Rolling Dog Ranch Animal Sanctuary

A New Mr. Caterpillar Comes To Town

2009-11-19T20:39:56-07:00

Long-time blog readers may remember Bailey's fascination with and love for Mr. Caterpillar, a giant pink-and-red stuffed toy who has survived endless insults and injuries inflicted by the Dachshund contingent over the years. As you can see, Mr. Caterpillar is still very much with us, though a bit worse for the wear and tear. Bailey was thrilled when Jon and Stephanie K. from Kansas sent a new Mr. Caterpillar to the ranch recently, and Alayne took this photo of Bailey meeting him for the first time yesterday.

When the meet-and-greet festivities were over, Bailey did what he usually does with a new toy -- use it as a chin rest for a nap:

What's with Dachshunds and chin rests, anyway?

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Still No. 1!

Please keep voting for the ranch every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. Thanks to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest earlier this year. Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the $20,000 grand prize in the current contest! Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. Please ask your family and friends to vote, too. Thank you!

This Is The Way I Wanted It

2009-11-18T18:12:33-07:00

Here's another installment in our "resourceful dogs" series. Alayne had noticed in recent weeks that Daisy had started dragging one of the dog beds all the way across the living room floor and over to another bed she had been lying on, and was using the second bed for a chin rest. No kidding. So yesterday, when she saw Daisy doing this again, she got the camera. Given the size of the bed relative to the dog, her spine problem that affects her rear legs, and the fact that the second bed needs to be on top of the first bed to serve as a chin rest, this is actually harder than it may appear. But, as you can see above, Daisy got the two beds together just the way she wanted them!
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Still No. 1!
Please keep voting for the ranch every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. Thanks to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest earlier this year. Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the $20,000 grand prize in the current contest! Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. Please ask your family and friends to vote, too. Thank you!

If There's A Pea Under Me, I Can't Feel It

2009-11-17T17:37:38-07:00

Although blind Widget is certainly a princess, I'm not sure she would actually feel a pea underneath her in this collection of beds. There's something about a stack of bedding that always attracts the dogs -- comfort hounds they are -- even if it takes quite a bit of effort for short-legged royalty like Widget to climb up on top of them. I watched her do this and was quite impressed she managed to make it to the top without knocking any of them over. I was tempted to slip a pea in there somewhere after the fact, but I decided that was probably cheating a little when it came to testing the princess and the pea theory.
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Still No. 1!
Please keep voting for the ranch every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. Thanks to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest earlier this year. Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the $20,000 grand prize in the current contest! Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. Please ask your family and friends to vote, too. Thank you!

Careful With Those Scissors, Mister

2009-11-16T12:39:51-07:00

Alayne got this shot yesterday of me taking out the sutures from Samantha's surgery site. As I mentioned on her homecoming day blog post, the growth our vets removed did turn out to be benign, so we dodged a bullet on that one. We're not always that lucky, so we were very relieved. Although Sam was a wee bit nervous about me poking around with the scissors, they're actually a special veterinary type designed for suture removal -- so it's even less likely she'd get jabbed with an inadvertent move on my part!
The tub in the background is for bathing dogs; you don't actually soak them in it like a regular bathtub, but use a shower-type hose spray to get them wet and rinse them off. The water drains out through a hose in the base.
Samantha was just glad she was only having sutures removed and not getting a bath as well!
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Still No. 1!
Please keep voting for the ranch every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. Thanks to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest earlier this year. Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the $20,000 grand prize in the current contest! Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. Please ask your family and friends to vote, too. Thank you!

Belle Of The Ball

2009-11-15T19:20:48-07:00

When I took the blind Poodle sisters, Molly and Priscilla, to the groomers at PetsMart a couple of weeks ago, the gals there not only gussied up our girls as they usually do, but this time they also tied little blue ribbons onto their ear muffs. Now, we're not really into dogs-as-accessory-items, or dogs wearing accessory items, but I have to admit, the ribbons gave Molly and Priscilla a little extra je-ne-sais-quoi in the cute department.
The first question that came to my mind -- being a practical sort -- was exactly how long these ribbons would last. Given that the girls are ranch Poodles and not New York 5th Avenue Poodles, if you know what I mean, I didn't give the ribbons much of a chance of surviving. Well, as you can see from the photo I took this afternoon, Molly's ribbons so far have lasted exactly two weeks as of tomorrow. As for Priscilla, her ribbons lasted through yesterday, almost making two weeks. That was much longer than I expected. I figured Molly and Priscilla's no-good hound dog boyfriend, Trooper, would have eaten both sets of ribbons within the first few days.
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Still No. 1!
Please keep voting for the ranch every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. Thanks to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest earlier this year. Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the $20,000 grand prize in the current contest! Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. Please ask your family and friends to vote, too. Thank you!

My Main Squeeze

2009-11-12T19:05:51-07:00

I was taking photos recently for both our winter newsletter and accompanying Web site updates when I got this shot of blind Patti with her boyfriend blind Buddy. I just loved Patti's earnest expression in that photo. As I think I mentioned quite a while ago, we had to move blind Cedar out from the original threesome and put him in the front yard because Buddy was too much in his face, and Cedar was too sweet and gentle to push back. So Patti went from two boyfriends to one, which she might have considered a loss but which no doubt pleased Buddy to no end. Come to think of it, that may have been his plan all along. Hmm.
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Still No. 1!
Please keep voting for the ranch every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. Thanks to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest. Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the $20,000 grand prize! Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. Please ask your family and friends to vote, too. Thank you!

I Hear My Chemo's Going Well

2009-11-11T18:01:42-07:00

Yes, indeed, blind Helen's chemotherapy has been going very well. So much so, in fact, that the latest radiographs we took revealed that the tumor in her lungs has significantly reduced in size. This is not a "cure," but it is buying her time -- and for that we are very grateful. So far Helen has had four rounds of the IV-administered chemo drug adriamycin, given every three weeks, and she has tolerated it far better than we ever expected. In fact, she's had no side effects at all.
Our oncologist at Washington State University veterinary teaching hospital, Dr. Janean Fidel, had recommended the four-dose protocol as the initial course of treatment to our vet in Helena, Dr. Jennifer Rockwell. With that regimen completed, Jennifer consulted with Dr. Fidel last week on the next stage of Helen's treatment. Dr. Fidel recommended now switching to a daily low-dose of a chemo drug called Lomustine, then rechecking Helen's bloodwork after a month.
The only catch was that for the specific dose Helen needed, we'd have to physically divide up a 10 mg "normal" size capsule of the drug into 2.7 mg daily doses (realistically, 2.5 mg) ... and Jennifer didn't think we should be handling a chemotherapeutic agent every day like that, gloves or no gloves. So she's having a compounding pharmacy make us a batch of capsules with the exact dose. We'll start Helen on this new drug next week.
In the meantime, we're just as pleased as we can be with how she's responded to her chemotherapy. Alayne took the photo of Helen this afternoon (yes, it's been snowing most of the day). From looking at her, and watching her daily activities, you'd have no idea she's going through her second round of cancer.
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Still No. 1!
Please keep voting for the ranch every day in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge. Thanks to your votes, we came in third nationwide and won $3,000 for the animals in the previous contest. Now we have a shot at No. 1 and the $20,000 grand prize! Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote. Please ask your family and friends to vote, too. Thank you!