Bebe
In early March, Animal Control picked up a wandering girl Golden. Noted on her
“receiving” documents: “Female stray, large, brown, injured, no license.” And at
the bottom of the page: “Dog transported to GRR vet due to declining health.”
Our
wonderful Miss Bebe had been brought to the pound with a “degloving” injury of
her left front leg. That’s just as nasty as it sounds: strips of skin and fur
were pulled right off, as if a glove had been turned inside out as it was
removed. Best guess is that she was struck a glancing blow by a car, but she
could have tangled with a weed eater, or got stuck in something and hurt herself
yanking free, or…? The shelter bandaged her and gave pain meds and antibiotics,
but after a day, it was clear that she needed more help than they could provide,
so she got her “get out of jail free” pass and headed to the hospital.
The GRR vets found three wounds running down and around Bebe’s leg. On two of
them, it was possible to stitch the loose strips of skin back in place. The
third one was bigger and deeper, and the skin could not be saved. That one just
had to heal over on its own. And it has! Bebe spent about three weeks in
bandages and a bit longer than that wearing the dreaded E-collar (she and her
vets did not always have the same opinion about appropriate wound care!), but
now, about 2 months after the injury, all the wounds are healed up. Bebe will
always have scars, and the ankle joint is still pretty stiff and swollen
looking, but she hardly limps, and she loves her walks and can chase squirrels
with the best of them! Each time the vets see her, they say, “Wow! She is doing
GREAT! She looks better and better!” And day by day, she is gaining more
flexibility in her ankle joint and paw.
Bebe
is such a sweetheart! She is a medium-gold girl with big paws, thoughtful amber
eyes, and cute fringy ears that stick out slightly from her head. Our vet
commented on her slightly short ears and then said, “But they look really good
on her!” That made us laugh – images of Bebe trying on various pairs of ears at
the department store: “Hmm, these are a bit too long… don’t think so… and these
are way too short… but THESE are perfect!”
She is at her ideal weight of 61 pounds, and she’s a real athlete who can bound
across the yard like a jackrabbit and prance like a show pony. Indoors, though,
she is very calm. As I type this, she is snoring in her favorite place against
the bookcase in my office, with her head resting comfortably on a pile of papers
that I am supposed to be working on, but how could I be so rude as to remove her
“pillow”? She isn’t a total “velcro” dog, but she does follow you from room to
room. (That includes the bathroom, so alert your houseguests that they are going
to have a canine lavatory attendant if they aren’t careful.) When I was
suffering from flu recently and in bed one day, Nurse Bebe decided to keep me
company and serve as a furry hot-water bottle at the same time. She’s a very
considerate girl!
Bebe
is totally housebroken. She doesn’t do any damage in the house, and she is left
free to roam when we aren’t here. She completely ignores our cat, although the
litter pan and the cat food dishes are something else again… (covered litter
pans to the rescue!). She gets along great with our two other Goldens. They
don’t really play with each other, but Bebe and Darla (GRR #06-095) are great
squirrel-chasing buddies and tend to run around the yard side by side pursuing
those pesky rodents. You will often see two fluffy rear ends diving into the
shrubbery side by side, or you’ll see both girls standing on their hind legs on
either side of the mesquite tree, staring up into the branches. When they get
tired, they lie down side by side on the patio, keeping watch. This is very
cute!
Bebe just loves to sleep on the bed with you, but she is polite and waits for
you to pat the bed and say “OK” before she lightly jumps up. The one exception
is during storms! Like many Goldens, Bebe is storm-phobic. She gets anxious and
jumps on the bed and stands there panting, and then runs nervously around the
house, and then jumps on the bed again, and so on. Storms at night are a lot
scarier than daytime ones, but I’ve noticed that she is a little less less
distressed since she finally got rid of that annoying E-collar. We do have
anti-anxiety meds on hand to help her settle down, though.
When she first showed up, she didn’t show much interest in toys, but now she
loves to toss her plushies in the air, pounce on them, and play “keep away.”
Once you catch her, she is very agreeable about letting you have the plushie,
though.
We
soon found out she knows SIT like a champ, and she also knows DOWN pretty well.
If you tap your chest lightly she will jump up and put her paws on you and wag
her tail and give a big smile! STAY is coming along, but COME is definitely a
work in progress! The one other thing that really needs work is leash walking.
Miss Bebe is as strong as an entire sled team, pulls like a train on lead. She
is a clever girl and knows just how to lean backwards and toss her head to back
out of a flat nylon collar, so we NEVER take her out the front door without a
prong collar on. You could use a martingale, a Gentle Leader, or a halter,
too—but something that she can’t wiggle out of is really essential. She is an
escape artist, to boot—the first week she was here, she actually knocked open a
locked screen door (wearing her E-collar!!) and took off at warp speed down the
street, with my poor hubby (still in his PJs) in hot pursuit. Now that she has
been here for nearly 6 weeks, she hasn’t tried THAT stunt again, but I still
don’t trust her. (: I do think a few lessons with a pro would soon have her
walking like a champ by your side instead of charging ahead.
Bebe would love a home where she got lots of walks, and a secure fenced yard
with locked gates where she can run after squirrels full tilt is a must (yes,
she knows how to push up gate latches with her nose)! She would love to come to
work with you, too, and she’s so well behaved that she wouldn’t be any trouble
at all! So far she is a very quiet dog – in all this time, we have hardly heard
her bark more than a few times.
Wherever she goes, this lovely girl will need time to settle in and feel like
she belongs, but once she does, you will wonder how you ever lived without her!
Update 5/13/07
Bebe continues to feel great! Her leg is looking really good.
So why the medical hold? Nothing serious... it's just that about ten days ago,
she shocked all of us by going into heat. A couple of the vets who examined her
when she came into care had thought they saw a spay scar -- apparently it was
just an optical illusion. She'll need to finish her heat cycle (which typically
lasts around three weeks), wait two or three weeks after that, and then have
spay surgery & recuperate from that. And then she'll be available for the
perfect forever home