What Happened to Ellen's Dogs?

I keep reading what an animal lover and all-around wonderful person Ellen Degeneres is. She's not. She has adopted then gotten rid of at least 6 dogs in the last 7 years. Maybe more.

From her bio at IMDB:

Has two dogs named Bootsie and Muffin.

September, 2003, from SFGate.com:

DeGeneres' love of animals is a frequent theme on the show. This week there was much talk of a large bird that has been threatening her koi pond. Next week, Bay Area fans can expect at least some mention of a dog she adopted during her recent Bay Area trip.

While visiting KNTV's Battery Street studios on Sept. 5, she saw another newscast featuring an Oakland SPCA orphan. A few phone calls later, and the 12- week-old female border collie was rushed to the airport.

The dog has since been adopted (DeGeneres is calling her "Oakland"), and is now a Los Angeles resident.

November, 2003. Lucy:

Ellen DeGeneres, seeking to pump up ratings for her new talk show, ran a quickie contest to name her new dog, an adopted shelter mutt. The audience chose “Lucy.”

Is "Lucy" a new name for "Oakland", or is Lucy yet another dog Ellen "adopted" on a whim?

There was Mouse, a "morkie" (Maltese/Yorkie mix). Where did Mouse go?

There was Pig the French Bulldog. (Also in Ellen's own Facebook Notes.) What happened to Pig? She made such a fuss over him, started a line of greeting cards featuring him, then poof! he disappeared. No more mentions of Pig. So where'd he go?

There was Stormy, a male mixed breed, that Ellen gave away. From the NY Post's Page Six:

Kerri Randles says she gave DeGeneres a male mutt named Stormy two years ago, only to find out less than two months later that fickle Ellen had re-gifted him to a member of her staff.

"She may have had it for much less time than that. I only say two months because that's when I called to check on the dog and found out she no longer had it," Randles said. "I was totally shocked. I thought she was out of her mind."

And then, of course, there was Iggy.

Bootsie, Muffin, Oakland (aka Lucy?), Pig, Stormy, Iggy. That's at least six, maybe 7. There was a pair of kittens, too. We know what happened to Iggy, what happened to the rest??

In addition, Ellen was recently named as PETA's Woman of the Year. Yeah, that's a group I want to be honored by; PETA killed almost 98% of the animals that came into their shelter last year. Here is their 2009 Year-End Report to the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. I'll do the math for you:

• 3918 dogs received. Subtract
  15 "on hand" as of 1/1/09 and
  3191 "taken in" for sterilization and returned to their owners.
  Total: 712 dogs
• 7110 cats received. Subtract
  2 on hand 1/1/09 and
  5469 "taken in" for sterilization and returned to their owners.
  Total: 1639 cats
• Total dogs adopted out: 3. Total dogs transferred to other facilities: 5. One dog died while in their care.
  Euthanized: 681
  Total euthanasia rate for dogs: 95.64%
• Total cats adopted out: 5. Total cats transferred to other facilities: 3
  Euthanized: 1620
  Total euthanasia rate for cats: 98.84%
• Combined total dogs and cats taken in (not including those for sterilization): 2351
  Combined total dogs and cats euthanized: 2301
  Combined total euthanasia rate: 97.87%

So "animal lover Ellen" is a serial dog-dumper, and is a spokeswoman for a group that euthanizes almost 98% of the animals that come into their care. Something to be proud of, eh?

Iris update II

Iris is doing great! After I got home from the vet with her on Thursday I did some research into low-protein diets specifically for management of liver disease/liver shunts. I cooked up a small batch of a very low-protein diet for her; I'll only use it a week, then I'll switch her to a slightly higher protein diet made with tofu, cottage cheese, and rice. She ate a little of the new food on Thursday, but turned her nose up at it yesterday so I added a teaspoon of cottage cheese to jazz it up a little and she ate it all up at both meals. She turned up her nose again this morning, she wanted to be in with her sisters and eating what they were having.

The puppies are in a setup in my living room that consists of an extra-large wire crate with an exercise pen hooked onto the sides to make a "play yard". Iris clearly wanted to eat with her sisters this morning, so I put them and their dish into the crate and shut the door, and put Iris and her dish down in the play yard right outside the crate door. That did the trick, she ate all her breakfast and was looking for more, so I gave it to her.

Iris is getting metronidazole (generic Flagyl) twice a day to control bacterial buildup in her intestines. If she needs long-term antibiotic therapy, I'm going to ask Doc about switching her to Amoxi, it doesn't have the same toxicity risk that metronidazole has. She's also getting 2-4 doses of Lactulose, a mild laxative, a day. When protein is digested in the gut, one of the waste products is ammonia. A normal liver neutralizes the ammonia, but Iris' liver can't do that so ammonia builds up in her intestines. It's the ammonia that causes the neurological effects I was seeing. Lactulose increases the acidity of the contents of the intestines, reducing the absorption of ammonia. It also decreases the transition time of matter through the intestine, which also decreases the absorption of ammonia. The goal is to get stools that are soft but not loose, so I'll have to tweak the dosage of lactulose until I get the desired result. The good thing is that lactulose is sweet and Iris likes it, so getting her to take it is a piece of cake.

It's been about 48 hours since Iris got her first doses of metronidazole and lactulose, and about 40 hours since her first meal of the new diet. All her neurological symptoms are gone! She's clearly feeling better, she's back to normal puppy activity and hijinks again. I am much more optomistic about her future than I was the other day. Please keep our little girl in your prayers.

Iris Update

We're back from the vet, and the news is not good. The presumptive diagnosis is that Iris has a liver shunt. The cost to definitively diagnose the problem and fix it - if, in fact, it is the type of shunt that can be fixed - would be $1,000 or more. While I know there are rescues who'd be willing to spend that kind of money on one dog, I just can't see that it's a responsible thing to do. That sum would provide routine vetting for 8 dogs, or routine vetting plus dentals for 5 puppymill dogs.

We will be doing what we can to manage this condition with diet, antibiotics, and lactulose, but the prognosis is not good. We'll keep her here with us, make sure she has the best possible quality of life and all the love she can handle. When that's no longer enough, we will let her go.

Iris

Iris, one of Lilac's Bouquet puppies, isn't growing like her sisters. She did for a while, but the last couple of weeks it's clear she's falling behind.

I wormed the pups with Strongid three times. When I noticed that Iris looked - and her breath smelled - like she still had worms, I gave her a 3-day course of Panacur just to be sure. The other pups continued to grow and thrive, but not Iris.

Note: You know that "puppy breath" that everyone loves? Not the metallic odor of blood from teething, but puppy breath? Sorry to disillusion you, but it's caused by worms. Puppies that don't have intestinal parasites don't have puppy breath.

Hyacinth, Scilla, and Larkspur are sturdy, muscular, active puppies; Iris is much smaller, has much less meat on her bones, has slightly bowed rear legs, a thin coat, is frequently "roach-backed" - with her back rounded rather than straight - less energy than her siblings, and a smaller appetite. She also seems to have difficulty regulating her body temperature, she shivers at times when it's fairly warm in here (72-73 degrees). She eats, but she doesn't eat much at a time. She's a feisty little stinker, loves to play, but only in short bursts. Her sisters could run all day and not get tired.

I've been doing some research tonight, and I don't like the answer I keep coming up with. It's possible she's got rickets, which is easily treatable. What seems more likely is that it's Juvenile Renal Dysplasia (which is not curable), or a portosystemic shunt (which may be fixable, but would be prohibitively expensive to do). All her symptoms fit, including the smell of her breath. It's not typical puppy breath, it's different. The best way to describe it is having a slightly musty, scorched odor.

(I sniffed her breath tonight and she bit my nose, drawing blood. Little carnivore!)

I'll call the vet tomorrow and get an appointment to get her in.

Lost Dog

I lost a dog this morning. Not 'lost' as a euphemism for dead - I misplaced him. Well, he misplaced himself.

I let the little dog pack out in the yard - Max, Chooch, Sparky, Lilac, Bunny, Ruby, Bibi, Baby, Marco, Woodrow, Petra, Elvis the Shih Tzu, and Lina the tiny Chihuahua (who decided no more ex-pen for her, she wanted to go out in the big yard with the "big" dogs). I let Cider and Barclay out with them, too. It's a nice sunny morning and it's already about 30 degrees so not too cold to stay out for a few minutes and get some exercise. In the meantime, I filled their bowls with breakfast then sat down to check e-mail.

When I open the door to let them in, they come through the door in one big wave. All I see is a swirl of fur and tails and ears as they fly down the hallway to the kitchen gate. When I open the gate, the wave surges through there, too, and everyone runs to their crates and waits for me to get there with their dishes.

The way crates are set up at the moment, Cider's first, then Bibi, then Marco and Woodrow. Then Bunny, Ruby, and Lilac on the other side of the room. Last comes Barclay and then anyone who's not yet worked into the "regular" routine - in this case, Elvis and Lina - and finally Petra as I go back through the kitchen to let "family room group" out. (Max, Chooch, Sparky, and Baby aren't crated to eat, so they don't get fed until everyone else has been out, come back in, and gone into their crates to be fed.) Because Lina's so small I was afraid she'd get trampled in the chaos, so I scooped her up first, put her in her crate, and shut the door. Then I started the routine.

Cider's already in her crate, put the bowl in, close the door. Bibi - into her crate, put the bowl in, close the door. Usually Marco's next, but when I turned around Woodrow was going into his crate without being asked. Good - put the bowl in, close the door. Where's Marco? Hey - where's Marco?! Marco is always one of the first in his crate, he doesn't want to miss a single bite and he knows I'll put his food in with him as soon as he's in his crate. No Marco. I did a headcount on the little dogs still uncrated - no Marco.

I quickly got the others into their crates and fed them, then went looking for Marco. He's nowhere to be found. I looked in Cider's crate - nope, he's not in there with her. I looked in Woodrow's crate - nope, he's not in there with him. Crap. I went to see if he got left out in the hallway when I closed the gate to the kitchen. Nope, no Marco. Not in the family room, either. Not on the patio, so I walked the whole yard and he's not outside. Well hell's bells, he can't just have vanished into thin air, he's got to be here somewhere. Check Cider's crate again - nope. Check Woodrow's crate again - nope. Checked all the other crates, both occupied and empty - nope. By this time I'm on the verge of panic.

Then I happened to glance at Lina's crate. She was sitting in front of the doorway, but I saw a flash of white further back in the crate. I stuck my head down there and sure enough, there was Marco, in the back of Lina's crate. I never thought to look in there, he's never gone in there before and besides, I could clearly see Lina sitting in front of the door and I didn't think she was big enough to block my view of anything that might be behind her.

Marco was liberated from Lina's crate, he hopped up into his own crate, I put the bowl in and shut the door. And heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Somebody please adopt this adorable little guy. He needs to be in his forever home. They don't come any sweeter or smarter and I absolutely adore him, but he gives me a heart attack at least a couple times a week.

Where does the time go?

Goodness, where does the time go??

Hmmmm, where to start. How about with the Happy Endings? Jake the black Lab was adopted in June, he went to live at summer camp. Seriously. His new mom works for, and lives on the grounds of, a large summer camp. Pearl the Poodle/Bichon mix found her forever home when her foster Dad failed Fostering 101. (We hear she's really coming out of her shell, even walks on a leash now!) Buddy - sweet, sweet Buddy the Beagle/Shar Pei mix, such a nice dog - finally found a home. I couldn't figure out why nobody even wanted to meet him, I thought it was the beagle part that was putting people off until one applicant told me it was the Shar Pei part. His new mom and dad were interested in another dog but at least agreed to meet Buddy when I suggested him as a possible fit, and they fell in love. Holly the Beagle/Fox Terrier found a home. Scooter learned to walk on a leash and now lives with another male toy poodle. Honey the cocker-with-a-tail was adopted.

Geraldine the Bassett/Beagle went to the Rainbow Bridge in June. We're glad we had the opportunity to know her, and we'll remember her with fondness.

Flora the Chiweenie was all fixed up a couple of weeks ago. One night when she was lying on her back on my lap, I noticed her "mammary mass" was moving. Since mammary masses don't move, and I'd already begun to think it was an inguinal hernia, I tried gently pressing on it to see if there was, indeed, a hole in her abdomen wall and the "mass" would go back through it into her abdomen. Yup, it did. It was a huge relief to know it was a hernia, which could be repaired and would have no further effect on her health, rather than a tumor. So the hernia was repaired, she was spayed, and got a dental all at the same time. (She only lost 4 teeth at her dental, but that's probably because some of the looser ones fell out on their own prior to the appointment. Her mouth was a mess.) She's clearly feeling better; she's become much more active and athletic, and her true personality is beginning to shine. She's such a little character - stubborn but submissive, tough as nails (she fearlessly scolds the big dogs if she thinks they need scolding) but she turns into a total Gumby when her tummy's tickled. She's always good for a grin, some lucky adopter's just going to adore her.


Flora sunbathing

We got some new dogs, too. Maon (pronounced Moon) and Morag (pronounced MOR-ak) (a pair of Scotties, about 4 years old) and a petite Miniature Schnauzer (also about 4) were breeder surrenders. Both the Schnauzer and Mooney had skin issues when they came in; the Schnauzer cleared up in a couple of weeks but Mooney lost quite a bit of fur which is only now beginning to grow back in. He looks a little funny now, but he'll be very handsome when his coat is healthy.


Morag

Morning Glory and Petunia are black Lab pups born in April. There were three puppies originally, but Morning Glory and Verbena came down with parvo and we lost Verbena. With round-the-clock nursing, administration of subcutaneous fluids, antibiotics, anti-nausea medication, and Tamiflu, we were able to pull Glory through. We started Petunia on a prophylactic course of Tamiflu and she never became clinically ill. Though she still needs to put on a little more weight, Glory has completely recovered and is no longer contagious, so both pups will be spayed and made available for adoption in the next couple of weeks.

Reilly is a little Maltese/Poodle mix, 2-3 years old, and absolutely adorable. This little guy was languishing away in a small, rural shelter out of state. His owner had turned him in to the shelter because he was "growly". He's not a dominant-aggressive dog, he's a little fearful. He doesn't actually want to hurt anyone, he just wants to make scary things go away. At one point in his life he discovered that lifting his lip and, if necessary, growling a little usually accomplishes just that, and he's been using it successfully ever since to avoid things like nail clipping, combing, grooming, teeth inspection, etc. He's learning that we understand he's scared but that we're not going to hurt him and we're not intimidated by that little lip-lift, so he'll have to tolerate whatever it is we're going to do. He's really a charming little guy, and though we won't place him with children because of his touchiness, he'd be great in an adult-only home with someone who won't let him get away with anything.


Reilly

Dottie and Dinky are red-ticked chocolate tri-color adolescent beagle sisters. They're both quite petite, even though they're just about fully grown. Dottie's only about 13 pounds, and Dinky's really tiny at about 9-10 pounds. They were dumped in a cemetary and were in danger of being shot. They're both sweet and absolutely adorable. They're a little shy, but not problematically so.


Dottie in front, Dinky behind

Most recently, we got the puppymill-rescue Turnpike Girls: Elyria (Ellie, red and white parti-color), Vermillion (Millie, black and white parti-color), Sandusky (Andie, buff), and Maumee (Mimi, buff) the Cockers and Lorain (Rainy, apricot with white chest) the Cocker/Poodle. The girls are very sweet and unusually social for mill dogs, they should be easy rehabs.


Sandusky
We obtained the domain names katzenwoofers.com and katzenwoofers.org this month, and got hooked up with a web host. We're currently working on putting together a website, and hope to go "live" by the first of August. It'll be pretty bare bones at first, not much more than what's on our Petfinder page, but we're working on putting together a reference library for information about heartworm preventative, vaccinations, pet food, etc. and a section of training articles. Eventually, we'd like to formulate our applications so they can be filled out and submitted online. We have some other bells and whistles planned, too, but they're down the road a piece, so we'll announce them when they're ready to publish.

Always behind.....

Sorry for the delay in updating. I get busy and forget to update.

I'm never going to remember who arrived and who got adopted since my last update, but I'll try. Frannie found a wonderful home in Toronto. Pinky the beagle was adopted the end of March. Bertie the Chihuahua and Tanner the JRT arrived the end of March and were both adopted in April. Taffy the cocker was also adopted in April, and Honey the cocker may be adopted this week. Dear Sydney the beagle/fox terrier was adopted, he was here almost a year and I'm thrilled that he's finally found a forever home. Scooter the poodle was adopted last week, and we have a good application for Pearl the poodle/bichon mix so I expect she'll be leaving soon, too. Little Tokala, a Chihuahua/Shiba Inu mix arrived in early April and went to his new home last week, too. He's going to be a psychological service dog for his new mom, and they're attending my current obedience class. Minnie was also adopted; she's having a few adjustment issues (living in the city is a little scary, apparently), but I'm hoping her adopters will be able to help her work through them.

Along with Bertie and Tanner, we got two other mill dogs the end of March. One is a middle-aged Chiweenie named Flora. She has horrible teeth and will probably lose most of them, plus she has a mammary mass. Our regular vet says that cancerous mammary masses are usually hard; Flora's is soft and symmetrical so I'm hoping it's benign. I don't even want to know what her total vet bill is going to be, but she's a sweet, funny, affectionate little thing and she's worth every penny.

The other dog we got is a little black and grey cockapoo I named Baby. Baby is still extremely shy, though she makes progress on a daily basis. When she was still in isolation in my bathroom, she'd scoot between the toilet and the wall every time I entered the room so, once her quarantine was done, I moved her out into the living room into a Great Dane-sized wire crate. I put it up on a table so she could see everything going on in the room, could see the other dogs interacting with me, and could start getting used to the everyday sounds and sights of living in a house. After about a week of that she looked like she was ready to start exploring, so I put a leash on her and let her loose in the house. She did well enough on her own, and with the other dogs, that I put her into a regular crate on the floor and disassembled the big crate. After a day or two, I took her outside on the patio with the other little dogs and she loved it. She came right back in with them, too, and though I had to "herd" her up into the main part of the house the first day, she started following the other little dogs after that. I had to catch her to take her out the first couple of days, then I had to "herd" her for a couple of days after that, but she finally got comfortable going out with the little dogs, too, and now she's even brave enough to run past me or run through my legs on her way out or in. She doesn't much like being shut up in the crate so I don't force her. I put her food dish in her crate and she goes in to eat, but if she thinks I'm going to shut the door on her she flies back out in a flash. She likes to hang out on the dog sofa, and seems to enjoy when other dogs snuggle with her. She's still very wary of me, but that'll come. I think there's a very sweet little dog under all that fear, and I think she's still just a youngster (maybe a year or a year and a half) so I have high hopes for being able to turn her around.




We took in an owner-surrender black Lab a week ago. He's a wonderful dog - 3 years old, house trained, became crate trained in 48 hours, gets along well with dogs of any size (and he and Sinatra have become best pals and playmates), ignores cats, and I was told he loves children. He's also got nice conformation, he looks like a Lab is supposed to look. He'll be an awesome family pet for someone!

Poor Geraldine the Bassett/Beagle is not doing well. She's much older than we thought when she first came in, she has severe IBD (currently under semi-control), she has a couple of probably-cancerous mammary tumors (which I think have likely metastasized), and bad teeth. She's still enjoying trips out to the yard, and she's still eagerly attacking her dinner, but no matter how much she eats she gets thinner by the day and I don't think she's got long. I'm doing what I can to keep her comfortable (antibiotics, pain meds), but I'm not going to go to any extraordinary measures to extend her life. When she stops enjoying her small pleasures I'll take her to the vet and let her go.

Ursula the brown tabby has proven herself to be a very skilled and relaxed mother. Her babies were born April 3; there were 3, but one only survived an hour. The other two are robust and healthy, and growing like weeds. There's a beautiful brown tabby boy, and a pretty little black tabby (black with dark grey tabby swirls) that I think is a girl. Some kittens are easy to sex early on, others are almost impossible to sex until they get a little older. The little black kitten is one of the latter. They've just started using a litterbox - well, they don't always make it into the box, sometimes they go just outside it, but they've got the right idea. They're starting to root around in Ursula's dish of kibble, and they've been licking at the canned food, too. They're getting around pretty well, and are very curious about their surroundings. They both enjoy being snuggled, too. I'm hoping to place them together, as they're very bonded.

A couple of weeks ago we took in another Bassett/Beagle, this one's named Matilda. When she first came in she was extra pudgy. I thought she was pregnant, especially since her belly seemed to be expanding, but now I'm starting to think it might be a false pregnancy that's resolving. She's not getting any bigger, she's not producing any milk, and I can't feel anything moving. I'll give her another couple of weeks and, if there's still nothing happening, I'll schedule her to be spayed. I'm actually wondering if she might not already be spayed - I think she's 2-3 years old, but she has maiden nipples that have never nursed a litter and I can't imagine she wouldn't have gotten pregnant before if she was still intact. But if she's spayed, then I wonder why she was running loose for a month and nobody claimed her. Sure wish I could ask her.