My Dogs (FurBabies)
I have always loved Yorkies. My husband on the other hand, didn't!! However for my 50th Birthday, he bought me a 5 month old male Yorkie. I was in Seventh Heaven!! My daughter and I drove the 10 hour drive to Great Falls, Montana, to go and get him; and I fell in love with him immediately. As we were at the breeder's house, he was acting strange and she picked him up and told him that he was scaring her and to knock it off. She then fed him, and he seemed to be better. My daughter and I named him Scooter. (We now refer to him as our Little Scooter).
We (my daughter and I) spent the night in the motel before heading home, and I thought he was acting awfully strange, but then I figured he was probably stressed from being with new people. All he wanted to do was sleep! During the night however, he woke up, and just went crazy; biting and chewing and acting like a buzz-saw. The next morning, I called the breeder and told her that I was concerned. He wouldn't wake up again! She expressed some concern until I told her that he had been up during the night being crazy, and she said that was it! He was just tired from being awake all night.
We had a lovely trip home, and when we got there, my husband immediately fell in love with this 2 lb 13 oz bundle of fur! We loved him soooooo much. I noticed however, that he was a very finicky eater, but did as the Breeder had instructed me to do, and mixed canned food with the dry and also a little water, and warmed it all up in the micro-wave so that he would eat it, and that seemed to work.
Two weekends after I got him (Mothers Day Weekend) we decided to go with friends in our camper to Billings, our nearest city. We were just going to goof around and have a good time. We left on a Friday afternoon, and the trip really frightened him, and he really started acting strange........he wouldn't eat at all, and acted like he couldn't really get his bearings. His eyes were running, and he just didn't seem right; but then they are babies, and traveling was new to him. Still, I was very concerned.
Since I had found a flea on him about 2 days after I brought him home from the breeder, I decided to buy him a flea collar and just leave it on him for a few days to get rid of any fleas there might be. On Sunday, (Mother's Day) I did purchase a flea collar for him, and put it on him right before we left Billings for home. By the time he had the collar on an hour, he was drooling, couldn't see, and was extremely disoriented. We decided to take the collar off of him, and as soon as we got him home, I called the Breeder. At that point she told me that I was poisoning my puppy with the flea collar and to call the vet. I bathed him and gave him some Karo Syrup for shock, and called our vet. She said I had done all the right things, and to bring him to her first thing in the morning for a shot.
I can't go into all of the details here, but to make a long story short, this Breeder had sold me a sick puppy. After days and days of walking the floor with him night and day, the vet began to suspect a liver shunt; and after blood work and other tests, she was sure. She said my puppy would not live long....perhaps only a few days, or weeks. Not years, for sure.
That night was the very worst night, as he was soooooo sick. The vet had told me to take him off of dog food, and just give him cottage cheese and rice. It seems that dogs with liver shunts cannot process animal proteins, and so whenever he ate, he got sick. I was sure he was going to die during the night, but in the morning, he was better than he had been in days! (He had been off of the dogfood for about 14 hours at this time!) I was shocked. From that day on, he never had a taste of dog food again, but lived on a special recipe that I prepared for him.
He thrived on this diet until he was 10 months old, and then because he could not process his food correctly, he got very sick with bladder stones. The poor little guy suffered so much, and I still cry when I think about the pain he endured. The vet gave me some options, but then very gently suggested that I would be kind to have him put to sleep. There is a vet clinic in Wyoming that does do surgery on these shunts, but my vet really did not think, since he formed the stones so quickly, and also because of his extreme reactions to animal proteins, that there was much use in pursuing it. After a heart wrenching time, I went to my husband, and informed him of our options. He and I just loved Little Scooter, and kissed him, and Terry was able to say his farewills........and then I went back to the vet.
I stayed with Little Scooter until it was all over. I held him in my arms and talked to him and promised him that I would not leave him. I kept his body, but since the Breeder had ordered an autopsy, the liver was sent to Bozeman, per her instructions. We buried his body under a tree in what is now our front yard. I buried his favorite blanket, and all of his toys with him. I cried over him for days.
About 2 weeks after he died, I called the Breeder and asked her if I could buy another puppy from her, but she refused me, saying that she found it hard to let people who "Found it so easy to put a Dog down, to have another one!" I assured her that it was NOT easy to do, and then she asked me if he had been my 'human baby' if I still would have killed him. I could not believe my ears. During this whole ordeal she had told me she had another puppy for me, and then to treat me like that?? I was devastated. I would never recommend her to anyone.....Not because I think she necessarily breeds bad dogs, but because of her treatment of me in my time of grieving.
Little Scooter's liver went from Bozeman, to Cornell University, and from there somewhere in Florida. He did not just have one liver shunt, but as my vet put it, "A kazillion liver shunts." He was inoperable. So in putting him to sleep we saved him from several painful and unnecessary tests and surgeries......he would have died anyway. At that time the Breeder did refund my money, but I was not able to get another puppy from her.
Little Scooter...RIP
We missed Little Scooter so much, so 2 weeks after he died we got another puppy. We named him Scooter also, and as it turned out, he is now Big Scooter, because he is large for a Yorkie (nearly 12 lbs.) and has floppy ears. We love him so much, but there will always be a void left in my heart for our Little Liver Shunt Scooter.
Our Big Scooter, was even big when we got him, and by the time he was 12 weeks old, he was 5.5 lbs. But we didn't care. He was healthy and happy!! He made us laugh, and did so many silly things.
Big Scooter as a Puppy
Big Scooter as a puppy
When we lived in our house in town, Big Scooter used to love to stand on the back of the couch and look out the window. He would entertain himself by barking at the squirrels, the mailman, the dogs, the neighbors......the clouds....LOL Anything that happened to move!! Several times he would get so excited that he fell off of the back of the couch, and it made him so mad! He would come out from behind there with a funny embarrassed, mad look on his face. He was sooooo funny! He used to part the vertical blinds and peer out from between them.
Scooter looking out the window
When Scooter was a little over a year old, I got another Yorkie. We named her Sassy (and by the way, the name is very fitting!) She was born Oct. 15, 1998, and we went to see her when she was 3 weeks old. She lived in Lewistown, Montana, and it is about a 5 hour drive from here.
Wilma holding Sassy at 3 weeks........wasn't she sooo cute and tiny???
I got to go get her when she was 5 1/2 weeks old, because her breeder has to work all day long, and since Sassy was the runt of the litter, the bigger puppies were picking on her. We were afraid one of them would hurt her. I was sooooo excited!! I couldn't wait to get her, and when I got back home, I was careful of the way I introduced her to Scooter........after all, we had been his slaves for 15 months, and we knew this would be a shock to him!
Well, as you can see, we were right!! He was soooooo mad. He wouldn't let her get anywhere near to him, and if she did manage to get near him, he would lean waaaaaaaaay away from her so that she didn't touch him. He wouldn't even speak to or look at me!!
When I took her to the vet the day after I got her, she weighed 1 lb. 1 oz. You can see how little she was! What a sweetheart.
Scooter has always beenvery careful with her (even though he didn't like her), and he tolerated her for several weeks, until he finally began to enjoy her.
Sassy Telling Scooter How Things Are Going To Be!!
Thankfully they have finally become buddies, (even though she makes him crazy chewing on his tail and his ears), and they play together a lot. It's so much fun to watch them play!! Poor Scooter, she really puts a run on him sometimes! He is still patient with her.
Sassy at 2 months
Sooooooooooo sleepy!!
Still at 2 months.....So tiny!!!
"Now, Listen Here, Kid......!!
Christmas Day, Sharing A Christmas Bone
Mommie getting a kiss ... 5 1/2 weeks old
Sassy 4 mos.
Still 4 months........laying in Terry's Cap
Scooter at 18 mos. in Terry's Arms
Scooter and Wilma
Me holding Sassy in front of my Dozen Roses from Terry for our 34th Anniversary, Feb. 6th
She was nearly 4 mos. old here.
Sassy at 5 months
Sassy at 7 months
Because I gave Scooter a really BAD haircut, I don't have any current pictures of him. I will be putting some more in as soon as his hair is looking better....and that doesn't seem to be too far away now!!