There is so much I’d like to write and ask, but it has been a silly-silly week of work and other excitement, so just 2 quick updates about a Lilly’s Fund Grant and my soon-to-be-published book on surviving the loss of your canine soul mate.
So, here’s the thing. I’m tired. Really tired — between working, raising a puppy, caring for a geriatric dog (which means we see 2 am, 3 am, and 4 am quite a bit), and lingering grief. If I could, I’d take a long nap every day. I can’t, though, so I do the most with each day’s top-top-top priorities, and I tell myself it’s “enough.” Otherwise, I’d work too much, neglect my family, and never sleep. That leaves the blog, which I really would like to continue, and the book, which I really need to finish, in a state of limbo. I’m trying, kids. I really am.
Based on my history with dogs, it seems I’m not allowed to have ones that are 100% healthy on arrival. So, when we got the call a week before Clover’s anticipated flight to Colorado telling us she had a urinary tract infection, we weren’t surprised. No biggie, we thought. Get her on meds, and we’ll take care of the rest from here. After weeks and weeks and weeks of meds, when the UTI remained, we headed off to see the veterinary specialist.
“So What Does Ginko Think of the New Puppy?” is probably the #1 question people asked us when we first adopted Clover from Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue in Virginia. The short answer is this … He LOVES her. Truly. But, these photos tell the story a whole lot better than I can with words.
Puppy COMES HOME! This is post #5 of 5 in the story of adopting a border collie puppy from 1,600 miles away >>>> The puppy’s journey home began Friday, September 12, when Beth and Dr. Beth met halfway between Beth’s dairy farm in Virginia and Dr. Beth’s home near Washington, DC. They sent me photos so that I knew the handoff was complete.
More of the story!!! Post #4 of 5 about how we managed to do a border collie puppy adoption from nearly 1,600 miles away. For all the fate and destiny, we experienced some glitches as well. At various turns, we worried the adoption would fall through:
Here, friends, is post #3 (of 5), telling the adoption story of border collie puppy, Clover. When we left off yesterday, I’d just hit SEND on an adoption application to Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue >>>> You see, the electronic application didn’t just go to the rescue group’s adoption committee or leadership or just to her foster family, it went to EVERY single volunteer in the organization. Everyone saw everything I wrote. Everyone (I suspect) felt the emotion behind Lilly’s loss. Everyone got probably too intimate of a look into my life and into my heart.
This is the second of 5 posts, telling the adoption story of border collie puppy, Clover. In this installment, FATE intervenes. As I noted briefly in the announcement of her arrival, The Story of Clover begins with me seeing her photo in my Facebook feed. I read her adoption profile (where they called her Little Meg), and some way, some how, I knew in my heart she was born to be ours.
My apologies for the long delay between announcing the arrival of our new puppy September 13 and the official beginning of her story. It turns out that raising a puppy – especially a border collie puppy – is a full-time, full-contact sport that has consumed me.
This is the last post in the series spawned by that canine parvovirus outbreak in Massachusetts. So far we’ve talked about how outbreaks happen, the window of risk for puppies, and vaccine nonresponders. Today, let’s look at ways veterinary researchers and veterinarians can pinpoint when is the best time to begin vaccinating puppies. It’s pretty cool stuff … though, not new. It has been around since the 1960s.
