Entered: 08/12/2006
Status: Adopted
Age: 5
Color: Black/White
Weight:
Gender: Altered Female
Location: Goochland, VA
Health: UTD, HW- with treatment complete, ear treatment complete
Temperament: Good with people as young as 5 years, living well with other dogs, cats unknown
Updated 10/10/06:
Susie has completed her treatment for heartworms. Heartworm treatment is never without some risk and Susie did have some difficulty during the second step. She almost died, but under the watchful eyes of her vet and foster mom, she received what she needed immediately and recovered quickly. She is now heartworm negative and should be ready to move to her forever home within a couple of weeks.
Susie Q or Sweet Susie has been very successful at learning to get along with the resident dogs in her current foster home. She now lives peacefully with 10 other springers. What wonderful progress to see indeed! She is also proving to be great with people of all ages. She is totally housebroken and crate trained, though she prefers not to be crated because she really wants to be with the people in the family. She has been given free access in her foster home without a single incident.
As you may have noticed from Susie’s pictures, she is a springer mix. MAESSR tries hard to only pull purebreds from shelters, but occasionally a springer mix sneaks in. Once they are in the MAESSR program, they are treated like all of the other springers. Please do not hold being a springer mix against this great girl; .inside Susie beats a true springer heart!
Updated: 9/6/06:
Susie is making headway in her foster home. She was spayed last week and is recovering nicely. Her ears are improving, but the doctor still has her on drops. Her heartworms will be treated once she fully recovers from the spaying.
Despite improving health and feeling better in general, Susie has been rather tough on the resident dogs in her foster family. Her foster parents are working to move her through what seems to be a territorial issue. Currently, Susie is crated during the day which she tolerates well. When her foster mom and dad are home, she hangs out with them in her x-pen. She’s learning that she needs to play well with the other doggies. Hopefully, her behavior will soften with continuing guidance, but for now, her foster parents think that she may fair best in an adopting home without other animals.
She’s the total opposite when it comes to people. Susie absolutely loves people and is sweet as can be. She met a 5-year-old boy one evening and did great. She went up and wanted him to pet and love her. On short outings around the neighborhood circle, she is an excellent walker. She likes to carry toys in her mouth and will let you take them away from her without batting an eyelash. In typical springer fashion, Susie beams at the people in her life. More to be added as she continues to unfold……..
Original: When Susie was picked up as a stray by a shelter in southern West Virginia, it was clear that she had been on her own for a while. Her thick coat was badly matted in all the usual places, she was underweight, and her ears were terribly infected. When her foster mom first visited her at the shelter, Susie hardly seemed to notice her and looked very sad and lethargic.
What a difference a week can make!! Once in her foster home, Susie was the most patient girl imaginable as the mats were combed out or cut off. She allowed ear cleaning and nail clipping and, though a bath was not her favorite part of the makeover, she didn’t escape before the shampoo was all rinsed either. Once clean, she visited the vet for a thorough check-up. Overall she is in good health, but she tested positive for heartworms and will undergo treatment. Her ears are being treated with both drops and an antibiotic because of how inflamed they were, but surprisingly, they didn’t seem to bother her at all. She also was heavily infested with intestinal worms and now that they are gone, her appetite is back and she is expected to gain to a normal weight easily. She is alert and there is life in her eyes again.
One last big event in Susie’s first week as a MAESSR dog was a flight from her short term foster home in West Virginia to Virginia where a Maryland family who could provide long-term care picked her up. She stepped right into the little plane alongside one other canine passenger and 2 MAESSR volunteers who help when time sensitive transport is necessary. Susie now has more air miles to her credit than many dogs rack up in a life time.