The Wichita Chronicles

On August 18^th a gray-brown stray dog was brought to the Missouri City Animal Shelter by animal control. On August 22^nd, that dog came off of stray hold and needed a name to help him get adopted. Valerie, the volunteer manager, had just gotten back from watching the total solar eclipse in Wichita, Kansas, so she named him Wichita. On Friday, August 26^th, Hurricane Harvey hit, and shortly after, it began raining and flooding in Houston (Missouri City is a southern suburb of Houston and was particularly hard hit with the flooding). The Missouri City Animal Shelter, along with most shelters in the Houston area, needed to clear out their dogs. Often in these cases shelter dogs are euthanized, but luckily Austin Pets Alive! (APA) stepped in and took hundreds of dogs and cats from Houston shelters (including Missouri City) to a temporary shelter (actually an old furniture store) on Burnet Road. Wichita was one of those dogs. He arrived at APA on September 1^st. 

I met Wichita on Friday September 1^st, the first day I went to the APA temp shelter. He seemed really sweet and was wearing a red paper collar that said “Wichita Missouri City” At first I thought that meant he had an owner and would be claimed soon.

The Missouri City shelter put red collars like this on all their dogs before they left

I continued walking Wichita and tons of other dogs the next week. I took a toy out one day while walking Wichita and he had no idea what to do with it. Even when I squeaked it or threw it, he watched it fall on the ground and then looked up at me. I took treats most days, and I was able to teach Wichita to sit in just one day. Wichita had some scrapes on his nose, which I found out were from trying to escape from his crate, they had to put a clip on the crate door to keep him from escaping.

Walking Wichita at the Burnet Rd APA temp shelter

On Thursday, APA announced that volunteers would have first choice to adopt any of the dogs at the temp shelter who had been confirmed to not have owners. Wichita was available for adoption. Jeff came over to APA to meet him and on Friday I brought him home to meet Roo. They seemed to like each other, but Wichita played a little rougher with Roo than I think is ideal.

Bringing a second dog into our household is a HUGE deal. As I told Serena, “we want to make sure we don’t make a mistake and ruin our perfect little life…but we have the potential to make our perfect little life a little bigger”. Jeff has said all along that he sees us having 2 dogs, and that I should “find another Roo”. If you know Roo, you know that’s a very tall order. I thought Wichita might be the right dog, but we were extremely hesitant to spend just one day with him and then commit forever. We ended up taking him back to APA for the Saturday public adoption event, hoping he would find the perfect home. But then we spent the entire day thinking about him…we finally decided that if he was still there at the end of the one day adoption event, it was meant to be and he would be our dog. Of course, when I went back, he was still there, and man, was he happy to see me!

New Tags!

We knew Wichita had been through a lot in a short amount of time. By then I had been talking with the people from the Missouri City Animal Shelter, so I knew he had had 3 very different homes in 3 weeks. We knew he was highly stressed and would need some time to recuperate and get used to us. A few friends had told us their newly adopted shelter dogs just wanted to sleep for the first week or so, then their personalities started to come out. So we weren’t worried when Wichita just wanted to sleep all the time.

"I'm just going to lean on this guy while I sleep"

We weren’t really worried that he seemed picky about food either. We figured he’d eat when he started to get used to us and our house. But after a week, he was sleeping even more, eating even less, coughing some, and just looked pitiful. I had made a vet appointment for Thursday when my vet would be back in town. But Monday, I called and moved the appointment up to Tuesday with one of the other doctors at the clinic.

"She makes a good pillow"

I weighed Wichita at the vet’s and saw that he had lost 4 pounds since we had adopted him, I knew he had lost weight, but I didn’t realize it was that much! He also had a fever of 104.9 (normal for dogs is 101-102). They did blood work and chest x-rays and determined that he had severe pneumonia in both lungs. They gave him IV fluids and antibiotics for a few hours, then sent us home with 2 types of antibiotics and instructions for coupage (aka beating on his chest and sides to help him cough the crud out of his lungs). They were very concerned that if he didn’t improve soon, he would need to go to an emergency clinic for more fluids, and tests for fungal pneumonia. The antibiotics would help cure bacterial pneumonia, but they wouldn’t help if it was fungal or viral. It was a very scary and sad day.

Pitiful Wichita

That night Wichita ate some chicken and oatmeal, more than he had eaten in a few days. But the next morning he wouldn’t eat again. Jeff went home at lunchtime and I got a text saying “he’s an Arby’s dog” he ate an Arby’s roast beef sandwich in about 2 seconds!

"I guess I'll eat some cheeseburger"

At dinner, I tried everything- kibble-no, chicken-no, canned salmon-no, hot dog-no, peanut butter-nope….so I got him a Sonic cheeseburger, he ate about half of it. On Thursday it was more of the same. I made bone broth and Wichita seemed to like that. I think we hand fed him every bite he ate. I took his temperature on Thursday night, it was 102.0, down 2.9 degrees from Tuesday…improvement, but it still felt like a huge uphill battle.

On Friday after work, I went over to Lofty Dog and asked Zoe and Erin to help me find anything that he might eat. They loaded me up with a variety of samples to try and some treats most dogs really love. Wichita was no exception, he loved the bacon treats and the Primal freeze dried food. He ate the most I’d ever seen him eat at once!

"These Gibson's bacon treats are yummy! Thanks Zoe & Erin!"

On Saturday night, for the first time ever, I set a bowl of food in front of Wichita and he ate it all and licked the bowl clean! On Sunday Wichita had more energy, he chased a squirrel in the yard and actually picked up a toy for the first time!

"This kitty is so ugly! But I like it!!"

Last week was sad, stressful, and exhausting for all of us. But this week is starting off much better. We still have a long road to full recovery. 3-5 more weeks of antibiotics and coupage and then follow up x-rays to be sure the pneumonia is gone. But Wichita is clearly feeling better. He enjoyed going for a walk last night and again this morning. He seems alert and happy now. And he loves to cuddle.

"I feel so much better!"

I have the BEST friends!

I'm not sure if I'm just lucky or if I have done a fantastic job of choosing my friends. But you are all absolutely amazing!

I'm sure you all know that I work for the Marine Science Institute (MSI) in Port Aransas, Texas. But I am stationed in Austin at the main UT campus. I'm sure you also know that cat 4 Hurricane Harvey hit MSI directly and there was extensive damage.

On Friday afternoon when I realized this might be a whole lot more serious than a little tropical storm, I asked on facebook if anyone had a spare room to loan out to poor graduate student hurricane evacuees from MSI. I've gotten 18 offers of rooms and I've been able to pretty quickly accommodate everyone who has responded to my email asking if anyone needed a place to stay. Even those with cats or a chinchilla, those without a car, etc.

A few of the comments from friends (either to me or to the evacuee staying with them):

"don't take a cab to my house! I'd be happy to [drive from North Austin in horrible rush hour traffic] pick you up at the airport"

"of course we'll babysit your chinchilla while you go down to Port A to survey the damages to your home"

"a friend from Houston just claimed our spare bedroom, but we'll go over and clean up the house we're in the process of moving out of and let people stay there"

"I can take allergy meds, so I'm happy to welcome them and their cats, it's no big deal"

"we already set our Airbnb to $0 for evacuees, but if one of your people needs it, just let me know"

[Their kids just started school, they have an older dog, and her father just passed away, but] "we're happy to offer our spare room"

And quite a few "are you still looking for rooms for hurricane evacuees from the Marine Science Institute?", "I don't have a spare room, but I can loan out air mattresses".

Reading the reports of damage from our director at MSI has made my heart sink, but seeing the generosity of my friends makes my heart soar. It's been an emotional few days and it probably won't be over soon. From the bottom of my heart, I just wanted to say Thank You.

*just as a note- as of right now, I have more rooms offered than I have MSI people needing them. If that changes, I'll definitely post and ask if anyone else has space.

Copper

Copper was our second foster dog through Austin Dog Alliance. I didn't write a blog about Copper while we had him, but I thought I would now. Austin Dog Alliance adopted him from a shelter in Buchanan Dam TX because his personality shows promise for becoming a service dog.

When they adopt a dog, he/she always goes to a foster home for 2 weeks just to de-stress and get healthy if needed. In Copper's case, he was stressed from being in the shelter and he was severely underweight. He also needed to get neutered before he could move up to ADA and begin his service dog training.

He came to our house and it was pretty apparent that he had never lived in a house before, he wasn't house trained and didn't even seem to understand that when I hold a treat in my hand, I want to give it to him. But he adored Jeff and I from the start, followed us around the house, always hung out right by us. We had to put his crate in our bedroom so he would sleep at night.

Copper is very sweet and has a great personality, he loves to play fetch, loves to play with Roo, and loves to play in water.

He clearly had never been taught anything, before coming to our house, but he's smart. I was able to teach him to sit, and we got him house trained in the 2 weeks he was with us. He's working on polite leash walking and chilling out around other dogs at ADA now.

He gained almost 6 pounds in the 2 weeks he was at our house, he got neutered, and he seemed to gain energy and feel healthier in the time he was with us. It was pretty cool to see the difference in just 2 weeks.

Copper moved up to Austin Dog Alliance on July 31st and since we were there for my party on August 5th, we got to see him. He looks great and his trainers agree that he's very smart and a fast learner.

Good Luck with service dog training Copper!

40th Birthday Thank You

My 40th Birthday was a huge success! Both the fundraiser and the celebration. To blatantly steal the words of Laurie Allen “'Thank you' seems inadequate to convey my gratitude"  to everyone who donated. I appreciate it so much, but I guess "thank you" is all I can say. So THANK YOU!!

At this point I have raised $4245 for Austin Dog Alliance. This has absolutely been meaningful and rewarding, exactly what I wanted for my 40th birthday. And the money will definitely make a difference for Austin Dog Alliance.

The Executive Director of Austin Dog Alliance told me she's honored to have me supporting ADA. And she said my fundraising is "impressive". I told her, it has very little to do with me, it's that I have amazing and generous friends and family. That's the absolute truth. All of your love and generosity made my 40th birthday my best ever. And it will make a huge impact for Austin Dog Alliance.

If you meant to donate, but haven't done it yet, you can definitely still donate here. 

One more time: THANK YOU!! 

40th Birthday!!

Donate here

In 29 days, I will turn 40! It's a big milestone that makes me reflect on my life. Although some of my friends who are 50, 60, 70, and almost 80(!) may not agree that 40 is any big deal, it feels like a big deal to me right now.

I have had a pretty great first 39.9 years. I have a great family, an awesome husband, lots of super cool friends, the best dog in the world (and 2 of the best dogs in the world before him), a good education and job, and I get to live in Austin, Texas. I've finished 3 Ironmans, won a public speaking contest, won a "best teaching" award, and I hope I've positively influenced the lives of some young adults and maybe even a few friends. Though I sometimes I feel like I haven't accomplished enough and I'm not successful enough at almost 40, I'm really not doing too bad.

But I want to do more. I want to feel like I'm making a difference. When I was young (really until I started college) I wanted to be a veterinarian. I wanted to work with dogs and other animals every day and help them. For many reasons, I've put off this dream for a long time, probably too long. But luckily I have other options to realize this dream in a different way. At this turning point in my life, I want to do more work with dogs and do more to help both dogs and people. I want to have more meaning and purpose in my life.

This brings us to Austin Dog Alliance. Austin Dog Alliance does so much great work and I feel really lucky to have found them and to get to be a part of that amazing work! I'm also really grateful to have found the amazingly awesome Quintana Roo (thanks Kristen M. and Melissa D.!!) --without him, I might not have gotten involved with Austin Dog Alliance. Roo and I love Bow Wow Reading. We go to the library where kids read books to Roo. It's fun for us and for the kids and I can see the kids' reading improve over the weeks. It's an awesome feeling to make a difference in someone's life!

To celebrate my journey toward having more meaning in my life, I want to have a special birthday. So I decided to plan a Birthday Fundraiser to benefit Austin Dog Alliance! You can donate here, and the first 40 people to donate over $40 get the first invitations to my party. I hope to be able to invite more people, but that will depend on the place.

At first I wanted to say "everyone who donates anything is invited" but then Jeff and a couple of friends brought me back to Earth. "Heather, you could end up with hundreds of people invited. You don't have that much space and you can't afford to feed them all!" Unfortunately, they're totally right. So we went with the obvious theme of "40"

I really hope everyone will donate whether it's $100, $40, or $5 because Austin Dog Alliance is an awesome organization and I really want to be able to give them $4000 for my 40th birthday!!

You can learn more about Austin Dog Alliance at their website, or you can get a very brief overview on my Fundraiser site.

Luke Skywalker our very first foster dog

Roo did his therapy dog training through Austin Dog Alliance, so I learned a lot about their programs. Aside from working with schools, libraries, hospitals, nursing home, etc to set up therapy dog visits, one of the major things ADA does is train service dogs for veterans. They usually find dogs in shelters who show promise as service dogs and then train them. Pretty cool!

Not every dog is able to complete service dog training, it's pretty intense, and a dog has to be just about perfect to be a service dog. Luke is one of the dogs who showed promise, but didn't quite complete the training. I believe his downfall in service dog training was that he loves other dogs too much.

I told ADA that we'd be willing to short term foster a dog for them from time to time. Short term at ADA generally means about 2 or 3 weeks. About 3 days after I told them this, they asked if Roo and I would come up and meet Luke and think about fostering him. Luke and Roo got along well at the meet and greet, so home we went with Luke!

ADA says Luke is a Labrador/Shar Pei mix. He does love to retrieve and he's got lots of cute wrinkles around his face. But I think he may have some Australian cattle dog (Red Heeler) mixed in too. Some friends who've seen him say "yeah, for sure he's got some red heeler" and some say "no way" so who knows. But whatever breeds he is, he's very sweet and very smart.

Luke is well house trained, he has not had one accident in the house. He is crate trained and does well in the crate for as long as 8 hours at a time. I usually have to guide him into the crate rather than just telling him...who wants to go to bed when there's fun to be had!?!

Luke came to us knowing how to sit and lie down, and quickly learned to shake paw after watching Roo do it a couple times. He's very smart, learns quickly and is motivated to please people.

 Luke loves to play fetch and he's learning to drop the ball/toy in your hand when he brings it back. But for now, I mostly use 2 balls, which makes him drop the first one at my feet immediately when he brings it back.

Luke is also great at walking on a leash nicely. He generally wears an EasyWalk harness for walking (that's what Roo wears too) and he rarely pulls at all, it's pretty impressive! I've also taken him on 2-3 mile runs and he LOVES that.

Luke loves to play with toys, but he needs the indestructible kind. He thinks all squeakers must be removed! He has done really well with West Paw zogoflex toys, rope toys, Benebones, and Galileo bones.

Luke also loves to play with Roo. I think Luke would like to live in a home with another dog, but it should be a fairly high energy dog, as I think Luke might annoy an older or low energy dog. I think Luke would also love to have kids to play with. We had him at an event last weekend and he loved meeting all the kids and was very good with them. He actually had a little girl at his last foster home.

I would say Luke is moderately high energy. He loves to play and go for walks or even runs, but he also loves to lie down and cuddle and watch tv with you. He'll chill for hours in our office chewing on a toy while Jeff works.

Luke is really smart and learns quickly. I think he would really enjoy getting to do something like agility training or nosework. Luke is a great dog and just waiting to find his forever family. If that might be you, please contact Lindsey@austindogalliance.org