Entered: 10/01/2019
Status: Adopted
Age: 8
Color: Liver/White
Weight: 55.5 lbs.
Gender: Altered Female
Location: Richmond, VA
Health: UTD, HW-, benefitting from medication for ear wax build up, receiving medication for low thyroid level, dental competed. lipoma removed
Temperament: Good with people of all ages, indifferent toward dogs, cats unknown
Original: “On the way to her fosters’ home in Maine, she was even able to visit LL Bean, like all good tourists.”
Mima (now called Pippa) came to MAESSR from Serbia, where she was found as a stray and turned in to a shelter in Sombor, Serbia. A Serbian-American good Samaritan, who lives in the Boston area, traveled to visit relatives in Serbia and brought Pippa back to the U.S., along with a Brittany puppy. On her immigration day Pippa bravely took two flights, changing planes in Frankfurt, Germany, and passing through customs with her little dog passport showing her vaccine history.
She arrived late in the evening in Boston where her MAESSR contacts (now foster parents) picked her up at Logan Airport. It was a chaotic scene with busses, cars, taxis and people from all over the world converging at the International Arrivals terminal, but Pippa was a very brave girl. She got into the car with her MAESSR foster parents and headed for Maine where she was to spend her first weeks in the U.S. Since it was a long drive to Maine, Pippa needed to stay in a motel for her first night and was a very good girl—quiet and cooperative in her crate. After her long day, she was quite hungry and very dirty, but she slept hard all night! On the way to her fosters’ home in Maine, she was even able to visit LL Bean, like all good tourists.
Pippa had her first visit with the vet and behaved very well. The vet, who thinks she is between 6 and 8 years old, supplemented her Serbian vaccines with the necessary U.S. ones. Pippa needs booster shots on several vaccines which will be administered at the end of October. Her foster parents at first thought she did not understand English, but then began to realize that she is either very hard of hearing or completely deaf. Pippa has very yeasty ears that are also completely blocked with wax. It will take a few more weeks of medicine to dissolve the wax in her ears, which may help her to hear. The vet also strongly suspects that she has thyroid disease, as she is extremely low energy and her heart rate is very slow. Thyroid results will be available before the end of October. Her teeth need cleaning and she very well may have some gum disease. She also has a small tumor that the vet thinks is a benign lipoma. The vet plans to clean her teeth and ears and remove the lipoma also at the end of October. Fortunately, Pippa is negative for heart worms and intestinal parasites. So that was good news.
Pippa is a bit chunky at 55.5 pounds and currently lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her foster family. She has met a variety of children and adults in her neighborhood and has been friendly and calm with everyone. She was very welcoming and sweet with an 8-month old and with bigger kids and adults. She is fine with other dogs but seems a bit indifferent to them. Happily, she has grown close to a few of the dogs she walks with or meets on her walks. She insists on her regular walks and is very cooperative on the leash. She has not been tested with cats, but she does go crazy at the sight of squirrels.
She does very well in the house and is housetrained. Pippa signals when she wants to go out by touching her fosters on the knee and then going to the various doors. She has had a few mistakes, but her fosters concede they were most likely not paying attention. Keeping her on a “go out” schedule seems to work just fine. She enjoys her neighborhood walks very much and has made friends along the route.
She is pretty quiet, except when she wants something or sees a squirrel. She has a rather wild bark, but it is limited in scope and duration. And every night, she has a running, barking dream; her fosters just hope it is not a nightmare. Since they think she is deaf, they are watching her very closely especially when going in and out of doors and gates. Pippa is crate trained but does not need to be crated. She can easily be left alone in the house. She sleeps quietly in her favorite spots and will even go upstairs to sleep when she is alone in the house.
Since she was a homeless street dog for an undetermined amount of time, she must have learned that trash cans held food. She never passes a trash can without a thorough investigation. She gets very excited about food at coffee table level. But, when her family is at the dinner table, she sits quietly underneath. She eats her meals in the kitchen and enjoys her snacks. She does like her meals! In fact, the vet thinks she is a bit chubby. To be fair, he says her weight gain may be related to thyroid disease. She has no interest in toys and does not resource guard. Oddly, she refused to go into the water—even on extremely hot days—but enjoyed hiking on mountain trails (Serbia is mountainous, after all.). With multiple daily walks, her fitness level seems to be improving.
Pippa did just fine at the groomer on her first visit. She arrived in the U.S. quite dirty with a long shaggy coat and tangled dense fur on her feet. Once cleaned up, she has proven to be quite pretty. She also does just fine in the car. She is a quiet rider and stays in her place in the back unless someone opens up a snack. In fact, she drove 15 hours from Maine to Virginia and was a sterling passenger.
This lovely lady is good on the leash. But since she can’t hear or doesn’t speak English (her family is not sure which it is), she does not respond to voice commands. Luckily, she does not really have behavior issues, so hand signals are working well so far. She will need some sort of assistance in case she gets out of the house and is unable to hear/respond to calls.
Pippa is a brave, cooperative, loving dog, who seems very grateful to MAESSR for safely bringing her to the U.S. Many thanks to Serbian sisters Mina and Vida for rescuing this love and ensuring that she made it safely to the U.S. after the long tough journey.