Snowy days!

As long as you have her bundled up in her coat Brinley loves the snow. She loves to run, chase snow balls and dig in the snow to find the kong. She had a great time today playing for hours with the kong and all her new friends at the off leash dog park. I dress in my snowboard clothes just so I can stay as long as she wants to without freezing! Every now and then her feet get too cold and she will jump into my arms to be held, she is no sooner up in my arms than she is all warm again and is wiggling to get down and run around.

She loves all dogs and people she comes across and is finally showing enough confidence to let new people pet her without scampering away.

She is doing great with her commands, she knew quite a few when she got here and she will now, sit, lie down, off (of whatever she is on and needs to get off of) and come when she is called 9x out of 10.....every now and then there is something just way too interesting to convince her to come when I call her.

She has been spending about 2 hours in the crate everyday when I am out for work, and still really doesn't like it. So far when left out of the crate she is fine, so we have been leaving her out any of the other times we are out.

I am leaving tomorrow and will be out of town for a week for work, so Foster "Dad" is in charge, I will update everyone in a week on how she did with the change in routine. She has the dog walker coming 2x a day and will be crated until the first walk and then out with the Pug for the rest of the day.

Foster "Dad" is now in charge of the baths, skin creams and spraying when needed, he knows the expectation is that there is more fur when I get home.....oooh the pressure!

Well if that picture isn't the cutest little mug then I don't know what is! Miss Brinley has really started to charm all that she meets. She is now pretty comfortable in the neighborhood and the neighborhood kids have brought her some presents and "Get Well" cards to help her to grow her fur back.

She is a regular at the dog park now and has some new friends. She particularly enjoys the company of the Doberman puppy Damon who loves to chase her, and she loves to run. She is well comfortable with the dog walker now and will walk to the park with her, so every day just gets better and better.

Olly the pudgy pug has lost a pound in his pursuit of her and nipping the backs of her legs when she is running and having too much fun.

We went to the vet today and great news - the mites are dead!!! No more mange, there is still a leftover infection and her lymph nodes are still enlarged, but she is heading in the right direction.

She will be featured in the Beaches Local Newspaper in a couple of weeks and you will likely see her on TV in March.

The simple things in life make you the happiest....

I am sure this has happened to most pet owner's, you buy the coolest toy at the pet store for your dog, usually they are kinda pricey and do all sorts of cool things, and you think "Wow, my dog is going to love this!" Then you get it home, and they like it, but they don't loooove it the way you thought they would. A short time later you bring home a tennis ball or a $2 frisbee and this is true love, the dog goes nuts for this!

Low and behold Brinley takes great pleasure in the simple things in life, totally thrilled with a tennis ball or a frisbee, all of them far surpass any of the cool expensive toys that reside in the toy box at our house. Hours and hours can be passed with the tennis ball or the frisbee, but only moments with the other fancier toys until she has moved back to her true favorites.

Brinley has been getting into a regular routine, she has made some friends at the off leash dog park and takes great joy in running as fast as she can in the confined fence area's showing just how fast she can go, which is generally faster than all the other dogs at the park, meaning at times she must jump over their backs or crash into them because she can't stop in time.

She now gets excited when she sees her coat and leash come out and starts to prance around in preparation for the big "walk" or "park" event. She has even inspired Olly the pudgy Pug into a regular chasing routine when at the park. He will participate until his sides are huffing and puffing and he has to have a rest.

Fur and skin look better and better and we will see the vet on Friday to test again and see what the next steps are.

I am becoming a furry boxer puppy!

The pictures say it all! Brinley has quite a bit more fur than she did a week ago. We have been spraying her every 2 hours with the Buro-sol Solution to keep the itching and inflammation down. She has been having the prescription shampoo baths every 2 days, and in addition to the meds she is getting the EFA Supplement and the Immuno Support Supplement. She is on a new Hypo-Allergenic diet, and a probiotic and everything seems to be coming together. She is gaining weight, fur is growing and she is no longer itching.

She will have a re-check with the vet on Friday and we can see if we have conquered the mites. If we have been successful and won the battle then she should be well on her way to being a furry boxer puppy.

With each passing day she is getting braver, and braver. She is still pretty nervous when something is new, she generally just lacks confidence. But she now walks to the park, and knows the way we will go. On the weekend she went to the fenced off leash and had a good boxer burn with another boxer, and played and played until I thought she might be too tired to walk home.

Olly has accepted that she is going to be here for a bit and the two of them will actually play sometimes. They had a great time running and chasing each other in the snow tonight, and chasing the kong.

Crate time is getting a bit easier for her, we have been feeding her in the crate, so she is not as reluctant to go in, still shakes a lot when you first get her in, but the drooling and blanket shredding has subsided.

A day at the park

Brinley has finally made it all the way to the park! Today was the first day that we could get that far on our walk without her turning around and bolting for home. I had the kong in my pocket and when we got there she was thrilled to chase it to the end of the leash and bring it back to me. She has gotten very playful in the last few days, and even convinced Olly to chase her around the coffee table a couple of times. This is a big deal for the pudgy pug.

She has pretty much stopped scratching, and you can see a lot more fur coming in, especially on her head and neck and hind end.

So many of the things that scared her at first, opening a cupboard door, turning on a light, turning the water on, putting the dishes away are not a big deal anymore. I guess just given the time to get comfortable (she likely hasn't had a chance to do that much yet with 4 homes in 9 months) she won't be as nervous.

She will go out with the dog walker again this week and we will see if she can make it past the end of the street.

Is that a silly puppy emerging out of that patchy furry, nervous shell?

With each passing day we gradually see the puppy that is living inside this patchy fur, nervous shell start to come out. Brinley is gradually becoming comfortable in the house and is showing a lot more confidence. She can play for hours on her own with any of the toys throwing them across the room with her mouth and running after them only to do it all over again. She particularly likes the noisy toys, especially if you are on the phone or trying to have a conversation or listen to something on TV.

Outside of the house she is still very nervous, she will follow Olly on a walk, but still cowers when cars pass or there are load noises outside. We have been taking the same route on each walk, and on certain parts she is getting a bit more comfortable, finally moving away from my leg a bit and sniffing things.

We have met several other dogs on our walks, and she is very submissive with all of them.

Olly is finally starting to let her sit a bit closer to him and has played with her for a couple seconds here and there.

Her skin seems less itchy and tomorrow she is due for her special bath to keep her skin on the road to recovery. I think she is getting a bit more fur, but she is also shedding!

Brinley's Family Day

Brinley had a relaxing Family Day she was up bright and early this morning and was intent on playing fetch. We played for about 2 hours and thankfully she tired herself out.

We tried crating her again today while we were out. Again as soon as she saw us putting on our shoes she would not even go into the room that the crate was in. I carried her into the crate, gave her a new bone and tried to make it a positive experience. When we came back about an hour later she was sitting in the exact same position shaking a little bit. We will keep practicing each day and try and make her a bit more comfortable with it.

We went for a long walk, she is very, very nervous out on the street, pancakes to the sidewalk when a car goes by, not sure how many walks she has been on before this. She was too nervous to run around at the fenced park so we went home and she ran around in the backyard, even tried to see if she could fly, leaping through the air.

Our neighbors came over to meet her today and she hid behind my legs, hopefully with each new day and more new things she will get more confident and comfortable.

We are spraying her with the Buro-sol throughout the day and the itching is getting better and better, so hopefully we will see some new hair soon.

She is flaked out in front of the fire snoring away, big day!

Valentine's Day in the life of a fur challenged puppy

Well what can I say, things are ticking along like Brinley has been here all along. After a long day yesterday with her early morning drive into rescue, a visit to the vet, tour of the neighborhood, and a test run of every toy in the toy box, Brinley was out like a light when it was time for bed. She cuddle right up into the tiniest little ball on the doggie bed in our bedroom. She looked so tiny and so cold with no fur that I put one of the blankets from her crate over her. She slept like that straight through the night, I actually woke her just before 9am. By the look of her she didn't budge once.

After a good stretch, some breakfast, medication and a quick backyard tour, I set about applying the Buro-sol Solution to her skin and soaking her feet for a bit. You can see by the picture attached her feet are pretty irritated, red and inflamed. She is a little trooper and very tolerant. The solution likely feels good when I put it on her body, as it reduces the itching, but she also let me put each of her feet into a bowl of it for about 5 minutes each and just sat there waiting patiently.

I re-applied the Buro-sol about every 3-4 hours today and it seemed to help a lot as she did not itch at all. I am going to try and do her feet again before bed.

We did a test run of the crate today, leaving Brinley crated for 2 hours while we were out. It was really tough to get her in the crate, no amount of peanut butter kongs, bones or any treats could convince her that going in there was a good idea. She trembled and backed away from us. Eventually I picked her up and put her in. Her owner had said she often tore up the blankets when crated, but we came back to find her just sitting there quietly, blankets in tact.

It was a big Valentine's Day for this little peanut, we had 7 people over for dinner, which at first was a bit nerve racking for her. She cowered and shook each time a new person came into the house, but by the time the last person arrived she was leaping over the pug to get to the door. Ayla our friends pug also came over and she is much more playful than Olly so they got to have a bit of a romp around together.

She showed off her great personality and surprisingly good manners for such a young dog all night, by sitting nicely and waiting to be pet and every now and then playing silly games with the toys.

Olly doesn't like her much more today than he did yesterday, and they had a small disagreement tonight, but in the end everyone retreated to their corners with a sharp "no."

Big day for the little furless wonder, and once again showed that she can adapt pretty well to all the changes and new situations once she is over her initial nerves.

Brinley the Boxer

Sometimes in life we need some help, and we depend on others to help us. Volunteering in rescue you see this all the time. And sometimes even when a dog has been lucky enough to catch a break, and be lucky enough to have many angels cross their path to help them on their way to a second chance they still need the help of Rescue.

Yesterday, on the 11th Anniversary of the day that I brought home my first boxer Tallie, who sadly left us 41 days ago, I brought home a foster for Boxer Rescue who needed just a bit more help.

Brandi, renamed Brinley has had a rough time in her short life of 9 months. Last fall she ended up in Animal Control as a stray with no one looking for her. That is when she met her first angel, someone came in and adopted her. Unfortunately Brinley had some medical concerns that quickly became financially overwhelming for her new owner, and that's when he made the tough decision to ask for help for her.

Brinley has a condition called Generalized Demodex Mange. Demodectic Mange is a skin disease caused by a dog mite known as Demodex. The Demodex dog mite lives in the hair follicle within the dog's skin

There are two types of Demodectic Mange, localized and generalized mange.

Localized demodectic mange results in small circular areas of hair loss. There may be only one area affected or there may be several bald spots on the dog's skin. These areas of hair loss are generally not itchy for the dog affected with demodectic mange unless they have become infected with bacteria.

Generalized demodectic mange is a more wide-spread skin disease, often with lesions covering most of the body. Usually, secondary bacterial infection is present as well, resulting in a dog who is very itchy and uncomfortable. A dog infected with generalized demodectic mange may have a discharge which is bloody or pus-like coming from parts of the infected skin. The skin coat is usually brittle, dry and full of crusts and scabs.

Unfortunately for Brinley she has Generalized Demodectic Mange and a bacterial infection. This is not contagious, but does cause her to be quite itchy and uncomfortable.

Brinley will have a long road to recovery with a number of vet visits and treatments. But in time we hope to have a fuzzy little puppy back on our hands and she will be ready for adoption.

For now, what she lacks in fur she makes up for in personality.

If you would like to support Brinley on her road to recovery please visit:

http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=6672

With some love, some medical care and your support Brinley will be well on her way to recovery and a second chance.