Pilots N Paws and the travels of Puffy and Bennett

We first heard about a senior (10-12 year old) Pom (was Arty now Puffy) who needed rescue on September 20. This adorable little guy was in danger and in need of a way out of Hammond Animal Control. We agreed to take him into our program. He would stay temporarily with Bandit's foster family until we could find him a forever placement.

Our first sight of Puffy, who could resist this little guy?

Next day, we found out, Puffy had a friend who also needed a way out. We pondered on it a bit and decided that we would take him too. This was Bennett, a little old (13 years) guy who also needed a retirement home. He was coming with Puffy....

Bennett, with his little grandpa sweater 

They were coming from Hammond, IN (not far from Chicago) to Mount Juliet, TN a seven hour drive, but we would somehow get them here....We discussed transports, and last weekend, Penny told us that the little guys were going to be flown in!
I had never heard of Pilots N Paws until now, if you haven't either, it's worth a look at their website, or their facebook page, it is a wonderful organization. They are a non-profit, 501(c)(3) like us, and are a network of pilots who donate their time and planes to transport dogs from an area where they have no chance to another where they can be adopted, or put in a rescue. Pilot Tom and his daughter Chandi volunteered to bring the boys from Columbus IN to Nashville. To get the boys from the shelter to Columbus was a three hour drive early this morning which was done by Penny and Brigit. There were lots of dedicated folks involved in this transport!
When the plane landed, the first thing that we saw was little Bennett sitting on Chandi's lap looking perky and happy. Puffy took the trip in the backseat in his kennel. Both flew very well...

Tom, Chandi and Bennett right after landing in Lebanon TN

Tom and Chandi with both of the boys

and then they were with us :)

Our original plan had Puffy being temporarily fostered by Bandit's foster family. We went directly there to see how everyone would get along. Things weren't too bad, but the boys started to get a bit testy with one another. It may have been the result of three as of yet un-neutered males in one space. (this is being fully remedied on Thursday). We decided that it might be better for us to bring both boys back with us for the week. While we were there we got some shots of everyone together. We hadn't seen Bandit in a few weeks and he is doing amazingly well.

Bennett, Bandit and Puffy

Bandit, Puffy and Flower

a sniff fest with the neighbor dog

The afternoon was filled with walks and arranging. We separated the boys for tonight but will start to work them into the rest of the OFSDS family tomorrow. They both walked very well on a leash and get along well with one another. They had a good dinner and off to bed. Enough for one day.....
We are looking for forever placements for both of these boys. They are so sweet and adorable. We don't think that it will take long for someone to fall in love with them.

Bennett

Bennett and Puffy

Puffy

Transformation....

One of our goals at Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary is to strive to raise awareness of the joys and challenges of living with senior dogs. In this post, I am going to discuss one of the biggest joys in fostering or adopting a senior dog which is watching and being a part of the transformation from sad shelter, stray or neglected dog to happy family dog.
Here are a few of our shining stars so far:

LEO

Leo 3/16/12

Leo 8/24/12

LAYLA

Layla 8/4/11

Layla 7/15/12

BANDIT

LUCKY PENNY

Lucky Penny 8/7/12

Lucky Penny 9/15/12

PRINCESS LEIA

Princess Leia 9/7/12

Princess Leia 9/15/12

An Old Friend's Retirement Budget

You may look at the ChipIns on our website and wonder where we come up with the estimated costs to care for an Old Friend in the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary program. We have given this a lot of thought.... the numbers for one year are based on the following:

1. Vetting: the average Old Friend will have an initial vet visit when they arrive. At that time, they will get a check up, all of their basic vetting, shots and preventatives. There will often be a problem to address at this time:
estimated cost $130
2. Preventatives: we use Trifexus for heartworm and flea protection. It is given monthly.
total cost $120
3. Two follow up vet visits during the year. Some will have none, some will be back 3 or more times. Lucky Penny had a visit just last week for a urinary tract infection.
estimated cost: $200
4. Medications: many of our old Friends are on some type of medication or another. Very few are on nothing at all.
estimated cost: $240
5. Food: we feed Nature's Select because it is a good quality food and they give us a good discount as well. (plus, as an added bonus, they deliver)
approximate cost: $250
6. Extra food, treats, etc: $150

Total cost estimate: and this is very conservative. I have not added in anything that would be out of the ordinary for any senior and/or disabled dog that we take in.

$1060 per year

This is why our ChipIns are set at $1000 for a year's costs for a dog in our program.
We also rely heavily on general donations to pay for general supplies and maintenance.

Please Donate... as much as you can or want to. Every bit helps. We have so many plans for the future but can not proceed without your help.
So.....here's a link to donate to our general fund. If you would like to donate to a specific dog, please go to our website click here to Sponsor an Old Friend
 

All of the donations made to Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary go to the care of dogs who were brought into our program after April 2012. We have already committed to taking care of the needs of the dogs who were here before that time.

Princess Leia - the dog previously known as Yoda..

Yesterday morning, three separate people asked if we could help "Yoda" a poor dog who was only looking for a place to live out his last days in a comfortable place. It was truly a hospice case, but that is what we do, and we felt particularly strongly that we should check on this boy. Bandit's foster Dad had even offered to help with fostering if necessary... we knew that we couldn't say no.
Here is the photo and description that we responded to:

This old boy is going to live his last days @ Greenbrier Animal Control....

We braced ourselves for the worst. At the very least, we would be able to give him a comfortable place to rest his head for those last days. We hoped that it would be better than that.
At Greenbrier Animal Control, we met one of the truly good people in this world. Randy, the sole animal control officer in Greenbrier, TN met us at the shelter in the midst of a bad day and between multiple emergencies.  Randy not only maintains the day to day operations of this small, capacity 10 dogs, animal shelter, but has worked to develop a network of rescues and volunteers that has resulted in only one euthanasia this year. Because of limited resources and horribly high counts of owner surrenders, strays and other homeless dogs, rural animal controls have traditionally had the highest kill rates of any of the shelters. The successes of Randy and the network who works with Greenbrier AC, are incredible and commendable. Yoda would have, that very day, have been the second euthanasia of the year.
When we met "Yoda" who had up until yesterday been laying on the concrete floor, "he" was standing at the door of his kennel waiting for us. Good start....Randy immediately realized that a mistake had been made and that Yoda was indeed a female. Keeping with the Star Wars theme, we renamed her Princess Leia.
We thought that we would have to carry her to the car, but when we put a leash on her, she followed us right to the car and Randy helped her in. She remained passive and non-agressive. We noticed that poor Princess Leia had some serious issues. Her eyes were covered with a white shroud and only a slit of pupil showed, she had scars and sores all over her body, she was very slow and cautious and behaved strangely with labored breathing and strange periods of extended spacing out. On the ride to OFSDS, she curled up in the foot well behind the passenger seat of the car and waited...
When we arrived at our final destination, Princess climbed resignedly out of the car. She was easily led into our recovery room and spent the next hour or so checking out her new digs. She would walk around the perimeter of the room, then would sniff (but not drink) at her water bowl and then sniff (but not eat out of) her food bowl. She made several of these rounds of the room. Soon after we took her for a walk around the yard then she went back and tried to get some sleep.

first walk through the yard

look at her poor eyes....

Her first attempt at sleep

I wrapped a comforter around her and gave her a toy and she slept

This morning, Princess woke up better than yesterday. She went out for a short walk and walked around her room some more. In the late morning we took her to see Dr. Benner to find out what was really going on.....
The news was much better than we had anticipated! Yes, Princess is not perfect. She was covered in fleas, has hookworm. Dr B feels that he reason that her eyes look so bad is because she is severely dehydrated and her third eyelid (dogs have them, we don't) is covering her cornea to protect it. She got SubQ fluids while she was there (and we got a lesson in SubQ fluids that may come in handy some day), de-flea, and wormer and came back with antiobiotics, steroids and more wormer. We are waiting on shots, preventatives and spay until she is stronger. She is probably middle-aged rather than a senior citizen.
Although we do not want to focus on what was in favor of focusing on what can be, it is possible that this poor girl was a bait dog or had had been attacked by another animal in her recent past.

eyes are still bad, but we are hoping they get better soon

she is actually starting to enjoy her walks

Tonight, Princess took her walk and peed while she was walking, a first. She has eaten two hot dogs today (one with hidden antibiotics), but will still not eat her food. She is friendly and seems to love the company of humans. We are thrilled with the progress of this "hospice" dog.