Foster update

Sweet and petite senior Jesse is feeling good after her surgery last month to remove mammary tumors. The extent of the surgery required a longer than normal recovery period. She has been a very brave dog the whole time and can now be free of the hated neck cone and kennel confinement. She is running, playing, and bouncing with the other collies at the foster home.

She is wearing a pink ribbon breast cancer awareness bandanna her foster humans gave her so she can remind dog owners of the importance of spaying their dogs. Dogs are three times more likely to get mammary cancer than humans. Spaying a dog early in life can reduce the chance of contracting this disease by 95%. Spaying later in life can still significantly reduce the risk.

Spayed or not, please take time doing those belly rubs your dog likes so much to feel for lumps and look for changes in texture or coloration around the teats. Be sure to check in the crotch areas too. Early detection is key to having the best prognosis.

A huge ‘thank you!’ to fosterers Tim and Renee for their loving care of Jesse!

Amazing Sarah R.

Sarah with an MWCR alumnus (not one of the puppies mentioned here).

In January, Sarah Rebernick and her husband, Randy, took in a mother collie and her litter of six unexpected puppies. Sarah and Randy, along with their collies Rivers and Creena, made the new arrivals welcome in their home and began the journey of fostering and raising the puppies. During this time, Sarah did many daily loads of puppy laundry, made puppy gruel, took the puppies to the vet for physicals and their puppy shots, worked full-time, took care of her daughter who had emergency surgery after a fall on the ice, ran her household, distributed donated dog food to MWCR members in the Milwaukee area, staffed MWCR’s booth at the Great Lakes Pet Expo, and fulfilled all of her responsibilities as MWCR’s Vice President and as MWCR’s Adoption Coordinator. Makes me exhausted to think of the amount of work Sarah did!  The puppies are healthy, happy, very well socialized, and are transitioning to their adoptive families.  Thank you, Sarah, for doing amazing work for MWCR, for your dedication, and for bringing happiness to the new puppy parents. – Terry Libro, MWCR President

Traveling Like a Rock Star

Giving Piper a pre-flight pep talk.

Piper, a seven-month-old collie puppy who is recovering from a pelvic fracture, needed a transport from the Twin Cities to her foster home in Wisconsin. We asked MWCR member and professional pilot, Jim Ferlaak, if he would consider flying Piper to her foster home to avoid a several hour car trip. Without hesitation, Jim enthusiastically agreed to fly Piper in his private plane which is outfitted with a crate to transport dogs. Jim studied aviation weather forecasts to find the perfect day, flew into the Twin Cities with his friend Karl,

Piper, Jim, Carl and staff from Airlake Airport.

also a professional pilot, and picked up Piper who flew off to her foster home like a rock star in her private plane. As you can see from the photographs, Piper even had a group of fans at the airport to send her off in style. Plus, she was greeted at the airport in Wisconsin by her foster mom and another group of fans.

Piper’s Chariot

Jim and his wife Nadine, who also is a pilot, have generously flown MWCR collies in the past. Jim made this flight in honor of Lucy, their beloved MWCR collie who died earlier this year. We can’t thank you enough, Jim, for volunteering your time and services and for your care, dedication, compassion, and willingness to help our wonderful dogs.  Piper, too, thinks you’re pretty great.

Annual microchip check

Your pet’s spring check up is the perfect time to have their microchip checked to make sure it’s still active. Eleven-year-old Laddie is an excellent example of the power of this tiny tool – after picking him up from animal control we called the microchip company and they were able to tell us who this sweet boy was registered to! Sadly, after contacting his owner he is not able to go back to his original home but happily, we now know his age, name and history. Laddie is comfortably chillin’ in his foster home getting some veterinary care and lots of tasty food and seems very happy to be called by his real name!

Ginger Bear is available for adoption

Ginger Bear is a beautiful, sweet collie girl, with an immune system disorder which affects her skin. Her family sadly surrendered her to MWCR when their vets were unable to successfully treat her condition. Ginger Bear has responded well to a high dose regimen of Prednisone that she is slowly weaning off. Her foster mom often calls her “fuzzy wuzzy” as she is re-growing all the hair that she lost. Her first five years, living in North Carolina in a quiet serene environment, she had no problems, but moving with her family to Wisconsin (and a home on a busy, high traffic street) two years ago, things changed and she was plagued with bouts of skin eruptions and hair loss. Her foster mom is confident that she will be able to continue her excellent recovery with no, or low dose levels of Prednisone, and a life in a quiet, loving forever home.

Ginger Bear is a “velcro” collie. She absolutely loves her people and will follow them everywhere. She is friendly with all people and other dogs. She is house-trained and has wonderful manners (other than occasional counter-surfing and dog bone possessiveness), knowing sit, stay and come. She is a happy girl, with great energy for a 7 year old dog (D.O.B. November 11/25/09).

Her ideal home would be one that could continue to provide her with great care, good food, stability, low stress, and of course lots of love. Although she does not have separation anxiety, she would thrive in a home with someone there most of the time, as her greatest joy is to be with her “person” or “people”. She could be an only dog, or share a home with other quiet pets. She will definitely need a home where her outside area does not have exposure to cars, as she is car obsessed, and will bark and try to chase cars, which causes her stress thereby likely contributing to her skin issues. Ginger’s foster mom loves her and wishes she could adopt her, but already has four dogs of her own, and regular foster dogs.

Check out Ginger Bear’s updated bio and pictures! http://mwcr.force.com/apex/MWCR_AllAdoptionsView 

The photos show her now, when her skin condition was at its worst, and before, when she lived in North Carolina. A beautiful Collie girl, now and then.

This is an example of what we do with your donations!

Ginger was regretfully surrendered because her owners felt it was the best way to get her the help she needs for a severe skin condition. Ginger’s foster mom got the results of her allergy test and she’s allergic to quite a bit – including human epithelial cells, which means people. That in combination with the dermatomyositis (DM) is probably is why her condition is so severe. So the plan is to get her on a food she can tolerate, keep working on getting her skin better and then we’ll start allergy treatments to help her build up an immunity to the environmental allergens. If we can keep the allergies from flaring up that should also keep the DM from getting out of hand. Ginger says she’ll just take a quick nap while we figure out the details.  

We are all so thankful for your donations, allowing up to help this sweet dog.

Sweet Mia

Sweet Mia is still looking for a forever home, so if anyone is interested in adding a nice older lady to their household please let us know. She could also be a possible candidate for ‘forever foster’, ideally near the dermatologist MWCR uses in Minneapolis. Her foster mom, Joan, will be at the Minnesota Frolic, June 5, so we even have transport to the area. Mia’s bio is below – please consider making her a part of your family!

Mia was surrendered to MWCR with her companion Bobbi when their elderly owner could no longer care for them. Bobbi has found her forever home but 10 year old Mia is still looking for the perfect place. She has recently been diagnosed with dermatomyoitis (DM), which has caused her to have some skin issues. Mia had to have emergency surgery for pyometra (uterine infection), and since DM is a hereditary autoimmune disease, we think it may have flared up because her system was fighting that infection. Her foster mom said she’s starting to see new hair growth, so that’s an excellent sign. There’s not a lot of preventative treatment involved with DM, mostly a matter of dealing with any symptoms if they pop us and cause discomfort. We have had several members whose collies have had it and they recommend good food, some supplements and reducing stress as much as possible. Mia was recently at the collie frolic in Milwaukee and was a big hit!

Mia likes to look pretty and enjoys being groomed. Car rides were new and scary at first but now Mia is jumping in and out like a pro. Going for walks was likely also new and she seemed to have no clue what to do at first but is starting to get the hang of it and now enjoys walks, behaving better each time. She gets excited when seeing a person or animal on their walks, but passing traffic does not bother her. Neither does the vacuum cleaner – when it gets too close for their comfort, she will calmly walk away from it.

Mia is out-going and spunky for her age, quick to show affection and really enjoys being around her people. You can’t help but want to pet her as she will come to you to say “Hi” often throughout the day. Do you have room in your heart and home for this lovely lady?