More Magill Cuteness

Like most puppies Magill loves toys. He found this old knot toy in the back yard and was so excited! And that meant that he slowed down enough that I was able to snap a few photos of him playing with it. 

"Nom, nom, nom..."

"Huh?"

"I'm NOT eating the toy."

So much cute in this little bundle of energy.

Rigby loves bully sticks!

It was a big deal that we've been able to check beef off a list of things that are okay for Rigby to eat. The reason why is that means he gets to have bully sticks! All my dogs get to chew on bully sticks or compressed rawhide sticks before meals while I'm getting their bowls ready. It serves a dual purpose - it cleans their teeth and more importantly it keeps their mouths busy so they don't bark and carry on while I'm fixing their meals. Rigby was never a complainer but a couple of the other dogs are so it can get loud while I'm fixing meals. 

Rigby absolutely loves these chews and is so happy when he gets one that he runs in his crate, all full of wiggles, waiting for me to hand it over. 

Once we know his skin infection is cleared up then we will be trying out some commercially prepared food in hopes of finding something that will be easier for an adopter to fix for him since not a lot of people want to cook for their dogs.

Poor Little Magill

Today was Magill's neuter surgery and unfortunately there was a complication. He's doing fine now but when they went to get him for me when I was picking him up early afternoon, they noticed he was peeing blood.

The vet requested that we leave him and she planned to re-anesthetize him and open him back up to see what the problem was.

Ends up that she put a stitch through his urethra when she was tying off the stitches. This vet has done a ton of spays and neuters for me and has always had exemplary work with not even any bruising around the surgery site. Mistakes happen and while I am not happy it happened on one of my dogs, I'm not going to throw any fits.

She restitched things, and he is now urinating normally and so far there is no blood in the urine. He's back home and letting us know he's not happy about the confinement. The complication we have to watch for is scarring that can block the urethra. So send healing thoughts to our little boy. He is pretty sore and very much frustrated that I won't let him tear around or give him food yet.

Magill Gets A Bath

Like all new foster dogs, Magill got a bath after he arrived. He actually did really great and sat still while I washed him and didn't attempt any escapes. While his ears and body language told me he wasn't enjoying himself, he didn't seem afraid and once dried off he was immediately back to his silly, sassy, puppy self, much to the older dogs' chagrin.

Photoshoot - First Attempt

One of the things that a new foster parent needs to do with their foster dog after they arrive is get some good pictures of them to post on the New Rattitude Website, Petfinder, etc. It's good to get a variety of shots - dog standing, close up of head, lying down, outside, inside... You get the idea.

It's very tough with puppies though because they never stop moving unless they are sleeping or pooping - neither of which make the best poses.

The majority of Magill shots look like this

So in an effort to wear Magill out I went "fishing for puppies" with our Tail Teaser toy. This is a great way to keep a puppy moving and they love to practice their stalking, chasing and pouncing on the furry, squeakie tail that hangs from what looks like a horse whip or something.

As expected Magill loved the toy and ran full speed for about 15 minutes chasing, jumping and catching the fluffy toy. As a result he did slow down enough when he wanted to lie down and chew on the tail that I was able to get some cute photos of him. Of course they are all outside shots and he pretty much is chewing on the nasty, slobber soaked toy in all of them but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Finally slowing down a little

"Wait. What's that?!"

And he's gone

The best I could do for a body shot. If he's standing he's usually running and my camera just isn't fast enough (nor is the photographer)

Silly boy

And my favorite serious photo. 

Magill's First Day

Magill spent most of Sunday in the car for the 2nd day of his transport so by the time he got to us he was ready to go, go, go!

Most of my Magill photos look like this. Little dude is NEVER still so getting photos is a challenge unless he stops to pee or sleep.

He explored every corner of the yard at puppy pace (i.e. full speed) and sometimes his body is moving so fast his legs can't keep up so he somersaults and then is up and off again. The other dogs, ages ranging from 6 to 13 years, are less than impressed by him. Frodo and Sal did their best to just avoid him. Chima immediately yelled at him to chill out when he ran into her and Magill decided to avoid her when possible. Rigby seems to be having the roughest time though. He bounced around a lot before coming into foster care and gets really clingy with his humans. We had a bit of him trying to resource guard me - nothing major but he clearly is struggling with having to share me.

The tan boys: Frodo, Magill and Rigby - Magill did great meeting the boys and took a liking to Rigby initially, although Rigby is not especially fond of him

Trying to hang out with Rigby

Introductory sniffs

First impressions: Magill is a high energy, busy puppy who is going to need an active home willing to walk him, play with him and take him to puppy kindergarten. He is crazy smart and very much loves to please people so training will be a joy and will be a wonderful way to keep this intelligent little guy's brain busy. He is really confident, not shy at all with new people and pretty good with other dogs. We did have some resource guarding of his crate area (he wasn't in it but Rigby was sniffing at it) and he and Rigby have both been resource guarding me from each other so we'll be working on that. He will need a home without shared walls because he can be vocal when he feels he isn't getting his way.

Meeting the girls

Poor guy - this inspection was overwhelming so I made them give him a break

Magill sneaking in for a stealth sniff - he found both Chima and Sal a bit intimidating 

Bottom line is he is a great dog but one that really needs humans who will put the time into keeping him active, engaged, and learning new things.

Introducing Magill

We learned about this little guy who was in a crowded shelter and well past his "safe hold" date. The shelter employees and volunteers did a great job actively getting the word out about him and I decided that since he was young and would likely be adopted quickly we'd take him on as a foster.

Following our Beatles theme we've named him Magill - from the Rocky Racoon lyrics "her name was Magill and she called herself Lil but everyone knew her as Nancy." Troy has already decided that the poor boy's nickname is Nancy.

Like all terrier puppies, Magill is fully loaded with energy and attitude and loves to play. However, he hasn't gotten much socialization so we will be working on that with some fun, treat filled adventures.

The best guess for his age (based on his teeth) is about 14-16 weeks old and he currently weighs 9 pounds. My guess is he will be around 12 pounds as an adult.

The little guy arrives Sunday evening so stay tuned for future posts as we get to know him better.

More Food For Rigby

We now know that Rigby is fine eating beef and turkey so we are adding some more veggies to get some lower carb options to mix in with his meals. We added steamed green beans a few days ago and then starting in the next couple days will add zucchini.

It's great that he can have beef because now I plan on giving him bully sticks to chew on while I make the dogs' dinner which will help clean up his teeth.

Our dog Frodo got to share the green beans with Rigby since he was needing some fiber this last week thanks to eating part of the squeakie toy from last month's Barkbox.

Beef: It's what's for dinner

Rigby did great on his trial of turkey and yellow potatoes. He finished up his antibiotics 4 days ago and we aren't seeing any resurgence of inflammation so this morning I started his next protein trial: beef.

He still gets his turkey and potato mix for meals but now I am starting adding beef grind - a mix of muscle meat, organs, and bone - to the combo. Just a little at first while his body adjusts and if all goes well we will increase the beef and decrease the turkey.

Rigby now with clear skin and missing most of the weird brown staining on his front legs. All that is left seems to be his toe area. 

While his skin isn't 100% better, it is so much better than when we first started on this journey. His belly skin used to be crusty and thick with the look of elephant skin or something. It was wrinkly, hot, damp, and an angry pink colored rash around his groin area. He had hyperpigmentation in his belly spots too - a side effect of long term inflammation. At first I even thought it might be skin cancer because of how the spots were raised and not an even color - very weird, and not something that I had seen before.

It was tough to capture the coloring and texture of his skin with a camera but this was a photo from late February and the brownish red color of his skin went past his ankles, partly up his leg. 

Now his belly and groin are a normal healthy pink. The dampness and hyperpigmentation is gone, as are the crusty spots. There are still a few areas of thickened skin around his ankles  but for the most part people wouldn't know that he had skin issues. His coat is soft and shiny and he sheds less than my personal dogs do! I'm super happy that we've made so much progress.

He'll go back to the vet in a couple weeks to test his skin to make sure the bacterial infection is gone. Otherwise our plan will be to keep testing different foods so we can slowly grow the list of foods that we know he can safely eat as well as continuing his three times weekly baths.

Happy Birthday, Rigby!

Mr. Rigs turned 10 today! He celebrated with plenty of fun time in the back yard and a nice delicious fresh turkey meatball.

It's bittersweet because so few people will consider a 10 year old dog. Everyone wants a puppy but this guy has so much to offer and is such an amazingly sweet guy. And look how young he looks!

While we don't mind fostering him because he's so easy, I sure would like for him to find him his very own home. He deserves to be someone's top dog. So don't move on because he's 10 - take another look at a pretty amazing dog. I promise you he is worth it.