Muttville worked its magic again. Predictably, this handsome, friendly fellow got adopted in a day. Now known as Santos, he’s the first one featured in this video.

On a fuzzy bed is another picture of Zayla (fka Boobie) when she was hospitalized that I never saw until today. The medical image shows her bladder with three crystallized stones that have to be surgically removed. It must be so painful that she has to urinate past these, and they will never deprecate and pass by themselves, so surgery is required. HSNB has already invested over $5,000 in her, but at least she’s alive and well, and the meds are working. She’s had no seizures since she was treated and started meds that I administer three times a day. She’s so much cleaner and mobile now that she’s been sheared, too. The other two pictures are of her more recently acting pretty much like a normal, sweet dog.

Thank goodness this heavy breathing is gone, but this is what Edna sounded like right after her surgery. I picked her up from the vet without even knowing what she looked like, but knowing she had many foxtails in her mouth and ear and required stitches to sew her mouth back together.

Tomorrow we say au revoir to a special dog that came to us through my nosiness and diligence. Chaz was a big mess when he came to us, but he’s turned out to be quite the amazing little Pompom. He’s healthy and so much better dermatologically now that he’s had some TLC from us. I think he’ll be the star of the show when he gets to Muttville. He’s become somewhat velcro with me, which means that I know he can bond with someone else well, even though he lived his entire life with a woman who died recently. He’s so full of personality. What’s most special to me is that when he whines and gets anxious, he sounds exactly like the dog I had for 15 years, who was named Montague, or Monte for short.

Last morning with foster Lana before her transfer to Muttville.

Today I noticed that I needed to help my foster Jackson. I tried to dig between his toes to see why he was not using one of his front legs as much. I thought maybe he slept on it wrong or had been rough-housing with one of the other dogs, but it persisted throughout the day. I picked out some extra hair and some old burs from under his foot, but I could not find anything new that should have been causing him pain. I saw what looked like a little red spot or scar on the top of one of his toes, but I thought to myself that surely he would not limp because of something on top. Well, after looking at it carefully, I saw a tiny beige splinter sticking straight up out of the top of the toe. I gently brushed over it with my finger. He squirmed, so it was obviously the source of pain. Without moving him, I asked Shea to bring me tweezers. I quickly and forcibly pulled it out. It was a foxtail of some kind and much deeper and longer than I imagined. He let out a loud but short yelp. Blood and pus emanated as it had become infected and swollen, but he almost immediately licked it and lay down to sleep on my lap because he was so relieved. The poor sweetheart hid the pain so well. I’m so glad I was able to feel and see what was causing it, because I would have taken him to the vet if it didn’t get better, of course, but I’m so glad to be able to treat him myself. I’ll also apply some antibiotic cream so it heals faster.