hopefully decompose etc.

Now if your dog is the 1 in 1000( or collies) who is missing a certain gene that protects the brain from crap that is in the blood then that dog with have an almost fatal reaction to the pesticide.(sometimes it is fatal)

The blood brain barrier failed and the ivamec affected his brain/respitory. He could not eat or drink. He gasped for air. His eyes were dialted black and if he stood his legs were splayed out for balance. On the third day I pried his jaws open and spooned water into him. I got about a cup and half in him. It was enough to help him a little bit. I fed him macaroni on the fourth day and spooned more water in him. After that he seemed to get better.
This was all 10 days ago, he is almost back to normal. He is running around, and tried to climb the fence to get the meter man. He eats every night and got a bath today.

Kitty

One of my Sunday projects was to clean off my kitchen table so I can start back with my art projects again.

My cat, Kitty , helped me by supervising. She is named Kitty because she does not respond to anything else. We named her about 10 different names, nothing would get her attention. She is five. A friend of mine found the litter under her house after the mom was hit and killed on the road. The kittens were about 4 days old and she bottle fed all of them. I originally went to get the black kitten but she chirped at me when I spoke so she came home.