Monthly Archives: October 2007

So… Next month Eliza, our “special needs” dog turns five years old.

It was decided that we would have a party for her. This is partially my fault. I thought it would be a neat idea to have a little get together and invite the Vets that saved her life over to the house for some festivities.

My wife took the ball and ran with it, so that now we are having several guests over, gift packages for the guests and Eliza is getting an outfit for the occasion. More than likely Eliza could probably care less, except that for one evening her house will be invaded by a bunch of people that smell like other dogs.

In a nutshell, for those of you just tuning in, Eliza was a stray that we adopted. When we got her she had probably the worst case of demodex mange that our previous doctor had ever seen. This doctor tried many things, and Eliza was near death, blinded by the medication and barely able to walk or anything else. On the recommendation of my wife’s boss, Diane Pinson, we took her to another vet, who immediately advised us that she was getting too high a dosage of the previous medication (ivermectin) and that is what was causing the problems. She had also gotten to the point where she had open and puss filled sores all over her body. Many people would have thought that it was time to let her go and ease her pain. But there was something that both my wife and I saw in her that told us to try one more time.

From the point where we took her in to the new vet, and when they started treating her, the change was almost immediate. She began to improve, literally, over night. By the next day the sores were already looking better and she started eating again. It would be several months before she regained all her strength and was ready to start going on walks with us. To this day, she still has occasional relapses and the mange tries to come back, but now that we know what to look for, we can usually stops the progress long before it gets bad.

Today she is a hyper little terror that likes nothing more than to terrorize the other two dogs, who are bigger than her, by taking their toys and grumbling at them when she thinks that we are not looking. She is truly a miracle dog… not in the mystical or religious sense, but in the sense that she almost died on us on two occasions, but she pulled through with the help of two great vets and one heck of a Veterinarian Hospital. For those of you who are interested… That would be Doctors Brauer and Holland at SouthWest Veterinary Hospital in Bakersfield Ca.

So… my plan to create a little thank you get together for the vets that saved her life has turned into a party that will probably have about 20 people there. I have no problem with that, it just tickles me.

We have no kids, so we treat the dogs and cats like kids.

I may complain about the party a little… but it is all for show. And those of you who know me and live close… you are not out of this. The Wife is sending you an invite as well… and you are expected.