A new family for Nightmare

Back to our Nightmare story...

As I mentioned before, we were only going to take care of the big black dog until we could find her a home. We also had a trip to Brasov coming up for a darts tournament and a mini holiday, so we had to get her adopted fast. Those who have rescued animals and tried to find them new homes and families will understand why "adopted fast" is a contradiction of terms... We were also still hoping that her former owners hadn't been the ones to give her the wound on her head and that they would be willing to take her back.

My husband took it upon himself to post an announcement on the lost and found pets Facebook group in our area. Our friends also helped to spread the word and we also checked all the lost black dog posts we could find on the internet. Our searches unfortunately didn't turn out any leads towards the former owners.

This is the photo on the Facebook announcement.

A few people answered the announcement and tried to give ideas or opinions or suggest other lost dog sites to check. We had almost lost hope and were wondering if we should leave the dog back on the street, but really hoping we wouldn't have to do that... My husband and I lost a lot of sleep worrying again.

But then something unexpected happened. Someone contacted my husband saying they were looking to adopt a second dog and would like to take the black dog in. We were both so happy that we wouldn't have to abandon the sweet doggie. We made arrangements with the future new owners to meet at the vet, where we would have the dog checked.

We took the dog by car (here are some car safety tips, if you are interested) and she acted like she had been in one a hundred times before. She was actually less nervous than Aschiuta in the car and wasn't even sick. It made us think she had been on such trips before.

The new owners would arrive a bit after us, so we went in with the dog to have the vet check her. She made friends with the nurses there and seemed to like sitting on the scale.

The vet first scanned her for a microchip, as it is required by law for them to contact the owner if she had had one installed. There was none though, which didn't mean much, because some people never take their pets to the vet and thus don't give them a microchip.

He then started palpating her to check for any hidden problems and also cleaned and felt the wound on her forehead. The new owners also came in, just in time to see him prodding and checking, with the doggie barely showing any reaction. She seemed very tame and never even had any intention of biting or struggling, not even whimpering.

The doctor recommended antibiotics for the infection and said that the dog looked ok otherwise. He also checked her teeth and mentioned they were very worn for her age. Apparently she was young (probably younger than Aschiuta) but had been chewing on something very tough.

The new owners, a young couple, were sitting shyly in a corner. The woman even seemed a bit scared and only touched the dog very lightly after the vet proved the dog would not harm her at all. They also commented that the dog was larger than they had thought and were skeptical about the vet's evaluation about the dog's age.

We also found out that they would be keeping the dog at their new house that was being built and wouldn't be able to go see her too much. When the vet said that someone would have to give the dog antibiotics every morning and evening (orally, of course), they were afraid that the workers at the house wouldn't want to do that.

There was also the problem of their other dog, who was apparently very energetic and they were afraid the two would fight if unsupervised.

All in all, our faith dwindled and we didn't believe they would want to take the dog in anymore. They insisted however that they wouldn't back out on their word, but asked us to meet again the next day so they can take the dog.

My husband insisted that we would pay for the check-up and the medicine the vet had given us and the couple left. The vet had been very open and encouraging about the dog, "advertising" her as much as he could to them, but afterwards admitted that he believed they would back out. We felt the same way, but decided to give those people a chance. They were pretty much our only hope. We were supposed to leave town in a couple of days...

Car safety for furry passengers

I mentioned car safety accessories in my last post. Traveling can be stressful enough as it is for pets, but we also need to think of their safety. I will talk here about accommodations for dogs to travel by car, since we haven't needed much extra protection when going by train and we have not been on a plane or boat yet with our poochies.

Welcome dear furry passengers! Please buckle your seat belts and keep all your paws and noses inside the vehicle at all times!

Seat belt for dogs? Yes, they exist and we have two of them and use them every time we take our dogs for a car ride. They are pretty simple to use. One side plugs into the car seat belt buckle, the other is a clasp to attach to the harness of the dog.

We always keep two of these handy in our car.*

It is important to use a harness instead of a collar, since in the case of an accident the impact could be quite forceful and harm the dog's neck. The harness distributes the force better. I also saw some vests that can work instead of the usual harness, those seem much more comfortable. Of course, they should only travel in the back seat.

I have also seen some sort of harness seat belts for dogs, similar to the ones used in toddlers' car seats. The dog is strapped in completely, almost standing on its hind legs, with its back against the back seat backrest. It looks very safe, however I doubt Nightmare (or even Aschiuta) would be very comfortable in one, sine they are a bit bigger than your average toddler...

Now, regarding keeping your noses in the vehicle... A lot of people seem to think it is fine to let their dogs take their heads out the window, but that is very dangerous. Better just to be safely strapped in the back seat. Here is an article that explains some of the dangers of doggies sticking their heads out the car window.

Protecting those leather seats from scratches, fur, drool etc...

I have mentioned before that Aschiuta has had problems with being car sick before and still is from time to time. We usually took care of this by having one person sit in the back seat with her, with plastic bag and wet wipes at the ready, watching her every drool.

This was until my husband found something interesting in the pet shop... a dog car hammock. It is a protective cover that is also water proof that covers the entire back seat area and straps to the headrests and upper handles. It also has velcro openings for accessing the seat belt slots. We don't have leather seats, but they are certainly cleaner this way!

The metal cage?

I honestly do not like these, although I have seen them used by one of our vets when transporting Aschiuta to the dog hotel. They are usually kept in the luggage area of small vans, where there is more room and the cages themselves are well anchored. The dog is quite safe inside, but not too comfortable and since it will be all alone, not very happy either.



Well, whichever method works best for you and your pooch, remember to stay safe!

* Sorry for not having actual photos of what we bought, but these are pictures from the store where we bought them from. My babble is not sponsored in any way.

Trials and tribulations with Nightmare

Continuing the Nightmare tale...

If you remember, I mentioned that the dog had a pretty bad infection on her forehead, which had oozed out and caked the fur around the wound.

My first order of business the next day after taking her in was to try to clean the wound as well as I could. The only disinfectant I had around was medicinal alcohol, but that one really stings. So I went with "grandma's recipe", camomile tea.

It took me about half an hour to clean the fur and then the wound and, even if the tea is very mild and wouldn't hurt her, my patting and rubbing surely caused her quite a bit of discomfort. Surprisingly though, she made no move to stop me or draw away, she just lay there with her eyes closed, in complete resignation.

Feeling down in the dumps, poor girl...

She was actually quite lethargic the first couple of days, sleeping a lot, eating only a little and generally unwilling to walk around much. She was also picky about the food and didn't want the kibble or treats Aschiuta had at the time. I eventually bought her a can of dog food and she seemed to like that. She also liked mozzarella. I later on bought a brand of kibble (Bosch) that we used to feed Aschiuta when we were on a budget at the vet's recommendation and which we have kept giving her from time to time. The big black dog seemed to like the kibble, so it is again a staple in the dogs' diet.

But I digress... After cleaning her wound, I continued to do it from time to time, since it was still suppurating. I decided I would have to finish work early and try to take her to the vet. This way we would get her wound checked and also verify if she had a microchip.

Our vet is not very close by and usually with Aschiuta it takes me about 30 minutes on foot. I gathered my usual supplies of bags and tissues, put the leash on the dog and we were on our merry way to the vet.

Unfortunately, we didn't get too far. We had just reached the public street (yes, there are private streets in my town...) in front of our building and made a few steps, when the dog decided she was not going to take another step. In neither direction. She planted herself on the ground, just like when climbing stairs, and would not budge. After a few good minutes of trying to coax her to go further, I had to spend almost as much time convincing her to go back. We were going home, no more scary long walks.

We would need to switch to plan B then... taking our car. Luckily, we have our own car, complete with safety accessories for doggies. But more about that next time...