The Rest of the Story-Bella

Mama's New Girl: La Bella Noche Matzke

 

Charlotte just loves Jake

 Friday dawned with Charlotte energized from her restful night. She did really great in her kennel, but once she was up for the morning, she had Jake worn out by 8 o'clock.He came into the office and tried to hide in the corner. I text-ed Sarah to let her know that she didn't need to come up to meet Charlotte, because I would be taking her back to her old home. Sarah responded that she didn't want me to take her back yet. She said, "What if Charlotte is my dog?"

 A few minutes later she text-ed me that she had been looking at Craigslist for dogs, and she had found a black German shepherd named Buffy. There was another German shepherd also, but when she tried to find it again, each time she clicked on the link..every one of them came up to Buffy's page. Sarah said she would email them about her. Not too long after a woman responded, and Sarah called her and they set up a time for Sarah to come see Buffy. 

 Here is the ad on Craigslist:
This is Buffy! She is a 3yr old black German Shepherd female. She is spayed and up to date on her shots - she was rescued off of the Euthanasia list at the county shelter. Buffy is looking for the perfect home! which may take awhile as she is a very special lady.
She is looking for:
Someone with prior Shepherd experience.
Someone that will go slow with her - she is shy and a little fearful
Someone with a fenced in yard! - she would not be a good apartment dog.
Someone without children younger than the age of eight.

She is a very good girl but needs people willing to go slow and let her come to them - she loves attention but was probably abused in the past and is scared of people at first.

Buffy walks very well on a leash and she rides well in the car. She is crate trained and good with cats and most other dogs (She likes dogs smaller than her best!) She takes treats very gently! Buffy is a kid focused dog who has bounded very well with my 8yr old daughter. I believe once she has time to bond with a family of her own that she will turn out to be quite protective of them!
She has been evaluated by a professional German Shepherd handler who was very impressed with her.

When Sarah arrived, she saw a beautiful black German Shepherd, who had a very sad story. She was frightened of every little sound. She was afraid of men especially. She got along with other dogs and cats, but was extremely shy and startled very easily. No one wanted to adopt such a scared dog. so "Dog Love Rescue" came to the pound and saved Buffy from being killed. She was on the euthanasia list for the next morning, so she really and truly is a miracle rescue story. Marianne, the Adoption Representative, told Sarah that no one had ever been able to get Buffy to come to them so quickly. Sarah called me and said she had paid the adoption fee and was on the way up to Prescott Valley.

Jake and Bella playing

She said "Mom, Buffy was named after Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so she will be your psychic vampire hunter, and I will have Charlotte to always protect me." Of course that caused some tears from us both. They arrived and we allowed the dogs to greet each other slowly, and soon all three were playing together. Charlotte and Buffy are submissive females, and Jake is now the Alpha 2 male (Marty is the main Alpha male). He puffed himself up and made himself taller than Buffy and the pack was formed. 

Everything was going very well, we got home from picking up Charlotte's kennel from her former owners. We let the dogs out and when they came in I put Buffy's leash around the top of our rocking chair just to hod her until we got our Chinese food ready. All of a sudden something spooked Buffy, so she started running, dragging the rocker with her, straight towards the back door. she she did, we heard a huge HISS and that angry meow that comes from cats when they are very unhappy. I was trying to get to Buffy, and looked down and there was Inky, our BIG cat, stuck half way out of the couch. Right then, Charlotte runs over, and Inky swipes at her, makes more screeching sounds and I reached down to help Inky out. She bit me. Sarah put Charlotte out on the back porch as I was lifting the couch up so Inky could get out. When I lifted it, Inky went with it. Somehow she had become stuck in between to bars, as this section of the couch is a recliner. More screeching from Inky, more hissing and the Sarah tried to help her out, only to get bitten also. At this point, Charlotte is outside looking in and barking, Inky is hissing and lashing out, and Jake then steps in and starts to go for Inky because she had bit us. Sarah had to get Jake and put him in the dining room. She comes back and holds the couch while I look to see what Inky is stuck on. I see that her tail and one back leg have gotten between the bars, so I pulled to recliner release and pulled the foot-piece out. Finally Inky was free and she took of like lightening! She did have some bleeding, but we could not entice her to come out from under our bed. Inky will get a bath today sometime after the Viking game.

 

We got Charlotte kenneled for the night, we started thinking of better names for Buffy. That name just didn't fit her personality...she would run from any vampire! We looked up a lot of names but the one that first came to me even before looking on the internet, was Bella. Sarah thought that I meant Bella, as in the Twilight movies, but that wasn't it. The name came to me because Bella means beautiful, and I started saying Bella Noche, which means beautiful night, so that is her new name. 

We checked on Inky, and she was under the covers of our bed, and still was bleeding from somewhere, but she wouldn't let us look. I finally was able to pick her up, and could not find any place that was cut. I put her in the Reiki room and shut the door. Did some work on her for healing and left her in there. About an hour later I heard her meowing, and knew she was finished with her Reiki session! She ran into our room and hid again. The next morning after I made the bed up she was trying to get under the covers, so I put another blanket on top and she was fine hiding on the bed.

Sarah ready to take Charlotte home

Sarah decided to take Charlotte home yesterday to allow her time to get adjusted to the apartment before Sarah had to work today. We got everything she needed for Charlotte and they set off for Phoenix. Charlotte in the front seat head out the window, in total ecstasy. Since Charlotte is a mini-lab her size is perfect for Sarah. She has lots of energy, but now Sarah has a dog who can run with her each morning. It is so cute that she cocks her head just like Ebony used to do when we talked to her. Sarah is very happy to finally have a dog of her own. I am glad that when she does come up that they will all get along.

An interesting tidbit about Charlotte. She lived on Leprechaun Drive, and was born on St. Patrick's Day. She is an Irish dog, and fits right into our family!

 All was quiet and peaceful in the house once again. I brushed Bella and got a lot of her summer coat off and decided to give her a bath, which went very well. She ran around as most dogs do after a bath, and then settled down next to Jake to go to sleep. I went to shower myself and when I returned to the den, Bella was sleeping on the couch, with her head on the pillow, just like Ebony used to do. Jake was on the floor by her, and I settled in my couch position and we all fell asleep after the energy filled day we had.

 
 This morning when Marty was coming home I called him to let him know that he would probably need to approach Bella slowly, as we were told she didn't like men. Well....he came in, and of course Bella went straight to him and wanted attention just like Jake. Anytime she would walk away, she turned right back around and sat closer for more hugs and attention. Instant bond once again. Hallelujah. Finally after the past weeks of trying to find a dog that fit perfectly in our home....Bella is a perfect fit. She needs to grow into her head and feet. She only weighs 60 pounds, and is very thin, much like Jake was when he wandered into our yard so many years ago. We will have her fattened up in no time! I think she's a keeper!!!!

No fear of men here !!!!

Bella is a cuddler!!!!

Here's Charlotte

Here is Charlotte

Well, today during the book study I said that I didn’t know why Ebony needed to leave us, and that maybe it was that the lab we were going to see needed us. One of Marty's co-workers who is really into rescue dogs, told him that there was another dog waiting for our loving home....

We arrived at their home in Cherry, and were introduced to the smallest black lab we have ever seen, she only weighs 50 pounds, but is smaller than Ebony (probably cause Ebony’s hair was so fluffy!). Anyway, the she ran to greet us, and I asked them, what her name was?

 “Charlotte”.

 “What?” I said.

“You know, Charlotte, like Charlotte’s Web.”

We just about fainted right there. A dog with my name…who would have ever thought that would happen? I laughed later and told Marty, well, I won’t ever have a grandchild named after me, so I might as well have a dog with my name. I am honored!

She and Jake hit it off very well, she is a very submissive dog and no aggression whatsoever, with lots of energy, like Ebony, and even has the same color of eyes that our Ebony had. Jake responded to this new female by acting his male part in humping her (a behavior we have only seen him do with male dogs to show them he was superior). After they had played and played, and were licking each others faces…it was obvious that Jake was a happy boy again. A tired one, but happy.

The drive home was quiet. We have never experienced this if we had Ebony and Jake in the vehicle together, there was continual whining, which drove us crazy. Both dogs were good as gold, they laid down and there was a peace filled truck with NO whining! YEAH!!!!

We are going to have a temporary trial of Charlotte for a few days to see if she has too much energy for Jake, but so far it is good. She needs training still, since she is a puppy, for walking, we will need to get her a harness for walks, but she is just so beautiful. Her coat shines and she doesn’t shed like a lot of labs do.

So, I believe that God most assuredly had His hand in this one!

A rare moment of stillness

Ebony Matzke 1/31/2004 to 10/16/2012

Our Baby Ebony

We will miss her cocking her head when we talked to her

Here is the breakdown on Ebony. We took her to see Dr.Tebbe last Wednesday, they did blood-work and an x-ray which showed something in her belly, plus blood. When diagnosing a pet they always start with the simplest diagnosis to treat (since to find the actual diagnosis would have required and MRI and Ultrasound...Which we could not afford.) So she got fluids and was being hand fed. He put an IV in and we monitored the drip over night at home.

My request of Ebony was that she please not die before Sarah's testing, and she didn't. She rallied while Sarah was here, still having to be hand fed, but she was drinking water, having bowel movements and sticking to Sarah like glue. She loved Sarah so much, they really had a very special bond. Then as soon as Sarah left here Sunday, Ebony jumped up on the couch and slept the rest of the day. Only getting p to go outside and drink water, then back on the couch she went. She wouldn't eat from the spoon as she had so I had to put the food in her cheek. She only ate a little bit.

Love you Baby Girl

Yesterday morning she was very listless and I fed her like one would a baby, and felt like some of my hospice patients families who try all they can to get food into their loved one. I held her all morning, and she had an episode which was like a seizure of some sorts. She held her head back, body stiffened and she made a howling sound. It was just like when Foxy died, so I thought she was leaving then, but she didn't. 

Inky is saying good-bye

I called and could get into see the Vet at 4pm yesterday afternoon.  I had to carry her everywhere by this point, and she was extremely dehydrated again. Inky spent about an hour laying beside Ebony and licking her...she only knows Ebony as "Mommy".

 Dr. Fernandez was there and he looked again at her x-rays and blood work. He felt her belly, which seemed to be growing day by day. He said that he believed that she had cancer of some form, maybe liver, since she was so anemic and he asked how her eating habits were for the past months. I explained how for about the past 6 months to a year she has been an extra finicky eater, we had to play all kinds of games to get her to eat, then she would refuse to eat altogether for a few days. Then she would be fine and eat OK. He explained that animals who have cancer act that way. They eat when they are having a good day, don't when they aren't....he even said "Just like people on hospice have good days and bad days, this is what you have been seeing with Ebony." 

An evening spent loving Ebony

So She got more fluids and a shot for pain. I brought her home and Marty got off work to come home. We gave her pain meds and she was very lethargic. She would take some water with a dropper, and during the night she actually drank water from a small bowl we had at bedside. We spent all our time with her, waking in the night to let her drink, and Marty took her outside to pee.

Last sleeping time with our beautiful Ebony

We made an appointment for 10:30 for her to be euthanized. The hard part was that because of the fluids she had rallied and was acting like her old self, except that she would not eat, even er favorite cheese or yogurt. She gave us kisses and was very present with us. It was such a very hard decision to make, but we took her to her appointment, and Dr. Tebbe was there, with his wonderful wife and Vet tech. He explained to us the whole procedure of how they start with the simplest thing they can think to treat, and if that doesn't work, then they go to step two,  then step three, and so on. He said that she had indeed rallied with the liquids on board, but it was temporary. He went back to look again at the x-rays and did a physical exam of her abdomen and rib cage. I even had noticed that her girth in her rib cage area had been growing in the past days, which meant that the tumor was growing. He suspected that it was more than likely pancreatic cancer, which can present with all the symptoms she had. Her belly was very hard and even the area behind her skull was depressed and showed classic signs of being even more dehydrated.

After talking with them, we made the decision to euthanize her, so she would not be in any more pain, and even though we were wondering why she rallied on the day we were to say good-bye, I truly believe it as her way of telling us good-bye. She gave us one last glimpse of the absolutely beautiful dog she was, she gave us good bye kisses and as we both held her she took her last breath.

We are grateful for High Country Pet Clinic, their staff  are so caring and supportive. Thank you To all of you who walked this journey with us. http://highcountrypetclinic.com/

We are filled with a great sadness, as anyone is when they loose a loved one "too quickly". But I am thankful that she left here allowing us to have in our mind's eye the image of her alive, barking at the doorbell, looking for birds....instead of our last thought of her as being lifeless and sick.

She gave me kisses just this morning

"None to nose, Ebony do you know how much your Momma loves you? Forever and always...kisses and hugs. I have told this to her since she was just a little puppy, and every time she would lick my nose."

  

 Miss Ebony Debebony, we will always miss you






 Here are some photos of when we first adopted her on March 20, 2004

My baby girl

She always loved being carried by her Daddy!