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KLOEY'S STORY
Reproduced from an email with the permission of her owner, Quead Di llio
KLOEY came to our home as a foster dog named Cleo but er exact history, real name or true age were unknown. What we did know for sure was she had had several litters of puppies.
She had two broken canine teeth and a ruptured right cruciate ligament which had been neglected for so long that her leg muscles had deteriorated. Her knee cap was so grossly out of place that it was forcing her to hop on three legs and the Vet said that her leg had been like that for some time.
When Jackie Drew brought her across our threshold for the first time, she was alert, friendly and she entered as if she had just returned home.
Soon she had no intentions of being our foster dog ....... she had an agenda ......
...... and that included emigrating with us to CANADA!
Kloey came through her surgery with flying colours, walking on her leg the very next day, but her recovery was slow and painful as she had to be carried up and down stairs for the first six weeks. She also suffered from gastric ulcers which made taking pain killers difficult indeed!
As the months passed and summer approached, we realised she was no longer a foster dog but a family member but how could we take an older dog home to live in our harsh Canadian winter climate?
But ..... how could we leave her behind?
She was checked in at Heathrow around 9am and was in her travel kennel for the next ten hours.
She had left the 2007 flooding rains in England to arrive in the hot humid heat of Canada as temperatures were in the 30°Cs that August but fortunately, her new home was air conditioned!
Kloey's first Canadian winter was quite cold dipping down to -30°C with windchill factors pushing -40°C. We also had record breaking snowfalls totalling over 450cm!
She refuses to walk out the door when it is below -10°C without her coat which she patiently waits to have put on. Once dressed, she has the heart of a puppy, climbing large snow banks and dancing in the snow.
But life was still not going to be easy for this old girl!
She had to have her broken canines removed in 2008 as they had become infected and then she ruptured her left cruciate in 2009 but fortunately, this was not as bad as the right one because her knee cap was not damaged.
Another improvement was the development of a yogurt-like product for dogs, FortiFloro, which permitted her to take full doses of pain killers without gastric bleeding.
As we begin 2010, we figure she is about 9 years old and quite frankly cannot believe she has been with us for three years now! People are always surprised to find she was rescued in England and had travelled so far. She is a joy and we honestly cannot imagine not having her with us.
I may have failed at fostering, but I have succeeded at giving a deserving girl the life that she always should have had. To anyone considering adopting an older dog, I can tell you it is well worth it and although Kloey's earlier life may have been hard, she carried no baggage with her.
She entered our lives fresh and ready for adventures with the heart of a puppy and still prances and plays as if she is making up for the years she didn't live here, living the puppy days she was likely denied in her other life.
We look forward to enjoying several more years with her.
ROXY was a 15 month old bitch when she came into our rescue at Easter, 2010 in a very sad state as she had lost most of her hair, was full of roundworms, and had demodectic mange for which she was prescribed antibiotics, multivitamins and a special shampoo meaning that she had stand in a bath for 10 minutes every other day.
After a couple of weeks of this treatment, she started to respond although she would have to be on it for a very long time.
When we took her out for walks, she had to wear a coat to keep her warm, because she had no hair and there was nothing to stop it sliding around on her bare skin causing some amusement as it kept falling off meaning that we could only walk her a short distance before having to stop and put her coat back ON her as it had slid round UNDERNEATH her!
By the 22nd of April, her hair was starting to grow and for a couple of weeks she was scratching in some really strange positions as the growing hair was making her itch!
15th May and she was begining to look like a really nice boxer and becoming livelier every day. The white hair on her chest, tail and paws had really started to show which was one area that seemed to be taking longer to grow.
12th June and she was nearly ready to go into her new home which she did on 21st June, 2010 looking like a young lady with no sign that she was the very sad little girl that had come into our rescue three months earlier.
When ROXY came into the rescue, she was very quiet and walked beautifully but as she got better and stronger, she started to pull hard on the lead so we had to use one of our spare K9bridles to hold her which allowed us to walk her easily and made her walk like the little lady that she had become.
ROXY is now settled and very happy in her new home as the pictures below sent to us recently by her new owners show.
Here are just a few of our unusual and happy "doggy tails"
Normally, our rescued dogs move to their new homes and live very happy, uneventful lives but sometimes, a new home can mean a complete change of lifestyle for a rescued dog.
Below are a few stories of happy endings which we feel makes it all worthwhile......
