Odie last wk, a few days after his cherry eye surgery
Today we had The Family Vet Visit: vet check ups for all of our animals – 3 cats and our new dog Odie. Uptown Animal Hospital & Dr. Dickes really came through for us. We got an extra big exam room, we got a vet assistant who was great with holding and comforting our animals during the exam procedures, and thorough and efficient desk staff. Our vet Dr. Dickes is very knowledgeable and we trust his expertise completely. He has a great bedside manner with our pets and us, and definitely allows time for our questions. He even took the time to recommend this website The Ohio State Indoor Cat Initiative as a resource for cat info.
We had all the cat carriers out for a few days to acclimate the cats to them
I have always heard great things about the various other vets at the Uptown Animal Hospital and the overall pricing there, which is very important since if there’s ever an emergency and we need to see another vet in the office, I know I’ll be in good hands. You would think that with four pets we would have had to pay an arm and a leg to get them all check ups. We didn’t. For vaccinations and nail trims for all three cats (1yr rabies for 3, 3yr distemper for 2), an eye exam for one cat, an eye exam for our new dog Odie (who got cherry eye surgery last week) & a fecal test, we got out of there for under $400. (Odie already had his vaccinations.) I think Uptown Animal Hospital, relatively speaking, is great for affordable high quality vet care & I’ll definitely be “yelping” them today! 🙂
Father & Son Photo: Lorenzo w/our new canine son Odie
Lorenzo and I have been soul searching about adding a canine son or daughter to our family. Our old dog Barney is with us in spirit, but not body, since he passed away under doctor’s care 12/1/10 at almost 14 years of age. We wanted a mid size or small rescue dog. Above all we wanted a dog whose spirit was very kind and gentle and agreeable towards all living things, a buddha dog. 🙂 Yesterday we found our buddha dog, and he is now our son, peacefully dozing on our floor as I type this. His name had been Otis, but we have renamed him to Odie, after cartoon Garfield’s doggie friend. It’s only right, since Lorenzo is a cartoonist.
Odie was in a shelter in Kenosha, WI. We learned about this shelter through Petfinder.com, which is a website where most rescues and shelters nationwide list their pets available for adoption. I also searched several area rescue’s websites that I know personally through my animal welfare volunteering in years past, and present day donations here and there. I showed my husband a photo of one shelter dog whose photo and description moved me who was in Kenosha, WI. We then noticed that Kenosha, WI was only 55 miles from us and that they had three dogs on their site that we liked. We felt it was a sign, and that we were meant to go there. I cleared my schedule for that next day, we filled out the online application, and off we went to Kenosha, WI yesterday, arriving just as they opened their doors at 1pm.
Mom & new son: Me with our new buddha-dog Odie
Fate did all the rest. The original dog I’d noticed had already been adopted, the third dog we liked was not good with other dogs, and the second dog, now our son, we learned had been waiting for the right forever home for SIX MONTHS. He did have one brief adoption but they were not fully committed and/or knowledgeable, and brought him back. Right away I got teary thinking of all the “long timers” I had known or heard about at Chicago Animal Care & Control during my 3+ years volunteering there. It was just not fair that such a kind spirited dog had to go through so much, so he had to become our son. Then to further validate our decision that this was meant to be, the shelter said they had recently decided to fix his cherry eye condition by surgery for free next Monday 7/11/11, and would also waive his adoption fee since he was overweight. We had been prepared to pay any fees for our buddha dog, but it was a fun hug from the universe to receive such discounts. We have already spent a little of the leftover money on a very handsome harness for his walks, and he is very earnestly learning what is expected of him as we do positive reinforcement training.
You can look forward to lots of videos on www.BarneysHomeDogBoarding.com and blog entries here about him. Even though he’s only one day out of the shelter, it’s clear that the shelter told the truth, and that he really is great with all dogs and our cats and all people. All the shelter volunteers came out to greet us and celebrate that their beloved long timer was finally going home for good. I have already sent them an update with photos, and will keep sending them updates, to thank them for their faithful care of him. We know he will be a kind and welcoming host to my reading clients that come to the house, and a wonderful friend and gentle companion to the peaceful big-hearted dogs that we board with www.BarneysHomeDogBoarding.com. This six year old buddha dog is home at last.
