I adopted a puppy

I was helping my daughter's Girl Scout troop at an Independence Day shindig in town and the local animal shelter was set up right next to us.

The shelter started to set up their booth. They had heeler pups. I love heelers and have wanted one for the better part of my life. I sent a text to my wife and told her I would probably be adopting a pup.

And at that price, who could say no?

I spent a lot of time with each of the heelers (there were 6 in the litter), but this one was the calmest and most friendly. She was also the first one that I spent time.

I did it, I adopted her. I named her too, Dog. Yes, I named my dog Dog. It was inspired by Max's heeler in The Road Warrior.

Max and Dog. While I have always loved dogs and for years wanted a Blue Heeler, it was Dog that I truly fell in love with.

It is tiring getting adopted.

A quick nap on the way to my parents house.

My younger daughter decided to put her in one of the cat's sweaters.

She is so small in the kennel (it is for up to 35lbs and she was 14 or 15 at the time).

Our first trip to the park together.

We only really had cat toys, so she played with cat toys like a puppy would.

Finally some dog toys.

The same day we adopted her, my wife also adopted a kitten (Sirius Black) who is asleep on the stool.

I quickly realized that naming a dog, Dog may not be the best idea. I didn't know if she would get confused when people were talking about dogs. She spent the next week nameless. =(

A couple years ago we also adopted my sister's cats. Her husband is very allergic to them. He tried really hard to live with them, but it didn't work so we took them.

Puppy and kitty. Sadly the kitty doesn't really get along with her.

Laying near the bird bath at my parents house contemplating this name issue. At this point I'm having a really hard time giving up the name Dog. Since seeing The Road Warrior I always said I would have a Blue named Dog. Period. The name was picked. Other names were mostly Iron Maiden song names. My uncle suggested Cookie because I adopted her at Girl Scouts and she looks like Cookies N Cream Ice Cream.

As I was leaving my cousin's she commented on the skeleton arm on my door.

The next day Noname and I were driving home from some time at the park I was thinking about the decal and then it hit me. Her name is Furiosa. I knew that was her name, it was the first time I felt emotion when I said a name to the pup. I know it sounds odd, but I really felt emotion when I looked at her and said the name. From that moment it has been Imperator Puppy Furiosa.

Trying on a backpack.

Making the name official.

Furiosa's new napping spot, at my feet under my computer desk (yes I have since moved all of the cable and covered them so she can not chew on them.)

Her new Frisbee. She bring it back, but would rather chew it then give it to me to throw again.

Nap time.

Playing in some water in our driveway. It was about this time I started noticing she was scratching a lot. And chewing on her limbs lots.

We went to a place called Bursom Springs. There is a large waterhole from a natural spring and also there is an arroyo that runs through here depositing water. This is very near to where I was bitten by a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake when I was 15.

Furiosa and my 1911 rattlesnake repellent (as my father calls his .357) oh yeah and that is me wearing the repellent.

I mentioned scratching and chewing earlier. It was bad, like we couldn't take very long walks because she stopped to scratch and chew so much. So off to the vet we went. He suggested adding some oil to her food along with some benadryl.

We were still working on puppy proofing the house and much was in transition into storage.

We did the oil and benadryl for a little over a week. May have even been closer to two weeks and there was no improvement. I was now sleeping on the floor holding Furiosa all night so she couldn't scratch or chew on herself. All of her forearms (four arms?) were bandaged because she had chewed them bloody. Her belly was bright red. I literally sat up one night crying because I couldn't do anything for my puppy. We tried bitter apple to deter the chewing (before the bleeding started), baby oil, sensitive skin puppy lotion. Nothing was working and I was not sleeping. I was a wreck.

Early morning selfie. She is wearing a bowtie from my sister (the one with the cat's) wedding.

She would be so tired after a night of scratching that she'd fall asleep in the middle of doing things... Like eating or getting pets.

Chewing away at the vet's office (this was actually the first visit when we started the benadryl, just wasn't sure if I had a picture of that day). I'd now had Furiosa 20 days.

When I first adopted Furiosa her ears pretty much just hung there. Then one day she realized she could stand them up tall and touch their inner edges together. Sometimes though her right ear flops over while the left stands tall.

When ever we're out and people see her the first thing they ask me is, "Have you noticed her ears?"

I want to get her a shirt that says, "I can hear you talking about my ears."

Back at Bursom Springs. When I went to the vet they commented on her red belly. I thought at the time it was just because we'd been to the river (no pics sorry) and Bursom Springs and she was playing/laying in the clay. Shortly after the vet visit I gave her a bath (sensitive skin puppy shampoo with oatmeal) and the red belly stayed.

How can you sleep like that?

We finally got this back pack. It is still a little large on her, but she is growing into it.

My daughter's dog Mocha kept running off (as she is prone to doing) and Furiosa was not having that. She kept bring Mocha back to us. (Yes I know Mocha is thin, she has access to plenty of food. She visits the vet monthly for tick medicine. She does not live with us, currently but is cared for by a good friend.) This was the second trip to Bursom Springs, just out of order.

At this point she was still itching a lot. I had spoken with a friend of my parents who have a dog that can not eat kibble. If he does he is an itchy mess. They cook all of his food for him. I was doing about 1/2 kibble 1/2 home made. I think this was just some gravy and a fried egg on some kibble.

I now cook her food 100%. This is very hard for me as I am a vegetarian. I'm not one of those, "poor animal" types. I just don't like eating meat and I really don't like handling it. But right now once or twice a week I cook up a pile of chicken legs and make a huge pot of food for Furiosa.

My wife thought it would be funny to give Furiosa the wrapper paper from her birthday presents.

My younger son and Furiosa tuckered out. Not sure where we had gone this day.

I do have some river pictures after all. The water is very low right now for irrigation. This makes me sad because I just bought a canoe and only got one river trip in before the level went down too far.

The aforementioned red belly. Not sure you can tell how red it really was from the picture. Also the patches under her armpits were raw and scabby. I thought I had her harness adjusted wrong, so I stopped using it. Turns out she was chewing there and making it bleed.

And itch free moment. (Mostly took the picture so we would have size reference of the tiles as she grows.)

My dad's cat died just before Father's day and we finally adopted a new one for him. Here Furiosa is meeting Tinkerbell (she came with a collar with a bell on it).

Tinkerbell was not impressed with Furiosa. Furiosa lives with 5 cats (3 kittens) and has picked up some cat mannerisms. Such as pouncing on toys (and cats) as they do. She also swipes and bats at things, especially kitties (they swipe at her and she thinks they're playing), Furiosa doesn't realize the kitties are between 3 and 5 pounds while she is 31 pounds.

One of her sleepless night, she finally got a little rest at 2:20am when I took this one (I looked at the timestamp, I don't actually remember what time it was).

I went out to visit a buddy I went to school with K-12 (he sent me to the ER more times than anyone/thing else in my life). Furiosa really got along well with his pup Annie. She is a Doberman Corgi mix. Until seeing Furiosa with Annie, we thought her ears were German Shepherd. But I'm thinking they're Doberman now.

This was our longest bike ride to date (2 1/2 miles one way). Thank you Pokemon GO! We got to the Raid and she passed out. I was there about 45 minutes after the raid was over while she napped. I thought I was going to have to call my wife and have her come get Furiosa.

Back at the vets. Told him the benadryl wasn't helping and outlined everything I was doing for her. She is now also on fish oil supplements and I cook all of her food for her. He tells me she probably has a severe allergy and talks about treatments for her. I opt for a monthly allergy shot while we save to get her to an allergist and/or dermatologist. In addition to the shot he also prescribes prednisone. He says the shot should give her some relief in about 24 hours.

Within 4 hours there was no scratching, there was no gnawing on herself. She was a puppy again. A tail chasing, break-dancing puppy.

She loves to dig nests for herself. This is her favorite on the north side of our trailer.

We went to a new park near my younger son's new school. She is smelling all the new smells.

Checking out a water hole near where we camp. (It was a place my dad visited for years but never camped. So we scoped it out as a place to camp with my Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops).

This is a an arroyo right before about a 15 foot drop. There is a larger water hole just to the left of this. You'll see that later.

My parents have a huge ash tree in their yard (estimated 400 years old). When I was 6 my dad built a tree house in it for me. In 2009 my tree house came crashing down. About a year ago a branch fell and crushed my sister's play house. I helped my dad pull the limb to the ground so we could safely cut it. While we were working I saw an antler I had found ~32 years ago was still up in the tree where the tree house had been. So I of course climbed the tree and rescued the antler for Furiosa.

We met a kitty sized dog at the flea market in town.

She slept on me at our scout camp out.

Sometimes she naps in her kennel.

Behind a little and to the right is the water hole.

The upper water hole is right behind me.

There are some petroglyphs here (I'll make another post of those some time).

Furiosa watching over the Scouts as they swim. She was swimming too, but I can not post pictures of the scouts.

Nap time after swimming.

Nap time after walking back to camp.

Checking out the duck pond at NMT Golf Course.