Thanksgiving Update!

I know.. it's been a while.. but we were off in New England for thanksgiving with Hendrix this past week. First off.. he is an amazing car dog. never cried once, gets in the car, laid down, and was super well behaved. We only had to stop once on the 6 hour trip to CT, and the same for the 4.5 hour drive home from CT. (No stops needed for the 2.5 hour drive from CT to my parents house in MA).




Everyone in both families loved him.. here is a pair of shots of my brother Tom and his wife Ellen with Hendrix.. (The dog isn't that small.. Tom IS that big..)

















And here is one last picture showing my family's Thanksgiving Dinner all laid out. (From the near left and working around: Uncle Richard, Mike, Nana, Grandpa, Oma, Dad, Mom, Chris and Mike)
Hope everyone's Thanksgivings went Great!!!

A close up!

Just picked him up!!!

Ahh.. the relief at seeing him act the way he's supposed to act.. he came out of the back of the vet's office tail wagging and bright eyed.. immediately came for us and started licking our faces.. plus just wanted to jump around a bit.. things he didn't do the first time around.. likely due to being sick.
We picked up his drugs and some other stuff (heart worm pills/flea medicine for the future etc) and headed outside. (Quick note.. the folks at the clinic at WARL are TOP NOTCH! All are wonderful helpful folks that have big smiles on their faces, spent all the time with us we wanted to answer each and every question.. can't say enough good things about them)

Once outside he pulled a little on the leash (something he hadn't done before) and I ran around the parking lot a bit as he chased me around.. all energy things he wasn't able to do before.

Once we got home, we did a short walk where we pumped into another dog and her owner.. he growled a bit at the dog.. but the other owner immediately noted it was inquisitive and not in any way threatening.. so the dogs made nice, no fights or anything even close, and we walked away with an even bigger smile on our faces.

He has about a week of medicine to take.. and needs to gain close to 5 pounds to get to a healthy weight, but is doing great.. can't wait to see what he gets into now that he's getting re-energized! (Will add more pictures very soon!)

He's Coming home!

Just got the call from the vet.. his fever is back to normal.. he ate breakfast this morning.. seems to be feeling better.. though is still a little depressed to be stuck in the hospital. Apparently this morning he chewed his catheter out.. which told the vet that he is ready to go home.
Apparently he is still a bit lethargic, and she thinks that will be the case for another couple of days, and the medicine he is on is for the next 10 days.. but he should be fine.
Apparently if he throws up again or has more diarrhea we are supposed to call her.. but here's hoping that doesn't happen :)

Here's a puppy, Just Kidding!

Ok, well it's not quite like that but it's been a quite an interesting 24 hours. We picked up Hendrix at WARL and everything went smoothly; we signed paperwork, went through a crate-training session where Hendrix ate many, many treats, and then put the leash and harness on and went home! He was quiet but attentive during the car ride. After a quick potty break we took him upstairs to his new home. Once inside he sniffed around a little, finding his dog bed, and his water bowl. However, as the evening wore on he became more and more lethargic, we thought he was just exhausted from the exciting day. He ate a small bit of his food, took another walk to do business and curled up on his bed for the night; during which he never uttered a peep. He didn't even move off of his bed, even though he had free range of the apartment. Slightly strange, but we thought hey! we have a calm dog who appears to be pretty much already housetrained!

And here begins the little problem, he didn't even move off the bed when we woke up this morning. We dragged him outside (We'll mention the stair and elevator fun in another post), he did his business, came upstairs drank some water, walked into the office and threw up, a lot. Poor guy. This only got worse. His cute little nose started running and that was it, time to call WARL and hope for a vet opening. Luckily, they were able to fit us in at 2pm, and as it turns out Hendrix is one sick puppy! He has a 104.5 temp due to an upper respiratory infection. He is dehydrated due to the throwing up, and is sporting a pretty bad emaciated shelter look. The Vet, who was very nice and caring, decided he needed IV drugs and fluids, so Hendrix is spending a night or two in the hospital for some medical TLC. We have him for 18 hours, and we miss him already.

On the good side, we know that Hendrix has Kennel cough, and we caught it before it turned into pneumonia. Hopefully we'll have him back tomorrow, or possibly Friday and after a course of antibiotics, he'll be good as new. Until then here is a picture of the little guy from Tuesday night, he's a handsome fellow!

Todays the day!

We leave in about an hour to pick up Hendrix!!!
We spent the weekend shopping to make sure we had everything ready.. here's a list of what we picked up : Collar, harness, leash, Dog bed, Treats (training treats, little pizza treats and small dog bone treats), dog food, food and water bowls, a mat for under the bowls, a Kong, a furry frog toy, a tug-o-war rope, and a dog tag for his collar (complete with his name, address and our phone number).
We also picked up from our friends Jess and Kevin, a dog crate for crate training etc.
Then began the fun of puppy proofing the house.. I say that.. knowing full well that we will have forgotten who knows what that will result in messes all over the place.. but that's part of the fun.. (right?!?!). We moved the nice carpet out of the living room, we bought a baby gate to keep the "not puppy proof" room off limits to hendrix.. and cleaned up as much as possible.
Pretty soon, we'll be picking him up.. and then we'll get some pictures up here for folks to see!
Stay Tuned...