George, a Rescue Dog: Days Six and Seven
George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.
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George made a little progress on Tuesday. He somehow found a tree in the yard and felt strong enough to lift his leg to do his business there! The little things.
Since he was a bit stronger, I walked him slightly farther than I’d been walking him. Before Tuesday, I’d take him out to the front yard (I have to keep him separate from my dogs because of his cough, and they go in the back yard) and I’d walk him around in circle. I’ve never worked with a blind, deaf dog before so I feel like this helped him to get his bearings. Plus he was too weak to go anywhere else. On Tuesday, though, I walked him just past the house next door –a short distance, but a big step for George. He wagged his tail and was happy to sniff some new things.
George is still coughing. Last night, he slept for most of the night but started coughing around 3:00 a.m. He coughed so much and so hard that he was whimpering in between. It was awful. Part of the reason is because George, as I mentioned yesterday, refuses to eat the pills in his food. Georges.
So today, I ground all of his pills down and mixed the powder thoroughly with the dog food. Georges was not pleased. In fact, when presented with said food this morning, he attempted to bury the food. Let me explain the set up – I have George’s bed set up with a sheet over it, and around him I have spread newspaper. When George coughs, he spits up phlegm and a little bit of blood sometimes. This was his sheet this morning, and you can see just a little spot of blood on it.
George sleeping on his sheets.
So everyday, I can quickly clean George’s area by replacing with clean newspaper and a fresh, clean sheet.
When I gave Georges his food with the pills mixed in, he started pushing his nose on the newspaper and pushing the newspaper over the food. I later found George’s dishes buried under the paper.
See George’s dish buried under the newspaper?
Finally, around 3:30 p.m., George ate the food with the pills mixed in it. I have no idea what I’m going to do with his evening pills!
