It's been a while...

Long time...no post.

Dolce's been doing well since I last posted. He's had a few complications. His heart is slowly getting worse. We have increased his heart medication, from 1 time per day to twice a day. His poor little heart is not strong enough to go under anesthesia so unfortunately repairing his jaw to help it heal is no longer an option. Most likely he will have the pin and wiring in his jaw for the remainder of his life and it will never fully heal. This was hard information for me to take in. I really wanted to hear that if we could just fix his jaw, then all of his health problems would go away. Unfortunately I was wrong.

In September I began to worry about a large lump/mass on his neck. Brett kept insisting that it was just scar tissue from his feeding tube, but I knew that it wasn't and that he was just trying to calm me down. We took Dolce in to see the vet and thank goodness it turned out to be a benign cyst. It was aspirated and we went on with our life. About 3 weeks later the cyst returned. We took Dolce back to the vet, but with a recurrent cyst, aspirating it regularly increases the chances of an infection...so Dolce will live with the cyst. Sadly, with a heart unable to handle anesthesia, removing the cyst is not an option. Since the cyst causes him some discomfort and he doesn't like anyone touching it or his harness rubbing on it Brett and I went out and purchased a new step-in harness. Not only does this new harness reduce the rubbing on his cyst but most importantly it is EXTREMELY cute and perfectly fits Dolce's personality...it's black with little white skull and crossbones on it. I love it!

In December I was at Unleashed (I love this little store by Petco!) buying Christmas gifts for Dolce and Co. when I came across a product called Dr. Harvey's Canine Health. I honestly didn't pay much attention to it but I thought it looked like something the dogs would enjoy eating for Christmas so I bought it. Once I got home and took a closer look, read reviews on the Internet and watched videos of the food being made I was really excited. We started Dolce on Dr. Harvey's last Saturday and he is a different dog. He has more energy, he's more vocal and he is excited to eat! We have always struggled with getting Dolce to eat, he is easily distracted and can be very finicky. In the short amount of time we have been feeding Dolce Dr. Harvey's Canine Health I have become completely convinced that this is the food all of my dogs will be on going forward. Once the other pups finish up their remaining food it will be Dr. Harvey's all the way!! If you haven't heard of Dr. Harvey's or you want more information you can google it (the reviews look really promising) or let me know if I can help answer any questions you have.

Spoiled Rotten

We got Dolce's blood work back yesterday. It looks like everything is within normal limits...which is great news! Unfortunately we cannot move forward with surgery or even a dental because Dolce's heart disease has gotten worse. We were told that as long as he continues to cough it will be too dangerous to put him under anesthesia. We've since doubled him up on his enacard. It seems like his coughing has improved since we changed the dosage, but we need him to be on this dosage for a while before we can think about putting him under. So frustrating! Every time we think we're getting somewhere with him we have another set back. I'm beginning to think that his jaw will never fully heal and we will spend the rest of his life trying to manage his heart disease...actually that statement is probably 100% accurate. Sad but true.

Changing the subject to something more uplifting...Dolce is getting more and more affectionate. Lately he's becoming a mommas boy and I can't hide the fact that I love it. Last night he was so happy when I came home from hiking he immediately laid down on my chest and nuzzled up. Of course I was happy that Dolce was so attached to Brett but I couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

This morning Brett let Brownie and I sleep in while he took Rico, Chico and Dolce outside and started getting their breakfast ready. Something that is funny/weird about Dolce is that in the morning it takes a while to get him to start eating. I usually have to start out with hand feeding him, then I stop and act like I'm not paying attention. Once he knows I'm not looking he will start eating. Brett isn't so patient with him, unlike me he will not get down, sit on the floor and feed Dolce. So this morning I was just getting out of bed and came into the kitchen to see Dolce refusing to eat and staring at me. So I sat down and started hand feeding him. Brett just looked at me sitting Indian-style on the kitchen floor handing Dolce a piece of food and said, "he is spoiled rotten." I smiled up at him and said, "I know."

Good News, Bad News & No News

Just as planned, Brett and I took Dolce over to West LA to see Dr. Adams today. Almost immediately Dr. Adams brought up a concern that I have been worried might be happening. When he listened to Dolce's heart he noticed that his heart murmur is louder than it was previously. I have been worried about this for a while; I've noticed that Dolce's cough has been coming back and getting steadily worse. To help ease his heart disease we are upping Dolce's heart meds. Since Dr. Adams knows I am a professional worrier, he let me know that sometimes it takes several attempts to find the right dosage for the heart meds we are giving Dolce.

At this time because of Dolce's heart murmur getting worse, surgery cannot take place. Luckily, Dr. Adams said that the wire that is holding together the still-not-healed right side of Dolce's jaw is made of stainless steal and should be fine staying in there for a long period of time and should not come out on it's own. So we are giving Dolce's jaw more time to heal and hopefully we can get his heart condition to calm down a bit.

In other news, I mentioned to Dr. Adams that Dolce consumes large amounts of water very often, much more often than our other dogs. Because of the constant need for water and the fact that Dolce's blood work from January showed elevated numbers in his kidneys we had new blood work done today. On Tuesday we will get the results back and see what exactly is going on with Dolce. Once the blood work is back we will hopefully be scheduling a dental for Dolce. I'm not sure if I'm more excited or more worried about the dental being done...but I do know that I trust Dr. Adams and feel like Dolce is safe in his hands.

Here's a little funny conversation Brett and I had with Dr. Adams today:

Sierra: I constantly feel worried that Dolce is going to drop dead.

Dr. Adams: Well that's the trouble with heart disease, it often does happen that way.

Sierra: So I was right to call Brett at the gym today and tell him to come home immediately because Dolce was looking at me weird?!?

Brett: She worries about everything.

Dr. Adams: Well no, but you should be prepared that it is a possibility eventually.

Sierra: I knew he was on the verge of death!

Dr. Adams: You would know if he was dying...

Sierra: (to Brett) See! I told you!

In all seriousness, I do constantly worry about Dolce and fear that I will lose him. I worry about having to live a without him in it and when it will happen..because I'm not ready yet...I'm not sure I'll ever be ready. If I had it my way he would not do anything that could potentially hurt him. Of course then he would not be living the happy life he should be living...so I never stop him from playing and running..but I do draw the line at running up the steps to the front door. I want to do everything I possibly can to keep him healthy and to feel safe and most importantly loved. (Just as I am typing this part Dolce gets up and lays down right next to me...gosh I just love him so much.) I try to remind myself that although I don't know how much time Dolce will be with me, at least I had him in my life...easier said than done. I guess at the end of every day the saying, "who rescued who?" proves to be true for me.

A Former Breeder Dog's Paradise

I haven't posted an update on Dolce for a month now, only because there really hasn't been much going on. Tomorrow we take him to see Dr. Adams to get a quote and decide what the exact plan will be for Dolce and his jaw.

Beyond his jaw, Dolce has been doing pretty well. He's lost a little bit of weight, but we're working on getting it back on him. He loves going for walks, playing outside and of course growling at EVERYTHING. His recall is improving slightly and we've created a plan that works for us (Dolce and I). I promise to not pick up Dolce and take him inside, if he promises to come when I call his name. It's actually funny, sometimes when Brett is outside with him I have to go outside and tell Dolce to come in...I swear its because we agreed upon this deal. Beyond our deal, we took him to the beach a couple weekends ago and he had a blast. He actually had too good of a time and we had to place him on a leash to stop him from chasing down and trying to mount every dog walking by. He's getting better with his need to mount all the time, he now understands that he's not supposed to do it. When we tell him to stop he usually will stop and find a spot to sit (of course he growls until he sits down to let us know we've annoyed him). But at the dog beach, with hundreds of unleashed dogs, it was a free for all...a former breeder dog's paradise.

I'll give an update tomorrow regarding the plan we have for Dolce and getting his jaw healed up.

Dolce's magic haircut!

Last week I knew that we were in for warm weather over the 4th of July weekend, so I scheduled Dolce to get summer haircut. Poor little guy gets so overheated when we let his fur grow out..constantly panting and stretching out on the cooler floors.

I asked for some suggestions for a groomer because let's be honest, Dolce deserves the best and I'm a crazy woman that won't let jut anyone touch him...or any of my other dogs for that matter. I heard about Euphoria in Noho (saying Noho makes me feel very cool and swanky, like I'm in on a secret or something...it means North Hollywood for those not in the cool circle), so I did my due diligence and made sure they had a near perfect score on yelp.

I happened to be hiking the afternoon that Dolce went to be groomed, so I had a slight freak out when I realized that:

1) Brett was going to take him and he's a bit verbally challenged. Will he warn them that Dolce is like a delicate flower? They CAN'T be rough with him. He has a healing jaw for God's sake! (I tend to be a little over dramatic).

2) What kind of haircut was Brett going to tell them to give him? Was Dolce going to come out with another uneven lion cut? Or worst of all was he going to look like a Chinese Crested?? (no offense to the Chinese Crested lovers) Turns out Brett didn't really know what to tell them so they had to bust out some dogs and do a little doggie grooming fashion show for Brett to choose from.

Lucky for Brett, we picked up Dolce and he still looked cute. They shaved all of him except his tail, which now makes him look like a tiny-itty-bitty horse when you look at him from the back (I'll have to upload a photo), and kept his ear fur long. But BEST OF ALL, they trimmed the fur on the top and bottom of his feet!!! Let me explain why this is AWESOME!

Dolce had LONG fur on his feet (especially on the bottom) and the last groomer that we went to didn't even touch his feet! So he was given a lion cut and still had his little furry boots on! The poor guy slips and slides all over our hard wood floors. The worst and funniest thing he would do is walk backwards to get somewhere. It's true! Dolce would walk down the hall slowly and backwards to get to the kitchen. Since he's so independent and hates being picked up to get from point A to point B, I figured that as long as he's able to get himself where he wants, then he can continue in reverse. So with his feet now trimmed no more reverse only! He's running around the house, turning in circles and having a great time! Woohoo Dolce!

Best of all since he had his haircut it's like we have an all new dog! He's less grumpy (did you read a recent blog entry where I wrote that he growls at EVERYTHING?!?) and seems like he's so much happier! In fact we took Dolce and Brownie on a walk on Monday evening and he had the best time! His little itty-bitty horse tail was constantly wagging and he was SO HAPPY to be on a leash walking. Keep in mind this was the FIRST time we've ever taken him for a walk!

I don't know what it is about this haircut but it seems like it was magic. Dolce is happier, we're happier...win...win! I'll try my best to take a video tomorrow and upload it so you can see how excited he gets and happy he is!

Sad News...

When Brett and I were asked if we wanted to adopt Dolce our first thought was absolutely...but with careful consideration we realized that what we want and what Dolce needs are two different things. We love him so much, and he's become such an amazing part of our little doggie family, but if we cannot provide him with the medical care that he needs, then we're not providing him the life he deserves. At some point we had to realize that our love for Dolce is not going to pay for his surgeries and follow up exams. We so desperately want Dolce to stay ours forever, but we have to put him first. With that said we have given Mindi the green light to look for a potential adopter other than us.

I'm still trying to raise the money to cover his surgeries and follow up care...I have to at least do my best to try and keep him in our lives.

At this point I've started The Rescue Attic, a Facebook Page dedicated to online auctions. Any items that you may have can be donated to The Rescue Attic and the proceeds from the auctioned off items will go directly to sweet Dolce. If you have any items you can donate (new dog collars, leashes, purses, shoes, clothing, gift certificates, gift baskets, ANYTHING) please contact me ASAP. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rescue-Attic/155577501182169

If you are not interested in donating any items, but would like to send a donation, please let me know and I will give you the correct information with where that can be sent.

Also, I'm working to create a calendar for Dolce and could possibly be auctioned off or purchased to also raise funds for him.

Confidence

It's been a while since I last posted on here. Dolce is actually doing really well, or so I assume. Last time he had an infection in his mouth we would have never known since he wasn't acting like he was in pain or being less active.

Something that we have noticed recently in regards to Dolce's progress is that he's finally getting stronger and gaining a lot of confidence. Dolce now whines nonstop (at first I was proud that he had learned to do this, but now it's pretty annoying actually) because all he wants to do is go outside and sniff around. When we first brought him home we could take him outside and he barely moved around, but he's now really moving once he gets outside...so it looking like it's finally time to get him a harness and take him for walks. Just last night Brett looked at Dolce and said, "are you really 10?" Dolce's been so active lately it's hard to believe he's a "senior citizen."

Another change with Dolce is his growling. He never really growled before, but lately he's growling nonstop. I would label it a dominance thing and a power struggle, but Dolce will even growl at us while wagging his tail and begging for a belly rub. He growls when we pick him up and place him on the couch, he growls when I'm giving him a belly rub, he growls when I rearrange him when he's sleeping on my chest....growls constantly.

Lastly, because of the shape of Dolce's mouth, Brett and I have to squirt medicated mouth wash into his mouth each night before bed to help keep the bacteria down in his mouth. Lately (most likely bc of this boost in his confidence) he's really fighting us with the mouth wash and getting overly upset. I told Brett that our neighbors probably thing we're abusing poor Dolce. Last night I had to hold him tight against my chest while Brett attempted to squirt the mouth wash into this mouth. I think it's safe to say that it was a traumatizing experience for all of us involved (Brett, Dolce and myself). Dolce tried to bite us several times (not really bite us but he was trying to get us to stop) since he does not like anyone touching his mouth...which is understandable. Anyway we got the mouth wash in, and poor Dolce-boo tucked his head into my arm and hid. :-( Brett and I felt like total dog abusers. So glad Dolce forgives quickly...his tail was wagging about 5 minutes later.