Amber
Amber, age 6
MATCHED
Amazing
Amber! That nickname tells you a lot about this girl, who is a poster dog for
overcoming difficulties with a big smile on your face and plenty of A-plus
attitude in your heart. An update for this spunky pooch is long, long overdue.
She’s been living with her foster mom and BFG (that’s Best Friend Golden) Maggie
since the end of May, after all! As you’ll recall, she arrived in care with one
hind limb that really didn’t work at all. Amber just had to lug it around, hoist
it out of her way when she lay down, and so on. At a vet visit a month or so
ago, a group of docs conferred, and they all said: “Amputate it. It’s just
getting in her way and it’s causing her some pain, too.” They advised that Amber
trim down a bit before her surgery, though, so Mom redoubled her efforts to
whittle that plump doggie waistline. Meanwhile, Amber was encountering another
bump in her road to good health: anxiety when Mom left for the day. We’re not
quite sure why she was stressing, but she was doing a lot of barking and a
little impromptu “redecorating,” too – tearing up carpeting, scraping at walls.
Prozac to the rescue! Meds have made an incredible difference in taking the edge
off her nerves. Now she’s able to settle down with her pal Maggie and spend the
day bird-watching, snoozing, etc. – and Mom returns home to no more disorder
than a few rolled-up throw rugs. Rah! By last week, Amber had slimmed to 75
pounds, so surgery was scheduled: on Monday, August 27, she had both her spay
and limb removal. How did it go? Well, as soon as she came out of anesthesia,
the staff had to prevent her from getting up and capering around. It’s safe to
say that she doesn’t miss the bad leg in the slightest! You can almost see her
thinking, “Whew, what a relief. Good riddance!” Her incision looks marvelous,
and Amber is all smiles. She gets around beautifully & can even go up and down
stairs without problems. (The bruising is to be expected, & that will decrease
as time goes on.) Since Mom has to work all day, lucky Amber is even doing rehab
with her own personal vet. Still in her future: heartworm treatment, probably
some time in September. Given how well she’s clearing all her other hurdles, we
expect nothing but the best of success for Amber!
Irresistible!
This auburn-haired charmer has a little something
extra—namely, an invisible tractor beam that draws everyone to her for petting.
She LOVES attention and nobody can resist giving her a pat, or two, or several
dozen. Her foster mom’s grandchildren adore her; and when the handyman stopped
by, he and his teenage son were quickly drawn into Amber’s orbit, too. In fact,
the teenager was so smitten that he forgot why he was there… foster mom kept
hearing, “Nathan, I told you to bring me that wrench!” “Nathan, where are you? I
need that bucket now.” Guess we can add “hypnosis” to Amber’s skill set!
Of course, if anyone tries to resist, she’s right there
with a nose or a paw to remind you that whatever you’re doing couldn’t possibly
be as important as stroking a sweet Golden Retriever.
Amber was picked up stray. The shelter knew who her
owners were, as she’d been in jail two times before. But this time, they elected
not to bail her out, freeing her to
come to GRR. Third time’s a charm! We’re all looking forward to giving her a new
life, and Amber herself clearly can’t say enough about the joys of indoor
living. She lies down on the cool floor or a soft bed, closes her eyes, and rubs
her little face up and down in bliss.
At six years old, she’s clearly had more than one litter,
and spay surgery is in her future. We’ll also have to address a few other
issues:
* For one thing, she arrived in care with a horrendous
urinary tract infection; we think
she was just holding it in way, way, WAY too long at the shelter. She’s on
antibiotics for that and is improving. (Foster mom is pretty sure she’s
housebroken; we suspect the occasional accident is due to the fact that she’s
still recovering from her UTI. Yesterday she made it through an 8-hour workday
with no accidents!)
* Then there’s kennel cough, likely picked up at the
pound. That’s resolving, too.
* Heartworms – nuts! We’ll figure out a treatment
timeline soon. One good thing is that she tested negative at the shelter on a
previous stay just 6 months ago, so we’re pretty sure she doesn’t have an
advanced case.
* Chubbiness – no problem! A healthy, lean diet and more
movement will take care of those extra 17 pounds (Amber needs to slim from 82 to
65 lbs.).
* Finally, as you can see from her photos, her right hind
leg sticks out in a strange way. That’s because at some point in her past, it
must have been badly broken; when the vets scanned Amber’s bladder to look for
stones, they saw wires in her femur, indicating a previous surgical repair.
However, it simply doesn’t bend. Anywhere. Amber isn’t in pain from the leg, but
it’s non-functional, and she mostly just “carries” it – yet still manages to
move from place to place at a fair rate of speed! The vet commented, “She needs
to lose weight before we consider whether to amputate. If it’s just ‘in the way’
or causing problems, we would discuss whether she’d be better off without it.”
Amber would love a home with kids. She does fine with
other dogs (in fact, at the shelter, she had two small-dog kennel mates, one of
whom lay on top of her!), but right now she’s a bit of an attention hog and
likes to bowl her foster Golden sister right out of the way! This may improve
with time, as she realizes there’s plenty of affection to
go around all the time, but she’d probably be happy as a clam as an only
dog—as long as she had lots of company. We don’t think she would do well home
alone for long hours. She’s good with cats, too; her foster mom’s kitty can
stroll up and sniff her, and Amber doesn’t bat an eye.
Everyone who meets this gal comments on just how sweet
and patient she is. She was terribly dirty and badly matted when she came in
(she even had actual mud caked in her ears), and required not one, but a series
of baths. First at the vet, and then at home, where foster mom used a mild
anti-itch shampoo all over, then added a special “intensive pantaloon wash”
using floral-scented “Fresh N Clean” shampoo. “I spent at least an hour bathing
and grooming, and when I was lathering and rinsing her and cutting out all those
rock-hard clumps of tangled fur and burs, I thought she was going to fall
asleep! She had her eyes closed and her head tilted back and looked like she was
going into a trance. She just loved all the attention.”
We
know there’s a family out there who will adore Amber and give her the new life
she so deserves! You won’t meet a sweeter girl.
