Cleo

CLEO came to  Old Dog Haven when another shelter asked for our assistance.  We aren’t sure about her history but she has  permanent disfigurement and damage to her feet and nails.  CLEO also has a deformed muzzle, snout, and teeth on one side – it is unknown if this was congenital or due to trauma.

CLOE’s coloring makes her look like a Beagle, but on closer inspection we think perhaps she is a  Beagle-Pug Mix. She has the Pug constricted nasal passages, hip dysplasia and arthritis (her rear end wanders or hops around), and the base of her tail is buried in a deep fold of skin.  She is 10 years old and weighs 25 pounds.

CLEO had been boarded at a veterinary hospital until ODH could find her a permanent placement.  While there, a comprehensive exam and diagnostics were performed.  Therefore when she arrived in her Final Refuge Foster home, most of her medical issues had been identified.  One thing that was a surprise was that the morning she was scheduled to leave the hospital, staff found her uncharacteristically stressed and anxious.  They decided to medicate her for anxiety prior to her transport.

After the anxiety medication wore off, and being in a home where she could be closely observed, it was determined that she did not have anxiety but rather “attacks” of frantic itching.  An appointment was promptly made to see a Dermatologist to address her red itchy skin, and to tackle her severely painful and infected ears under anesthesia.  Now that those issues are being treated, she is much more comfortable and happy.  Her blood work shows indications of early stage kidney disease, but nothing that needs treating at this time.

CLEO is not a fan of exercise.  She seems barely able to walk when headed away from the house, and either becomes very stubborn about moving at all, or just stops and sniffs endlessly in one spot. However as soon as we change direction and head for home, she can motor along quite nicely.  One thing she is a fan of is sleeping in the sun.

Update: After about 2 months, CLEO started showing signs of rear-end discomfort and failure.  She was started on a more comprehensive pain management plan, and WOW off she went – we had a whole new dog, and she decided that running along was actually quite fun.   She also tried ever so hard to play with the other dogs, but neither BUTTON nor BUSTER would pay her any mind.  It became a game for her to jump around at the front gate and try to get BUSTER to play with her, then burst out the gate and run along grabbing at him (who only had to trot to keep up.)  At the corner, she would finally give up and stop to sniff and pee.

And oh the bunnies…she would chase them, sniff for bunny poop to eat, or bark at them if she saw one out the window.

CLEO could snore with the best of them, and had a vast repertoire of sounds.  Many times she would wake me up with a new sound, and I had to check to be sure it was her and not something gone wrong in the house.

I came to the conclusion her front end was Beagle, her rear end was Pug, and the middle was Piglet. At meal time, she would sit about 3 feet away while I mixed up her food, and then repeatedly launch herself at my leg almost knocking me over until I finished.

Her skin was a chronic problem that required medicated baths once a week to maintain control. After her Sunday bath, she sprinted around the yard as usual, then into the house to the cookie jar.  A moment later there was a trail of poop logs going down the hall, and I found her in the living room holding up her right rear leg unable to use it.  Xrays revealed she had dislocated her right hip. The ideal treatment option for a dislocated hip is surgery, but for CLEO, the burden on her other leg that would be needed for recovery, would have destroyed her other hip – she had far too much dysplasia and arthritis in that joint already.

The very sad decision was made to say goodbye so unexpectedly, far too soon.  CLEO was with Old Dog Haven for 6 months, and thanks to all the wonderful people who read her story and sponsored her, she was sprinting around until the end.  She was a love, and so very missed.