Ears, eyes and lacerations, oh, my!!

Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch

Ears, eyes and lacerations, oh, my!!

Whew, what a week we had at the Lab Ranch! I hosted the Amplify Austin party on Wednesday where you lovely donors raised over $30,000 for Heart of Texas Lab Rescue! I was able to raise nearly $600 towards this amount.

I raised how much?

Thank you so much to the following amazing people who donated to my campaign to "Save all the damn dogs" (plugging our amazing volgger Rachel here).

• Courtney Dean and Louie
• Chitra and her amazing Dolph and Freeda
• Wendy, Marc and Lucy
• Shelby Rank and her two pups
• Donna Hopson and both labs
• Carton and Sharon Dillard
• Kari Beggs and Toons
• Ashley Feibleman-the very first person to donate to my page!

Check out my video of my reaction when I was told how much I raised!!

https://www.facebook.com/melinda.biggs/videos/10211533119338834/

Again, thank you all!

Now, on to ears, eyes and lacerations! Boy, what in the world am I talking about? Yes, I have eyes and ears but no lacerations, thank goodness. However, the dogs that come to the ranch tend to come with a number of medical issues that have to be treated before they are ready for adoption. This means lots of money spent at the vet trying to figure out what is wrong, getting the medicine to treat the issues and follow up visits to make sure all is good! 

Eyes.....what could be wrong with a dogs eyes? As it turns out, quiet a bit from dry eye to cataracts and corneal ulcers. From drops to surgery, these conditions can require a lot of time and money to correct. Currently, our lovely Nona, a 9 year old yellow female, has dry eye that was left untreated for so long that it has caused a secondary condition that makes it very hard for her to see. "Her vision is as if she is looking through muddy water" according to the vet.

My mom, Stephanie, putting eye drops in Nona's eyes. 

Ears, oh ears! Everyone with a lab understands the ear issues labs live with. Currently, we have three dogs with either yeast, bacteria or both in their ears and need daily medicine. Our shy boy, Timber, is so freaked out about getting his ear meds my mom has to give him a spoonful of peanut butter while giving him the medicine. This is why it is so important to play with your pup's ears all the time! Get them used to it. 

Also, it is essential that you treat the ears as poor Nona, who has spent her life with chronic ear infections that were left untreated, is now nearly deaf due to the scar tissue that has developed in her ears. This poor girl wouldn't be deaf if her ear infections were treated properly.

I am checking Garland's ears. Yep, she has an infection.

Lacerations.....So many dogs come in with random lacerations. Cuts from fences, dog bites, wounds that we can't even imagine how the dog got them, we see it all. Our lovely Libby came in with a gash that starts at neck around her left shoulder and wraps around her chest and back up to the right side of her neck. This massive wound wasn't treated until she showed up at the shelter. Thankfully, the shelter had a vet and started treating the wound immediately (HOTLR can't get a dog out of a shelter until the stray hold of 3 days is over). 

 

Libby's wound on her chest and neck.

Our newest momma Cleo came to the shelter missing part of her foot. 

Maybe from being caught in a trap!

Beyond lacerations, we see many dogs with skin issues. Most recently have had bacteria or yeast infections in their skin requiring two baths a week with a special shampoo. While most labs love water, few want to stand patiently while being bathed. Where is the fun in that? They want to run and play in the water and want nothing to do with keeping the shampoo on their skin for 10 minutes!

JD bathing Nona

Boy, taking care of all of these issues (and more) on the foster pups at the Dog Ranch is exhausting! I better go take a nap!

Phew, life at the Dog Ranch is exhausting!

A week in the life of Bodhi

Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch!

Boy, what a week it has been! This girl has been crazy busy with meet & greets, group presentations, caring for the dogs AND planning a fundraising event. Whew!! I am going to start sleeping all the way through the night if I keep this pace up. I am pretty sure my parents would be more than happy if I decided to quit waking up three times a night, but a girl has to check on her pups, you know?!

London and I on our walk-a-bout around the dog ranch.

To start off the week, I hosted 11, yes, 11, families for a meet and greet! It was amazing, everyone met our amazing pups and I got to dance with a couple of people and waved to everyone that said "hi." I am getting pretty good waving at people. In the end, 10 families adopted HOT Lab dogs from the meet and greet, including long stay Marin and two of the four chocolate explorer pups!

Donna, a new foster for HOT Lab, and I at the meet and greet.

Then, I helped Margaret, our Board President, host a group of employees from Superior Health Plan at the dog ranch. These employees works on marketing and website development and has decided to adopt HOT Lab! Usually, we meet people who want to adopt a pup, but they like us so much they are adopting our whole group! This means they will be helping us with our website and marketing pieces! Boy, I was so very happy to hear this everyone got sloppy kisses from me and the dogs. 

Here I am with Superior Health and Columbus, one of the chocolate explorer pups.

I rounded off the day with dinner at Farm to Fork in Leander to celebrate my mom, Melinda's, birthday. Rachel, the greatest foster ever, came, too, bringing along my favorite person in the world, her husband Mikey! I got to try his sweet potatoes, so much better than Gerber's, and some quinoa, also quite enjoyable. The best part was I tried whip cream for the first time and let me say, where has that been my entire life?? That is the best stuff ever, so good I never wanted to go to sleep, as I might forget the taste. 

Rachel and I at Farm to Fork, it is great, you should try it! Locally owned.

Then, over the weekend, I worked very hard to help everyone plan the upcoming Amplify Austin happy hour at the Dog Ranch on Thursday, March 2! This place needs to sparkle and the dogs need to shine (the recent rain/mud isn't helping much when it comes to clean pups). This is going to be a fabulous event, hosted by me and the HOT Lab board, full of great conversations, tours around the ranch and plenty of puppy kisses. 

The party is in support of HOT Lab's participation in Amplify Austin, which is a 24-hour online fundraising event where local nonprofits combine forces to encourage our community to donate locally. HOT Lab is trying to raise $50,000 so we can break ground on the new indoor/outdoor kennel building we are hoping to have up and running by the end of the year. This building will help us keep the dogs cool on the hot summer days and dry on the random rainy days. It will also allow us to take in more sick dogs that need quarantine and pregnant momma dogs as we will have a whelping rooms. 

 This is my best "pleading eyes" face to encourage donations :) 

I have made a link where you can go make a donation right now for the event. I have set a very lofty goal of raising $500, can you help? Please? If so, here is the link to use:

 http://amplifyatx.ilivehereigivehere.org/bodhi

Thank you all for reading and supporting both HOT Lab rescue and me! Please share the page for people's entertainment and to have them donate for the new kennel! You know you want to see me in a hard hat working on that building.

Bodhi

Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch---time to feed the furry kids!

Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch

Time to feed the furry kids!

Guess what?! I am now 9 months old. My moms can’t believe it. I can crawl and grab and I never stop talking. I will talk to anyone who will listen, though sometimes people look at me like they don’t understand what I am saying. Don’t worry though, I won’t let that slow me down!

I start talking the moment I wake up!

Another amazing thing about being 9 months old is I am now able to eat “chunky” food and pretty soon it will be bye, bye bottle! You would think finding foods for me to eat would be easy, but NOPE! My moms are worried about something called “preservatives” and sugars and boy, do they do a lot of research on which foods I can eat. Now there is some debate over something called “peanuts,” which sends their heads spinning!

I stole one of mom's cookies that grandma made her over Christmas!

But, the worry over what to feed your kids doesn’t just stop with your human babies, most people worry about what to feed their fur kids, too. I get it, how do you know choose between five bags of dog food that all have cute faces of pups and random veggies on the bag? Well, not to worry, Bodhi is here to help you!

This is all opinion from what my moms have learned over the years of research they have done, but if your vet says otherwise, listen to the vet! Also, this will only be on dry food you can purchase in the store and not raw food. I have nothing against raw food, but my parents say we haven’t done enough studying on the topic to add to my blog.

I like sharing my food with the dogs.

First thing to do when looking to see how good the food you are feeding your dog is to look at the ingredients on the back of the bag, the ones in the super tiny writing, not the ones that the front of the bag highlights. The very first ingredient you want to see is Chicken Meal (or any named meat like lamb or salmon, but meat meal). “Meat Meal” is the dry, rendered meat without any bone in it. It has the most protein by weight, more than just “Chicken” as “Chicken” still has water in it. Now, it isn’t a “bad” dog food if the first ingredient is “Chicken” (again, when I say chicken it can be any meat), it just isn’t the best.

Second ingredient for the best food should be “Chicken.” So, for the best food look for Chicken Meal, Chicken to be listed as 1 & 2 on the Ingredients list. The second best food would list Chicken, Chicken Meal. Sometimes there will be something else in between them, but you want Chicken and Chicken Meal to be 2 of your first 3 ingredients.

Look for a list of ingredients on your dog food bag.

Then starts what you don’t want. You don’t want preservatives such as BHA, BHT or ethoxyquin, bi products or “meat,” which is a nondescript source of animal protein, and you don’t want this for your fur kid. Also, try and avoid “mill run” grain (again not specified type of grain, just a generic grain), more than one type of the same grain (brown rice, rice flour and brewer’s rice) or ground or whole corn.

This may feel overwhelming and will make your head spin. With that in mind, I am including a couple of links that rates most brands of dog food. This will allow you to quickly look up the type of food you are feeding and see its quality. Don’t be fooled that spending more on dog food means you are getting a higher quality food, nor the foods that are most popular are healthier. There are several foods that are mid-range price and not popular at all but are a great brand of food to feed.

If you find your food isn’t listed on their rating scale, they also have provided the actual rating scale so you can rate the food for yourself.

http://www.lonesumdranchsaddlery.citymax.com/releases/release/7074548/20274.htm

http://www.petfoodratings.org/quick-dog-food-reference-table/

One other note, my mom likes to say, “You can live perfectly fine off of sirloin and don’t need a filet minion.” What this means is if you can’t afford the bag of food that costs $60 for 35 pounds, your dog will be just as healthy if you find an A rated food that costs $35 for 35 pounds. If you need help finding a food that fits into your budget and is highly rated, let me know!

Dreaming of steak for dinner!

If you find you are needing to change your dog food to a better food the best rule of thumb for the switch is:

Week 1: ¾ old food, ¼ new food

Week 2: ½ old food, ½ new food

Week 3: ¼ old food, ¾ new food

Week 4: all new food

This progression allows the dog’s stomach to slowly adjust and not have an upset tummy. If, however, you are switching to a fairly comparable quality food most pups can handle a faster switch. If, you decide to switch foods AND proteins (used to feed Chicken based foods and now you are going to feed Salmon) and your dog has diarrhea for a while, he or she may be allergic to the new protein, so keep an eye on your pup’s poo!

Labs eat A LOT of food!

Well, that is all from me for now! I am off to try to figure out how to get that darn spoon in my mouth by myself! It’s proven to be more difficult than my parents make it look.

See you next week!

Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch

Q & A Session!

Hello fellow lab lovers!

Today I am answering a couple of questions I have been asked by Hot Lab supporters.

1.  Who the heck are you, Bodhi?

Good question. I am a 9^th month old little girl that lives at the Hot Lab property I lovingly call “The Dog Ranch.” My parents and I live at The Dog Ranch along with our four dogs, three cats and whatever homeless lab needs a warm place to stay until a foster home or forever home becomes available.

2.      How many dogs are in the program at one time?

     Well, this seems to vary depending on how much free time our volunteers have to drive around Central Texas to rescue homeless dogs out of shelters. We tend to have between 10-20 in foster homes and at the Dog Ranch at a time. In 2016, we were able to rescue 138 dogs and found forever homes for 142 dogs. How crazy is that? We are all volunteers making a difference in a huge way.

3.     

          How can you help?

Become a volunteer! Sign up online!

We always need foster homes! The more fosters we have the more dogs we can save from dying in a shelter all alone. You can have your own dogs, cats, kids. Live in an apartment, house or castle! We provide the medical needs of the dog and you provide the food, toys and love! Heck, I got my first foster dog at four days of age, if I can do it so can you! Want to know more about becoming a foster? Email Rachel Fasaro and she can help you out!

Bodhi at two weeks of age.

We also need help walking the dogs at the Dog Ranch. We have a 1/3 mile loop that goes around the ranch, so fulfill your New Year’s resolution to exercise by walking the dogs waiting for forever homes! Don’t even worry about motivation, if you can get out to the Ranch, the dogs will drag you around the loop multiple times. Before you know it, you will have walked two miles. Can’t get any easier than that!

 Hailey enjoying her time with Nellie at the Dog Ranch!

We always need help transporting dogs to and from vet appointments, the Dog Ranch, foster homes and meet and greets.

Brennan visiting the vet's office.

Can’t leave your house? We need help with calling potential adopters to discuss the type of dog would fit into their family the best, call potential foster homes and look for sponsors and donations.

We also need help with website, facility maintenance, dog training, shelter “shopping” (finding labs at our local shelters) and fundraising!

Booth on his "freedom" ride from the shelter!

Well, it is time for my nap so I better end the blog for now. Until next time,

Bodhi.

Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch...Time for puppies!

Good morning to our fellow lab lovers,

We recently had a slew of puppies enter the Dog Ranch and I have been getting so many puppy kisses. Some are furry, some are fluffy and most are chocolate. The puppies range from dark chocolate to milk chocolate and some even have toes that have been dipped in white chocolate. My favorite stuck her entire nose in white chocolate! Her name is Prim and my Tia Rachel Fusaro, the amazing HOT Lab vlogger, is fostering her! Want to see how much white chocolate is on Prim’s nose, view this video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYHjtpbMEBA&feature=youtu.be

This past weekend we had a puppy party where lots of families came out to meet these puppies. 8 puppies were adopted by the amazing families that have been waiting a long time for all of the pups to be old enough to go home to their forever families. My mom spent a lot of time discussing socialization of puppies with these families and I decided to share her insight with all of you in case you are getting or just got a puppy!

From my mom:

For those of you who have just gotten/are getting a puppy, please raise this puppy as if it is going to end up in the shelter one day. I truly believe none of you get a puppy with the intent to dump it off in 6 months, yet many people will actually do just that. The fact is YOU own this dog (who will live 12+ years) during the ESSENTIAL part of his/her life. You can determine if this dog is people friendly, dog/cat friendly, scared or confident, assertive or aggressive. These behaviors are more important to conquer than any training ever is! People are willing to train a dog to sit, to walk nicely on a leash and to lay down, they are not willing to take a dog aggressive dog or people aggressive dog, these dogs will DIE in the shelter.

So, I ask each of you about to get a puppy, raise it as if you are going to dump it in the shelter, whether that is in 3 months, 6 months or 8 years from now. Do one thing good for this dog. If you raise it like it might end up in a shelter and you want it to get adopted you might find that not only do you bond more to this puppy, but that you fall in love with it so much that you would never, under any circumstance (including a move across country) would rehome your dog.

I have linked info on how to do this correctly. If you need more help, please contact me.”

https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/puppy-socialization-stop-fear-before-it-starts/

My mom would be happy to help any of you if you need to know more about socializing your new puppy!

The puppy party was super fun, I got to dance with lots of people and share their attention with the puppies. I got to meet the "man in red" right after the party, too! Next year I will be able to ask Santa for a present!

Bye for now!

Bodhi

Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch Introduction

Bodhi’s Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch

Hello fellow lab lovers,

My name is Bodhi, I am the resident mascot for the Heart of Texas Lab Rescue(HOT Lab). Sports teams get animal mascots and animal rescues get human mascots! I have lived here for three months, which is 1/3 of my life as I turned 9 months old on December 11th.

This is Tanner, a foster pup I live with, and I enjoying some quiet time.

If you have fostered, volunteered or adopted recently we have probably already met! My goal is to be as famous as Rachel Furaso, our amazing foster momma with the vlogs. For now, my plan is to introduce you to Heart of Texas Lab rescue from an “insiders” point of view. Share our secrets, pass along some training info (my mom is a dog trainer and I help her a lot with training) and introduce you to some of our amazing pups waiting for their forever home.

Murtaugh sending his love from his new home!

To end this quick, introduction blog, I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has visited our Amazon Wish List and purchased chew toys/bones for the pups living on the Dog Ranch! Boy, they chewed on those for hours and I actually was able to nap without one of them waking me up to lick my face. It was amazing and they were all so happy! 

Heidi enjoying a knuckle bone from the Amazon Wish List

Did you know that hot Lab is 100% volunteer run. With the help of your donations, these amazing volunteers pay for the food, toys, chew bones and medicines for the homeless dogs. Your gifts are always a welcome surprise and the dogs always let me know when the mailman is here, though he would rather not get out of his truck to hand me the boxes. Good thing I just learned how to crawl!

In the words of our amazing Rachel, have a beeaauutifullll day!

Bodhi

Five Things To Know About Fostering for HOTLR

Have you ever thought about becoming a foster for Heart of Texas Lab Rescue? One of the best ways to become involved with HOTLR is to foster a pup. It's one of the things we always need. It's been proven over and over again that HOTLR dogs that spend time in someone's home adopt more quickly than those that don't have a foster family. That's because these dogs need to learn to trust people again and how to behave in a normal family environment. That’s where you come in. When you agree to foster with Lab rescue, don't think you've jumped into a situation all by yourself. Keep in mind there is a whole organization available for you to lean on should have questions or problems, too.  Here are five things to know if you are thinking of becoming a foster. 

1) Happiness

Nothing brings more joy than bringing that pup home for the first day. Watching him or her come out of their shell and learn to trust and love humans again can move you to tears. It takes dogs typically three weeks to adjust to a new home environment. Some may take longer depending on their past lives.

You'll smile over and over again watching a dog learn to play with toys or discover the joy and comfort of a dog bed, or run willy-nilly with wild abandon in your backyard. It's equally important that you portray an attitude of happiness and enthusiasm when you're around your foster pup. Often, these dogs need encouragement and confidence to make them feel good about themselves again.

2) Openness

You'll need to be open. We like to say that these dogs are diamonds in the rough. Some may have never spent a night inside a home, or any time at all. Some may need to have their manners polished. They may need to be taught simple commands. Yes, even as simple as "sit."  

Some may be afraid of people or other animals or even certain sounds. These dogs are often not perfect. That’s why they need our help. Helping them overcome these hurdles is how we can fix them. So, keep in mind that your foster may not be the perfect Labrador, but you can make a difference.

3) Tears

Be prepared to shed a few tears. There is little doubt that these guys won't work their way into your heart. You may experience tears of sorrow should you know anything about their terrible backgrounds. You may experience tears of compassion when you realize they are in pain either physically or emotionally. You may experience tears of bittersweet sadness when your foster pup that you've loved and worked with so much finds his forever family. Just try to keep in mind that you are merely dog-sitting and providing some training in life skills for someone else's dog. It's not easy, I know.

4) Love
Be prepared to fall in love. You wouldn't sign up for fostering a pup if you didn't feel a certain draw to the cause. The cool thing about any animal that you grow close to is their unique personality and the special things they do to show us their character. That's why you become so attached. Each one is special and when you care for a dog day after day and they begin to behave in a way that is unique to who they are, that's when you fall in love. Don't forget that the human heart has an unlimited capacity to fall in love. Even when your current foster leaves for her new home, there's another waiting to enter your life and make you fall in love all over again.

5) Reward

Most folks don't sign up to be a foster for the reward, but it's an inherent part of becoming a foster and a hook that once you feel take hold is not easy to give up. The reward combines all of the other emotions described above into one. The reward is the happiness you bring to a foster dog and that the foster brings to you. The reward is how your heart feels when you open it to one of these dogs. The reward is the tears of joy and laughter your foster brings you, or the tears of happiness the adoptive family spills when they come to pick up their new dog. The reward is the unlimited capacity to love these unwanted dogs over and over again and the love they will always give back to you. That is both the reward and the miracle of fostering. Don't you think one of our dog's needs you? We think so. If you are interested in learning more about fostering for Heart of Texas Lab Rescue, please email our volunteer coordinator, Audrey Huntsberger at volunteerforlabrescue@gmail.com.