Diva

In a shelter, Diva was already a terrified little Miniature Pinscher with terrible teeth, but then was found to have diabetes. Much to her relief, Old Dog Haven rescued her as quickly as possible and started her on the long road to stabilizing her diabetes.

After screaming all the way home from the shelter, sure that she was being taken some place even worse, she settled in with her foster pug brother and sisters (becoming the “long-noser” in the family), and velcroed to her foster mom and dad. Fortunately she was soon able to allow us to leave the house without her, but separation for the many day-long stays at the vet for hourly blood draws have been traumatic.

Diva is a smart, friendly, happy dog (when not at the vet) who knows a number of commands and quickly learns new ones. Someone spent a lot of time with her in her past. She loves walks and car rides (although she “talks” the entire time), and wrapping up in her Min Pin blankies. We don’t clearly know (there were differing stories) about how she came to be in a shelter, but someone loved her at some point in her past. “Diva” was clearly her name and not just a shelter name because she responded to it from the first. She is still having a little trouble sharing her people with her dogmates, but she is doing better as she becomes increasingly secure in the knowledge that she is here to stay.

There has been some push-pull between stabilizing Diva’s blood glucose and taking care of her mouth. Her diabetes needed to be sufficiently under control to safely do her dental, but her awful teeth were having a negative impact on controlling her diabetes. Eventually it was decided to go ahead with taking care of her mouth. Fortunately Diva came through the surgery with flying colors, but in the process she had 22 teeth pulled! Healing from that has taken a little longer for her than we would have hoped, but soon she should be feeling so much better.

We love having Diva be part of our family and are so thankful for all Old Dog Haven has done for her. Hopefully she will be with us for a long time to come.

Update:

For 8 months Diva was a happy girl. She especially loved patrolling her yard, making sure all the squirrels stayed in the trees where they belonged. But then her body started failing her. A bladder tumor, poor diabetes control, possibly inflammatory bowel disease, and maybe Cushings were just more than one little dog could manage. She bequeathed her squirrels and her min pin blankies to her foster brother and sisters, and after a day of enjoying the foods she could never eat before, we all sadly said goodbye. She was a very good girl and she will be greatly missed by all who loved her.