About Our Dogs

It's no secret that my husband and I love dogs and we are willing to do anything for our dogs. Here, let me introduce you to our family.

This is our only female, Lucy. She is a border collie/Irish setter/Australian shepherd mix and is seven years old. We took her in from a relative who rescued her from a shelter. She is the mother figure of our family. She likes to keep the peace among her brothers. If she is uncomfortable with a situation, she will plant herself in the middle of it to put a stop to things. She is a senior now and not moving as much as she used to. Her favorite activities are eating and sleeping. Sometimes she will tolerate play time with Nitro, but she lets him know when she's had enough.

Here is our second dog, our first official rescue, Nitro. He is about a year and a half old. We were told that he was a American bulldog when we got him, but clearly he is not. Watching him grow and seeing his love for running, we've decided that he is some sort of whippet/boxer/terrier mix. He is VERY active and we joke that he is ADHD. He loves barking and chasing the neighbor dogs up and down the fence. He is very smart even though he likes to pretend he isn't. He loves his sister Lucy and relies heavily on her as she taught him good canine manners. As active as he is, he can be very gentle with small dogs. He loves to play with his cousin Clover, a tiny teacup chihuahua, and his brother Bolt, a chihuahua/terrier mix. While Nitro is sweet and active, he had a long road last year when he developed a luxating patella (dislocating knee cap). We had surgery in October after deciding the knee was causing him too much discomfort and affecting his daily activities. We had a rough recovery, having burst our stitches three days post-surgery, but we are happy to say that he has fully recovered and the knee is better than before. His other knee cap has dislocated about three times since he had surgery, but it isn't happening often enough to affect him. If it happens more frequently we will have the surgery performed on the other knee.

We welcomed Indy into our home this last Friday. As far as we can tell, he is a full-blooded boxer, though he could have another bully mixed in there, like a pit or an American bulldog. He is about nine months old. From what we know, he came into the shelter as a stray. He was going to be put to sleep because they suspected he had an upper respiratory infection. He is sick with some sort of upper respiratory infection, but it is not incurable and we are positive that he will make a full recovery. From the looks of him we think he was on the streets for awhile. He was malnourished and because of that his growth is stunted. Your average male boxer is about 70lbs full-grown, Indy will be lucky if he reaches 50lbs. So far he is getting a long very well with Lucy and Nitro, though he appears to have some trouble around small animals. He is quite taken with Lucy and follows her everywhere. He wants to play with her, but she doesn't want to play with him. We had a difficult first weekend with Indy. We had to take him to the vet on Saturday because he was having difficulty breathing. The doctor suspected that he had kennel cough and prescribed us several medicines to combat that. We had to return to the vet on Sunday and hospitalize him for dehydration. He had refused to eat or drink for more than 18 hours and was refusing to take his meds. We picked him up from the vet this morning and he is a completely new dog! He is playful, energetic, and just VIBRANT! We can't wait to see more of his personality.

Last, but not least, here is Bolt. Bolt is about 12 weeks old and he appears to be a chihuahua/terrier mix. My mother in law and I picked up from his rescuer. His rescuer's dogs weren't getting a long with him, so we brought him home with us. He was abandoned in a drop pen a long with some other pups. He had several bite marks around his body, but they have since healed up nicely. He is very sweet and cuddly. He is also extremely needy. Many times I have had to bring him to the bathroom with me. He loves playing with Nitro and likes to butt in when Nitro is playing with Lucy, which usually warrants a warning growl from Lucy. He doesn't seem to like Indy much at all, so we have been keeping those two separated. He has shown some aggression towards me regarding moving him when he is sleeping (he likes to sleep on me, so if I have any hope of getting things done during the day, I have to move him) and some food/treat/toy aggression toward Nitro. He also is vengeful. If he isn't having something done his way, he likes to "get even". He has been somewhat of a challenge to house-train. It's one step forward, two steps back most days, but we're getting there. He is staying with us temporarily and will be returned to my mother in law around the end of the month. So, that's it. These are my kids. We are all one big, tail-wagging family. Thanks for reading, but I must be going now. We have a vet appointment to get ready for.