Dixie Darlin' - Our little Alabama Southern Belle

What circumstances caused this Southern Belle to be on her own wandering the streets looking for a kind soul to take her in? From investigative work, we were able to find a home where she had tried to set up residence, but the woman who lived there was not kind to Dixie, so after trying for several days, Dixie left there and walked over a mile to end up at the store parking lot where she was picked up by a kind lady who wanted the best for this genteel gal and contacted New Rattitude.

Dixie is a "Teddy" rattie. Since Dixie is our first "Teddy" rattie, we are learning about this type rattie and are finding out that Dixie is typical of these short-legged ratties - awesome personalities, loving, sweet, and people oriented. Even though Dixie gets along great with other dogs and plays & shares space with them well, she prefers to spend her time with people. Just sit down and she's immediately up there with you, either lying against your leg or in your lap.

Dixie came into rescue with a irritated skin condition that caused small sores and loss of hair in places. With good nutrition and some meds, her sores have cleared up and is no longer inflamed. Some of the places of hair loss may never regrow fur, but the skin is as soft as a baby's behind and I find myself petting these areas a lot since they feel so nice to the touch.

Dixie is a wonderful calm rattie who likes to spend most of her day lounging on the sofa. She's completely housetrained (!) and such an easy dog to have around. She likes to be in the same room as her person, but she's not needy for attention.

Dixie is approximately one year old and weighs 16 pounds; stands 12 inches tall (at her shoulders) and is 15 inches long (spine length from base of neck to base of tail).

Dixie would love for you to visit her photo album where she'll tell you all about herself. http://imageevent.com/newrattitude/dixiedarlin

Gus Gets a New Family and a New Name!

Gus' journey to his new family was a short one. In fact, the transport was non-existent since he didn't move from his foster home - we adopted him!

Ever since we lost Beener to cancer three months ago, we knew we'd eventually get another rattie and that we'd 'know it' when the right one came along. And then Gus entered our lives and our hearts.

Along with a new family, Gus got a new name - Toby. The name Toby means "God is Good" and is the perfect name for our little boy.

Toby is friendly and confident and will be a great foster brother for future incoming rescue ratties. It'll be interesting to see how he takes to his new role of mentor to the foster kids.

Toby's rehab from his hip surgery is rolling along. He prefers to hop along on three legs and is resisting my efforts to get the other leg working and on the ground. He's continuing his swimming, which is one place he does use his leg. I'm also having him walk on a softly inflated air mattress - it moves so much as he walks across that it's hard for him to "three-leg" it. Lots of treats helps keep him moving and sometimes makes him forget about holding his leg up. Rehab is a long process and any little improvement is encouraging.

We are thrilled to have "Gimpy Gus" as a member of our family and thank New Rattitude for the opportunity to foster, and then adopt, this great little guy! Another dog saved with rescue . . . now on to the next rattie who needs us.

Post-Surgery - Donut neck for "Gimpy Gus"

Post surgery time was not fun for Gus. Besides earning the nickname "Gimpy Gus", 1) he had to endure the pain of both the FHO and neuter (done at the same time); 2) for the first 10 days his view was out the bars of a crate, as he was on limited activity: and finally 3) he ended up with the indignity of having to wear an inflatable E-collar to keep him from licking his incision.

Breaking out of crate-restriction couldn't come too soon for Gus - from day three he was feeling pretty good and didn't think he needed to have all that rest and inactivity. The othe dogs were running around and playing and he wanted to join them. It's hard to keep a good guy down.

The inflatable collar is much better for a dog than the traditional hard plastic cones - it's comfortable and doesn't hinder their vision and sense of space. Actually I think Gus was wondering where the beach was since he was wearing his flotation device.

Now we're into Gus' rehab period of recovery. The main job is to try to get him back to using the leg. In his opinion, he's getting along just fine on three legs, so he sees no reason to put the fourth on the ground/floor. My job of convincing him to use it is proving to be a challenge with this smart little whipper-snapper. Every little 'trick' I try to get him to put his leg down, he comes up with a counter trick to get around it. He's quite adept on only three legs.


One of the things we're doing to help strengthen and build back some muscle on his leg is hydro-therapy - swimming. Even in the water he manages to swim well without using the leg, so we're manipulating and pushing on the leg to get him to push back. We see improvement as he's paddling more with his gimpy leg.


Gus' rehab will take months, but it'll be so worth it when he is finally running again on all four legs!

Mattie

Mattie was dumped at a shelter with her five puppies. The pups were pulled by another rescue but Mattie was left. She spent over a month in the shelter. A volunteer worked diligently to try to find her a place to go because she thought Mattie was too sweet and didn't deserve to die. On the day Mattie was scheduled to be killed, the shelter volunteer pulled her out and got her to a temporary safe place. Despite the fact that we already had one foster, we couldn't leave her, so we brought her home to live with us. Oh, she was so sad those first days; her eyes reflected such a depth of sadness. Yet, she was so sweet and so willing to open herself up to the love we gave her.

Mattie has shown herself to be a truly wonderfully resilient dog...she's friendly to both people and dogs, she's tolerant as only a mother can be as Adam climbs all over her. I wonder if she is thinking of her pups as little Adam crawls and sits on her, and licks her mouth.

Mattie will stand as still as a statue as long as someone's hand is on her petting her. Seems she cannot get enough affection. And she doesn't mind sitting in our laps. Sometimes she'll settle down and sleep...and sometimes she jumps down and goes elsewhere to sleep. It makes me wonder about her past...what living situation did she come from? Was she an outdoor pet? Or indoor? When she first came here, she readily jumped up onto the sofa and chairs, like she was accustomed to using furniture for lounging. And she is completely housetrained which makes me think she's been a house dog. So if she was a house dog....and even if she wasn't a house dog... how could her family just abandon her in the night-deposit of the shelter???

Mattie loves to learn new things, especially when treats are involved! She's eager to learn and very attentive. Since she's getting only limited amount of food due to her weight-loss plan, treats or food of any sort causes great excitement and willingness to do *anything*. I love a food-motivated dog!

It's been so nice seeing Mattie come out of her sadness and embrace life! She can get down-right excited at times...jumping-in-the-air and doing-a-dance excited. This is how life should be for all dogs.