All About Andee

Four years ago, a routine stop at a pet adoption day led to our adoption of a sweet-tempered, gentle puppy, named "Andee" by animal welfare volunteers (after the lawyer who rescued her from an interstate ramp where she had been dumped at under 6 weeks old). Having a puppy around brought out the puppy in our ten-year-old mixed breed, Happy, and they quickly became devoted to one another and to the human members of their pack.

Andee has grown to be a beauty--people stop us in the street to ask what breed she is. Her rich, reddish-brown coat, noble profile, silky button ears and feathered, upward-curving tail make a striking impression. She's just big enough to be intimidating to strangers who hear her bark through our fence, but small enough to be controlled on a leash by ten-year-old Charlie. A few frightening seizure episodes led to a diagnosis of epilepsy after she was about a year old, but the seizures were quickly controlled with phenobarbital. She was a happy and healthy pet until we realized she could not get herself up to a standing position on Sunday, September 28, 2008.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

A sudden crisis

Last Sunday, Andee seemed unsteady when I let her out first thing in the morning. She hesitated before going down the three steps to our patio, and seemed to struggle coming in. She didn't eat her breakfast, and I realized that she had not been eating normally for a couple of days. Thinking she as coming down with some kind of digestive problem, I mentioned to the family that we should keep an eye on her.

As I left a local theater production with the kids, Steve called--Andee could not stand up by herself, and he had made an appointment with a veterinary emergency clinic. We raced home, and the whole family went with Andee to the clinic. Steve's posts to his blog, "A View from the Bayou" pick up the story to where we are now.
From here on, we will use this site to post about Andee's progress with her injury and rehabilitation, and about our progress as a family learning to live with a dog with special needs.

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