Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Infrastructure week. at last.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

You cannot shame the shameless.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

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It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

T R E 4 5 O N

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The willow is too close to the house.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Pet Bleg: Meeca Needs Some Assistance

Pet Bleg: Meeca Needs Some Assistance

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Scamp Dog and Meeca Pup

Last week, Scamp Dog contacted me and wondered if we could do a bit of fundraiser for Meeca. Turns out she’s going to need surgery and Scampdog wants to do what’s best for her, but it’s going to be a big hurdle. I’m posting this now, hoping for a quiet Friday night, but I’ll repost next week if things get crazy tonight. I’ll let Scamp Dog take it from here:

Hello Juicers! You may remember that back in mid-July TaMara put up a post  on a Husky, Meeca, who needed a new home. I’d been dogless for a while, so I went up to visit her, and decided to take her home on the spot.

Now it turns out that she’s developed a couple of expensive medical issues. I took Meeca to the vet because she was limping, and found out that she has a torn ligament in her right hind leg. Unfortunately, I don’t have any classes this semester, so I’m in a personal cash crunch to begin with. 

The next problem was that she attacked a neighbor dog. Fortunately the other dog was only bruised, and the owners were very understanding, but it still scared me, and I made an appointment with a veterinary behaviorist down in Castle Pines, south of Denver. Meeca’s been good with people, so aggression towards humans isn’t an issue. 

The vets think that part of the problem may be the pain in her knee, so they prescribed some more pain meds. The behavior part seems to be a combination of fear and predation, so they came up a fairly elaborate behavior treatment plan that I’m working on. Based on their report, I’m not as worried as I once was, but Meeca will need to have some more appointments to monitor her progress and keep her on the right track, so she and the neighbor dogs will be safe. 

The pain meds have been great: she’s been more mobile, and seems to be happier, too. I’ve been following the behavior plan from the vets. The quick description is keeping her away from other dogs, and giving her treats on walks to get her paying attention to me. We’ll be seeing them again on Monday to check on her progress and update the plan. 

To put some numbers on this, the surgery will probably be around $2,200 (there’s a more expensive version done by a specialist, but I’m confident of my local veterinarian’s office, so I think the regular one should be fine. The meeting with the behavior vets wound up being about $430, which is pricy, but we met with two veterinarians, a behavior tech, and a vet student, so I’m not terribly surprised. I’m guessing this all could easily exceed $3,000 after a series of appointments with the behavior vets.

So if you could help out a good dog and a worried human, I’d be grateful for your assistance! Based on TaMara’s suggestion, any overages will go to Big Bones Canine Rescue here in Colorado (their info here – note from TaMara: this is where I got Bailey and they are amazing, rescue both giant breeds and toy breeds, it’s adorable, and were so kind after Bailey left us -I donate to them fairly regularly.)

Here’s a paypal link where you can donate:

Paypal for Meeca

The picture at the link is the one at the top of the post, so that should let you know you’re at the right place.

Thanks for helping a sweet, 10 year old dog!  –  Scamp Dog

TaMara again – Thanks for anything you can do, as always. If you have any additional questions hit the comments or email me and I’ll pass them on to Scamp Dog. I have a business PO Box for anyone may want to avoid Paypal, email me if you’d rather do that.

Here’s my direct email: whats4dinnersolutions (at) live (dot) com

Reader Interactions

45Comments

  2. 2.

    The Dangerman

    I might have some Vet Bills upcoming for “Matilda” (Note: Still NOT my cat, but if the owner isn’t found and no one else around here steps up…) but will kick in some bitcoin before it drops any more.

    Also in the Pet Category, what’s up with Cole and Company and Florence? He was going to South Carolina, right?

  3. 3.

    spudgun

    @debit: They really do add up…I know I spent thousands of dollars trying to save my kitty before she died last May. I was definitely lucky enough to have the cash.

    I don’t have a PayPal account, but I am definitely in for some dosh, so as soon as I get the PO Box from TaMara I will send it out. Hugs to Meeca and Scamp Dog!

  6. 6.

    satby

    I had a bit of luck today, a potentially bad bill for the car wasn’t, so I can share a bit of luck with Scamp Dog and Meeka. Good luck on the behavior modification!

    @The Dangerman: have any of the car rescues gotten back to you about Matilda? The sooner she’s rescued, the better. If she needs help, know the jackals will be there for you.

  9. 9.

    eclare

    This is so weird, I clicked on the link to chip in, and all of a sudden Paypal doesn’t recognize my email address. I just donated to another cause maybe a week ago, I don’t know what is going on. I’ll email TaMara to get a PO box, and I’ll keep checking Paypal.

    Also, my dear departed Dante had doggie ACL surgery at four, and afterwards he was perfectly fine. Wishing the best for you and Meeca.

  13. 13.

    eclare

    @eclare: So weird, I had to setup my Paypal account from start. I used the same email address and password from before, and it had stored my physical address. Who knows.

  18. 18.

    The Dangerman

    @satby:

    have any of the car rescues gotten back to you about Matilda?

    Yes and no; there is a local group that deals with this kind of thing and I reported it (this group may be part of a larger entity, but the URL information was very local and very, very cool). They got back to me with some minimal information (i.e., they would do their thing and get back to me). I haven’t seen Matilda for a couple nights now so it’s possible action has been taken (and I told them I’d be interested in adopting … maybe … long story). She was very consistent on location and timing so I’ll go look again tonight (she picked a great location, which is right near the water, so … rough for me to have to go check with a glass of wine in hand.

    I’ll keep the jackals around here in the loop as this goes along.

  23. 23.

    Nicole

    Oh man, the CCL. Our rescue dog tore it within months after we’d adopted her (or it was already torn and got worse). $2400 later… which took years to pay off. She’s still a wee bit arthritic in that knee, but the surgery made things much better.

    Ours is also dog aggressive (fear aggression; she was attacked by a few dogs and is now pretty scared of all dogs). Dog-on-dog aggressiveness is not unusual; if Mecca’s not inclined to want to be social with other dogs anyway it’s generally manageable as long as you are consistent.

  25. 25.

    Wolvesvalley

    I just sent a bit. I’m happy to be able to help Meeca!

    The link is just to the opportunity to contribute — is there a link to the actual fund, so we can see if there will be enough to cover what she needs?

  27. 27.

    Another Scott

    Donated.

    Best of luck to you, and all the other Juicers with ailing or recently departed pets. It’s hard. :-(

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    Ryan, McConnell try to coax Trump away from shutdown, using props and flattery

    Via Wapo.

    House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) showed Trump glossy photos of a wall under construction along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) brought an article from the Washington Examiner that described Trump as brilliantly handling the current budget process, and portrayed the GOP as unified and breaking through years of dysfunction.

    Their message, according to two people briefed on the meeting: The budget process is going smoothly, the wall is already ­being built, and there’s no need to shut down the government.

    We are going to have a government shut down on October 1.

  31. 31.

    Princess Leia

    @Nicole: Mine has increasingly become aggressive- he was a stray and has been attacked 3 times by stray dogs while I have been walking him. Any tips?

  33. 33.

    satby

    The PayPal link works if you put in the donation, after you click next it brings you to the login screen and from there works normally. I was thrown by trying to log in before setting up my donation amount too.

    @CliosFanBoy: Continued condolences on Rocco’s passing. What Joe Biden said goes for our beloved animals too: “The day will come when the memory of the person you lost brings a smile to your lip before a tear to your eye.”

  37. 37.

    CarolPW

    @Princess Leia: My Puck was very shy with dogs she didn’t know, and I realized I fucked up the first time she met an aggressive dog when I backed away from the confrontation (my previous dogs were more comfortable dealing with that so it was an instinctive response on my part). The next time was when checking out of a motel when an off-leash bigger dog ran at Puck and I got in front of her and decked him with my suitcase. After that she trusted me to keep her safe, and never got dog-aggressive. Not necessarily the safest option, but I was willing to take the risk.

    She was always food-aggressive, but she wanted to be a fat dog and I wasn’t going to let her. It was our only beef in the 14 years I was blessed with her.

  39. 39.

    Miss Bianca

    Oh, my dears! Money is tight right now, but I should be right in a day or two, and I will kick in then! Hang on, Scamp Dog and Meeca – pain can cause very erratic behavior. Also, too, however well she’s adjusting, she just lost her home and previous family. Just based on the rescues I’ve done, seems like it takes a while – sometimes as long as a year or two – for doggie to really settle into the new household. Funnily, fear-biting other dogs was the issue with the rescues – not aggression towards people.

  40. 40.

    J R in WV

    Our neighbors took in her nieces’s bigger dog, D, after niece passed, probably from an OD. Neighbors on the other side have the other dog. D is a big Rotty type dog, who has a thing against other female dogs. Males are OK, females get attacked, no barking, no acting out, just grab them by the throat.

    So I took out the garbage, down to the county road, then went on down to the nieghbor’s farm to turn around. Our newer adoptee heard me close the car door and talking with P, the neighbor, and trotted down to join us. Their big Rotty attacked her, P the owner was able to grab his dog D and pull her off. I threw my dog into the car and headed to the vet. Kind of terrifying.

    My dog took about $500 to sew up, looked like a quilt, shaved spots, stitched seams, drains, antibiotics. I never asked the neighbors (who are great friends, would do anything to help) to kick in, they barely make the payments while wife and I have paid off everything, so just ate the costs. At least my dogs never go down there any more. Neither of my dogs are inclined to be aggressive, which is also good.

    Will kick in soonest! Best luck!

  41. 41.

    Scamp Dog

    As of 9:00 Mountain time, the total is up to $1,335 from 44 donations (assuming I got everything into the spreadsheet correctly; I will double check tomorrow). Thanks so much to everyone! I recognized a few of the names as familiar commenters and even a couple of people that I’ve meet at the meetups. I’m guessing we’ll easily hit the total needed for her surgery, so I’ll call the vet’s office on Monday and see about scheduling it.

    Again, big thanks to the Balloon Juice commentariat!

  43. 43.

    Nicole

    @Princess Leia: I second the suggestion to see a dog trainer for specific tips, especially because you’re dealing with stray dogs, which, I assume, are approaching your dog, not the other way around. I am a big fan of the front clasp harness instead of a collar (or even the top of harness clasp) because it gives you the maximum amount of control over your dog (and protects them from choking themselves if they pull at the leash). What I’ve worked on, and continue to work on, is if I see a dog that looks to be making my girl nervous I make her focus on me (pocketful of treats helps) so that she starts to associate “see another dog” with “look at the two-legs who feeds me.” If the dog looks to be non-aggressive and passes quietly I let her stare all she wants so she can see that not EVERY dog is going to attack her.

    And I’m always ready to put myself in between her and the other dog. Today some dumb f*ck was letting his dog walk with the leash dragging on the ground and the dog started walking in a straight line right towards mine (which tends to be a more aggressive approach). I shouted at the guy that my dog is terrified of dogs and to please pick up his f*cking leash (I didn’t swear out loud). He argued with me about it and let his dog continue to approach, but finally complied just as the dogs were within 12 inches of each other. Ugh. I give props to the girl; she stayed relaxed and finished peeing while I was yelling, but it’s been months of work.

    It’s tough. Dogs are dogs and a lot of them just don’t like each other. Mine clearly has something about her that rubs most dogs she sees the wrong way. Probably that she’s anxious. Canines don’t respect cowards. It’s great for people who like dogs, because she’s frantically eager to make every human she meets love her and cuddle her, but boy oh boy is she not popular with her own kind. I think she misreads signals from them and then disagreements arise (guessing she was separated from her litter mates too early and didn’t learn how to socialize properly).

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