November 23, 2010

White Dog and the rest of White Dog Army stood at the door demanding to know why Puff, got to go for a car ride by herself. All WD needed to hear was "Vet" and she ran off to the bed to enjoy her Greenie bribe. Nuka followed her leader without question and was heard munching her cookie. Quinn stood torn for a minute (he's the only one of the White Ones who actually likes Dr. Julia visits)...ride...treat...ride...treat? Treat won and we were at last able to get out of the house and into Pumpkin before White Dog's sad (manipulative) "left behind" face appeared at the window.

Puff sat on the floor and shook. She did allow me to put my hand on her shoulder and seemed to be comfortable with my touch. She rode inside with me on my wheelchair without compliant. SAWD was stoic and compliant as she was poked, prodded and injected.

Dr. Julia was pleased at how healthy she was considering her life out of doors. What we thought was frostbite on her ears is actually scarred over fly bites (the thought of flies munching on our precious baby's ears made us queasy). We decided that we would let her settle in a bit before spaying her and doing a dental. All was good. But then the Tech came in with test results...Puff tested positive for heartworms. That explained her strange intermittent cough.

Our look of panic and my immediately teary eyes were met by Dr. Julia's reassurances that Puff is in very a early stage of the disease and that we would do the treatment starting next Monday. All of the other White Dogs are safe; the disease is not transmitted dog-to-dog but by the bite of mosquitoes. Puff did not need to isolated. She would have a complete recovery after the two-day injection process and about a month of healing. This was not a death sentence.

SAWD has been wronged in so many ways during her 12 years, it doesn't seem right to ask her to trust us that everything will be all right. Yet, when we got home (and I expected her to run to her crate) she lingered by my legs and then sat leaning against me. Her look suggested that if we believed in her, well then, she would try to give us a chance.