Fostering

Since my Panda died, I've decided to foster for a while. My second foster (first was Daisy Mae) is Sara, an 8 yr old fawn dane with natural ears and a very endearing personality.

Sara, you're the poet in my heart

Sara of the sad, sad eyes and the body all curled up tight. How can anyone resist that soulful gaze?

Sara is about 8 yrs old, or so, and has natural ears with a nice perky set to them. We've got med records from 2003, where estimated age was 4. She is sweet and just as easy as pie. All she wants is some love and affection, a couch or a bed, and time to hang out. She's good with dogs, cats and older kids.

Sara loves the bed and feels that it is obviously the place where she belongs. She will gaze soulfully at you if denied, and then batten down, wiggle her butt and shake her head, staring at you the whole time, as if to say, "You must be mistaken, I'm sure I heard you wrong. But it's the bed, I...the bed is where I belong!" Eventually Sara will curl up on the dog bed and all will seem settled. Hours later, whilst you are dreaming of danes running amok in the fields, Sara will sneak onto the bed and fit into the smallest spot if that's what it takes.

Despite her sad, sad eyes, Sara is a happy girl whose tail wags with the least bit of encouragement. Part of this is probably her need to please, with all of the changes in her life, but part is that she is just a cute little girl who is happy to have attention and love. If she's curled up on an end of the couch and you approach and talk to her in a silly voice, her tail just goes a mile a minute in anticipation of tummy rubs and kisses.

Sara is also a smart girl. She knows sit and down and is excited to work for treats. She occassionally gives paw but I'm not sure what I do to solicit this because 'shake' and 'paw' don't work. In any case, she's happy to do what's asked of her, provided she knows what that is. She's learning 'touch' and will catch on soon. She initially was velcroed to my side and wouldn't let me out of her sight at all, even for a few minutes, but as the week progresses, she's loosening up a bit and will let me be in the kitchen for a full 5 minutes or so before she comes to check on me.

Sara has been excellent with my male dane, Tonka. When they first met, they played a little, although she was clearly intimidated by his size (he's about 160 lb). Now she's figuring out how things work in the house and isn't quite ready to play, but Tonka holds out hope.

Sara's transition to my house has been very smooth and easy. When I leave for work, she's gated in the kitchen but will soon have run of the downstairs. She's housetrained, eats well, seems to be a bit of a counter surfer (I just discovered this!) and spends most of her time hanging out and chilling. She loves walks and has been excellent meeting new people, although she can be intimidated by men at first.

Sara has several skin tags, including what appears to be one on her eyelid. She also has a few lumps, which is not unusual for a dane of her age. She's going in to the vet for a checkup and then will see a specialist to remove the skin tag on her eyelid, which seems to bother her. If she goes under, all skin tags will be removed.

Sara would be an excellent addition to a home who wants an easy, breezy companion. She will love you with her whole heart and will be devoted to you. She's such a very good girl, anyone would be lucky to have her. With the white creeping through her face, her pleasing personality and her soulful eyes, it's hard to understand why anyone prefers the cuteness of youth over the dignified beauty of age. Sara is a true gem.

5/03/07 Update: Well, after finally reviewing the vet paperwork that came with Sara, it seems her name is really Sera.What a much nicer name for a dog! Sera took a trip to the vet a week or so ago to see what could be done about her eye and the skin tags. Unfortunately, the vet also found a tumor in her mouth that she thought was cancerous. Because the location makes it impossible to biopsy without putting her under, we decided to remove the skintag on her eyelid and biopsy at the same time.

Sera went in for surgery on May 1. Her eye looks great and is no longer causing her to paw at it and bleed. She did take several days to recover from anesthesia, and her backend was quite weak, so she pooped without knowing it for several days. Today, May 3, the vet called to tell me that Sera's tumor was malignant. Treatment is intense and typically requires removal of part of the jaw plus restructuring. It is not an option for rescue, nor is it one I would personally choose for an older dane.

Of course, I couldn't leave Sera without a family to call her own, so I asked to adopt her. Sera fits in so well and is such a very good girl. She wil stay here with me and Tonka, loved and cherished for whatever time she has left. She can eat a nice natural diet--something she'll enjoy! And we'll play with her stuffie and cuddle with her on the couch, and she'll never have to worry about anyone leaving her again. i'll start looking into holistic treatments for her and see what we can do to prolong a quality life for her. Meantime, Sera is a joyous addition to our household and a welcomed member of our family.

Update 6/15/07: Quick update for Sera. We're trying a holistic treatment for Sera's melanoma called neoplasene. Its main ingredient is bloodroot and it's a black salve. Sera's first treatment was at the beginning of this month. Dr Epstein (Wilmington Animal Hospital, DE) put her under and injected the tumor with the salve. She had to make multiple entry and exit sites because the tumor itself was very hard and nonporous. She also let the salve sit on the tumor for about 14-20 minutes. Then I picked Sera up that same night--she was sick as a d-o-g for the first few days (lethargic, obviously in pain and uncomfortable, and not so happy) But she managed to perk up in time for guests that Saturday. And was a star throughout the gathering--going to everyone to be greeted and then retreating to watch with interest.

We waited 10 days. During that time, I was too much of a chicken to check out the site--I was so afraid it wouldn't work! Well, turns out, it didn't do much in the way of shrinking the tumor :-( So Sera went in for a second treatment on 6/13/07. Dr Epstein debulked the tumor (so that some of it was exposed) and then applied the salve topically. We're waiting to see how things go but keeping our fingers crossed. Meanwhile, Sera remains a joyous and happy dane whose tail wags a mile a minute when you say her name. She's happy to meet new people but seems skittish of kids (which is fine by me!) and very intimidated by some men--haven't figured out what the ones she doesn't like have in common yet She loves her new natural diet (raw meat, bone meal, veggie mix and organ/muscle plus occassional fish). She loves to play with her hedgehog stuffie and occassionally goes wild and tries to entice Tonka to play. She's just so darned CUTE!!!!

Update 8/21/07: Sera's days of lazing about the house are over!!Obedience class, here she comes! Oh, and Sera came to class loudly and reprimanding every puppy. She barked and barked and then saw our male instructor with a hat on and barked some more. I was taken by surprise since she is just the sweetest girl ever at home (you know, "I don't know what happened. She's never done _that_ before!") We stumbled our way through class-I'm not the most coordinated person when I'm trying to listen and distract her from the pups-and saw some improvement by the end of class. We were able to attend 2 classes (and Tonka and I another) before work struck and school was out. :-(

Update 9/4/07: Well, sad news. Sera's tumor has returned and is growing quickly. I'm not sure whether we caught this late, and the consistency of the tumor is indicative of the advanced stage, since it seems to be boney and brittle, but it's not the news we hoped to hear. In any case, we'll do what we can and cherish the time we have with the silly girl.

Sera continues to make us laugh and brighten our day. Tonka is quite fond of her, and will lick her ears and her butt (sorry, it's a dog thang!). He is also peeing right on top of her spot, unlike former foster Ms Daisy, to whom he couldn't give the time of day! I've finally found the perfect diet for her--chicken necks agree with her tummy, her poop and her discerning palette, while easing my concerns about bones being too hard to chew.

Over the holiday, I brought the pups over to my petsitters house to "play" with her 7 mo old rhodesian ridgeback pup. Now, Sera doesn't really know how to play appropriately and she's not always thrilled with puppies, so I wasn't sure how that was going to go, but figured it'd be good for senior and pup to learn tolerance! She surprised me by playing for 2 whole minutes with Magic!

Well, that's Sera. She's got her Suffi ways that are a mystery to the rest of us. But she's sure she knows the best ways. And she goes about life as if it is an adventure.

Sheila
Tonka (the fawn girls always leave too soon, why won't they stay and play with me?)
Panda (always in my heart)
Sera (I knew I would win them over and they'd love me and keep me

Final Update 1.17.08: This morning at a little after 9 am, I said goodbye to Sera. She had been very uncomfortable for the past two days and was licking her legs constantly (I believe this was comforting to her). She had stopped giving her very generous and frequent kissies and was eating slowly and cautiously.

For the past two nights, she had a hard time getting comfortable and either didn't want to go upstairs to sleep or had difficulty finding a position that was comfortable, although she continued to assume that wherever I happened to be sleeping would be the most comfortable place for her and insisted that I move so that she could lay there instead. Last night, Tonka was extremely anxious and this morning was whining softly, as if he, too, knew it was time but didn't want it to be true.

My Sera was one of the happiest, most joyful danes I've had the pleasure to know. She was always ready to go for a ride, always ready to give kissies. Her tail would quickly thwack against the couch cushions every time I talked to her, and when I came home from work, she would come tearing down the stairs, bounding to greet me. For Mikki, her favorite petsitter, she would wait upstairs, lazing about in the bed, tail thumping, until Mikki gave her tummy rubs.

My Sera was a raider-she loved to dig through trash cans to find special treasures to cherish. She would drag them out of the trash, efficiently transport them to my bed, and spread them out. I imagine she gazed upon them with delight, proud of her smorgasbord of treasures!

My Sera was a no-nonsense dignified lady, who reprimanded puppies for being rambunctious, and often took Tonka to task for getting too wound up when we played tug. She was outgoing and friendly, unless you were men of a certain type (which we never did figure out), and then she was all about business.

My Sera was a barker-she loved to bound out the back door, looking for trouble. If she heard a dog bark, even a block away, she would immediately set about drowning the dog out by barking louder and longer. She also marked her way-on walks, she would pee 4-5 times over the course of only a few blocks, making sure that everyone knew she had been there.

My Sera loved only her hedgie-hog stuffie. No other stuffie would do-she came with two and they were the only two toys she chose. She would run to grab her hedgie-hog, and then leap onto the couch and wait for me to take her hedgie and pretend it was talking to me and telling me how horribly she treated it. Then she would yank it hard out of my hand as if to say "So there! Take that, you tattle!" And then I would rain kissies on her bowed head and rub her ears, and her tail would wag and wag!

My Sera loved her Tonka. And he loved her too. He allowed her to rest her head upon his back, unheard of before her arrival. He washed her ears, and tried to sooth her aching jaw, when the tumor became too big and painful. He was protective of her and often could be found laying close to her or barking at her to get up and sit on the _other_ side of the couch.

My Sera will be missed so very much. We had 9 wonderful, joyful, happy months with her. She was such a positive force in our house, and she endeared herself to everyone she met. We were so very lucky that she graced us with her very happy self for so long. May she find peace and pain-free days-she will remain in our hearts forever.