New Puppy?

Jim came home a couple weeks ago saying he saw a flyer at Greenstar saying that 4 shar pei needed new homes immediately as their Dad had died.  Oh my. Oh my.  And this was Jim bringing up the subject.

We researched shar pei as all I really knew was they were the wrinkly dogs and got skin diseases because they had been bred for too many wrinkles.  Well they are lovely dogs.  Great temperaments, adapable, don't need a lot of  exercise, smart and only medium sized, topping out at 55 pounds.

I called the number and it turned out it was the guy's partner that had died.  He told me a long sad tale about his partner having heart problems, being disabled, having started with 4 shar pei, then an accidental mating and his partner insisting on keeping all of the pups.  Long story short, his partner passed suddenly in February leaving this guy with 9 dogs and grief.  He realizes he can't take care of so many so posted them for adoption on RescueMe and put up posters.  The dogs had no experience with cats but he said he was bringing some down from Rochester for a meet and greet with another person from our area and would get in touch when that was arranged.  We still have not heard back from him.

Alas that got me onto the rescue sites for shar pei.  Saw a wonderful dog in a Westchester Shelter who was not neutered and they wanted $450.  Nope, not for us.  Plus, Nancy, who runs Reverence Training, advised us not to get a shelter dog, but only one that was fostered so we could ask a lot of questions.

A couple days later I got another email telling me a shar pei /lab was available in NJ.

I don't know about you but I just couldn't resist this face.  And his name is Magoo.  How perfect is that?

So we discussed it and decided to wait overnight.  We actually waited two days but I just couldn't get that face out of my head.  Could you? We called the rescue people ( shar pei rescue of VA) and asked a lot of questions.  All the answers were great. He loves cats.  He is so smart.  He is being fostered.

The major hold up is that he has lyme and heartworms.  Well - we were told to fill out an application and get a home visit.  Application went in immediately and we are waiting on Cayuga Dog Rescue for the home visit.  Our vet gave us a glowing rec.  So we were put in contact with his Foster Mom.
 He actually is being fostered in VA, not NJ, but either place is approx the same distance away.  We were told he was going in for his first injection this week and then in a month would be neutered and then we could come get him.  That sounded like about 6 weeks which is a lot of postponing of gratification but his Foster Mom sent me lots of pics and a video so we could look at him and she gave us updates too.

Alas the protocol for heartworm has now changed.  The vet started Magoo on Heartgard a week ago and want him on it for 3 months before the first Invecticin Injection, then a month of quiet - like crated quiet - and then two more injections and another month of crated quiet.  Then if all goes well he then can be neutered.

Now we are talking 4 months.  We had the choice to take him now but we would need to find a rescue friendly vet and take the responsibility for his recovery.  We read up on heartworm and got really scared.  If he doesn't stay really quiet he can have an embolism and need emergency work.  He needs to be watched a lot.  I hate crating dogs.  Nancy says she wouldn't go through it again.  My sister says NO.  Then Jim said he just couldn't deal with the responsibility and tension.   So today I told Laura that we definitely wanted Magoo but would need to wait until he was neutered.  

Big Sigh  

I am a bit down after being excited for the last week or so and don't know now if our decision to wait will mean another family will take this guy.  Stay tuned.