Love this...

Little by little she is trusting more and more. Miss Piper-- she's a big snuggler down deep!!! Sweet!!!

Finally!!!

Piper has found her new momma! She made a good impression and will be going home after Aug 20th! She has a dog sister named Bailey! Yeah!!! Finally a family to call her own! :)

Another day...Another toy!

Squeak squeak!!!

LOL!

A day at the beach!

Piper enjoys riding in the car and is very social. She loves other dogs too. So I had an idea! Let's take her to the dog beach! I was so happy she just loved it! Wish I could take her every day!!! 

Little dog... big beach!

In the water!

A little cold!! Lol!!!

Beach buddies!

Sniffing all those good smells...

Taking a walk...

Bye beach... it was a blast!!!

Beautiful Friday :)

Doing yard work on a beautiful morning...isn't Piper a "Beauty", too?! 

I'm working and the "bosses" are supervising in the shade! 

Piper is kinda at a plateau when it comes to "big" improvements. Now it's just repeating the normal day to day life outside of a cage. 

Piper plays with my dogs when outside. (Hunts varmints with them, rather!!!) She eats her food if I bring her to it. I'm insisting she go down the back stairs herself but I have to bring her to the steps and close the door behind her --then she clumsily goes down and scurries outside. She sleeps with us at night if I carry her up to the bed. She absolutely adores the dog park and car rides! Leash walking is improving every day. Piper drags behind a bit but usually walks by my side. If something startles her she will want to flee but I usually try and keep watch and keep her at a distance from people or noises that might upset her. Inside the house she's still on the couch. Yup...she's on that couch like its flypaper!!! Unless I carry or leash her to move that's still her area and she "ain't a budging"! LOL!

Piper really is ready to go to her forever home at this point-- she's in a way "the perfect dog" because she doesn't get into any trouble! :) The rest of her progress is just a matter of letting time heal her.  Hoping before too long Piper will just have good memories and the scary past will just fade away. 

P.S. Piper finally feels brave enough to enjoy her first toy! Yay!!! When she carries it around she whines softly. Maybe she's just so happy to have a toy!!! Isn't that kinda heartbreaking?!? (But she sure is cute with that toy in her mouth!) 

Dog Park Afternoon!

First time at the Dog Park!

Pretty Piper!

Meeting Brutus the Shih tzu :)

Water Break Time

Scratch pet Scratch!

Whew... takin' a little break!

Another lap around...

A little to the left!!!

Love my tummy rubs!!!

Hot n Tired... see ya next time! Bye, ya'll :)

Jump off the couch ...

Piper spends almost all of her time in our house sitting on the couch. She has the freedom to walk anywhere she wants but simply does not move. I have been trying to encourage her to jump off the couch and as you will see by the video she isn't quite ready! 

Ups n Downs

I had to go out of town on Friday. Seems whenever I do and the guys have to care for Piper she takes a step back. The guys do their best and are very kind but she is so sensitive!!! Sad!

She won't come in the door from outside now. I don't know why?? I am back to propping it open. She also has been skiddish about putting on the harness.  Sometimes she will piddle if you don't go slow enough. She gets so nervous!

On the positive she loves her treats now and expects them once I do get her inside the house! She comes right into the kitchen with the other dogs and gobbles up as many as I will give her, LOL! Piper also is doing a wonderful job of walking on the leash… she has gotten very comfortable with it! (Once it's on her!!) Piper is also very happy and initiates petting and her tail easily wags now towards everyone in the family. :) We still can't get her off her "safe spot" on the couch, though...she will sit there all day if we let her!

Puppies come to visit!

My fellow foster friend Clare picked up her puppy fosters today from Fluffy Dog Rescue. They stopped by my house to borrow my purple-puppy-pen. So I brought Piper out to say "hello" to the puppies! They clammered all over her! 

If you listen the video starts out with Clare saying, "Oh let's not nurse on Piper, no-no!" Hahaha! 

Beautiful Eyes!!!

Playful!!!

Happy Face!!!

At Attention! ;)

Piper is surrounded!

Sweeeeet Pose!

Short Fur-That Face! <3

After the puppies leave Piper is very HAPPY! "Bye bye" puppies! 

Lil' Beggar!

Even a former mill dog has impeccable begging skills! 

Peek a boo! I smell chicken! Nummie!!!

Walking the gang!

Piper is getting more comfortable with the walk, She is up front and not dragging behind as much! Lets go, Pipes... catch up to Parson and Asti!!!

My dogs give her lots of reassurance that this is fun!!! She likes the "group walk" :)!!!

Almost back home...Piper stands still and ponders the walk! Hey... I think I "like walking". It is so good for her to explore her big new world!

I'm seeing more play and more tail wagging every day!!!! Now don't get me wrong-- Piper still freaks! Still bolts out of her cage. Still alarms at sounds and scurries and hides. Good news is she recovers fast now. She will run and then in a few seconds get over it. Today as we were coming in from the yard a HUGE crack of thunder sounded. Bad timing! Well she darted to the bushes but soon was back at the door and ran in. Whew! I was hoping it would not set her back and it did not. 

(P.S. I took her dragging leash off. She was ready :) Progress!)

Saturday

Piper went on a morning walk. We met a neighbor and it was scary. Piper pulled back and wanted to flee but we explained the situation and the neighbor kept her distance but talked nicely to Piper. That was great practice for Piper! After a nice chat we went on our way and Piper did great the rest of the walk. :)

Is this called balcony seating?!? First time she did this!!! 

Piper had a great day! She started to play, just a bit, with a toy! We also practiced going down the stairs! She is clumsy but trying! Piper also is finally not as afraid to eat with people around. All these activities are emerging at once! Piper also adores ice cream! She was totally begging for it and wagging her tail so fast when I had some. So cute!!! I of course gave her just a wee amount and she was ecstatic! 

To top off her great day she sweetly laid her head on my shoe as we chilled out on the couch! I think it was her way of thanking me for giving her a few licks of delicious ice cream! She is such a love!!!

Getting friendly

Piper is starting to wag her tail a lot now and act more playful and fun! Here she is on a first walk after her spay a week ago! You go Piper!!!

 I had a rummage sale tonight and some of my dog loving friends came! They peeked at Piper in the back yard... "She's soooo cute" was repeated over and over!!! Pipes also played with a 6 mo old puppy tonight!  She loved that puppy and was curiously sniffing her and wagging her tail! 

Next Wednesday her rest time is over. Yippee!!! Can't wait! She's feeling way better now and her leash walking is getting less hesitant as well!!! It's fun watching her personality beginning to shine!!!

One more thing... Piper becomes a play monster when I lay down in bed at night. She hops on my tummy, shoveling her head under my hand for pets. She's wiggly and licky and a goofball. Not the best timing as we are tired but she must feel most comfy then. Finely she will settle down and we all fall asleep! :)

Warm day!

Pant pant pant... happy to be inside by the fan!!!

Better Day!

Miss Piper had a difficult weekend but she is on the mend! 

The yucko diarrhea struck after the vomiting so we lived through that and finally as of today it's been good. Ears look great too! All normal! 

I like this photo because she looks like "Who---ME???" (but I'm innocent!!!)

As far as fireworks go we are not near many so it was quiet. We live on a dead end in a brick house built like a bomb shelter! Haha! She was very protected and heard nothing!!! Good deal!!! :)

Oops!!!

The saga continues! Today our Piper woke up with diarrhea. What next?!? HA!

She was on the bed and wanted off. We don't want her jumping yet so I carried her outside and she ran to the back of the yard and did business… At the time I didn't go out and look because it was pretty early and I was barefoot in pjs. 

Later she got all her pills and she ate her breakfast and drank some water and went back to sleep on the couch full of blankets.

I was working out in the garage organizing something when my husband came in from a walk with our dogs and told me she must have had an accident… I went in and found yes she had jumped off the couch and had some stinky diarrhea on the rug. I am guessing it's one of the pills she is taking… So I think I will not give her any more and let her go "all natural" with healing. If I felt she was in a lot of pain I would continue the pain meds but she seems totally fine and the nausea seems to have stopped… I looked up the side effects of the pills and one of them is diarrhea. :p

This is one "sensitive tummy" girl! 

Spay Day!

We arrived bright n early at Animal House Vet Clinic for the big "spay"... Piper is NOT looking! 

"We love you Pipes...it will be fine!"

Later~

Picked Piper up at 3pm. Here she is in my car when we got home. She is very groggy yet! She did well though... yay!!!  She had in a chip already that was never registered so that was odd! So we didn't put in ours. I had them check her ears too as I felt they were still gunky and they gave me new ear drops to try. 12 MORE days of drops! 

Ahhh look at those eyes now--much brighter!! Piper is perking up! She is very... VERY happy to be home on her own blankie in her special "couch corner":)!!! Nothing like a cozy blankie and a familiar spot to make the owie feel better!!!

Piper drank some water and went potty outside. Excellent! Not interested in supper. Will try later tonight. So far doing great!!!

Wellll ...I spoke too soon. The water came back up! Her blankie and my couch throw are being washed! New blankie for our patient. Heard she got sick at the vets too so maybe her tummy is just not happy. We will just let her sleep it off! Poor little girl! :(

Stayed up late with Piper. She drank some more water and this time it stayed down. She also was a good girl and pottied outside before we called it a day. We are off to bed and I hope tomorrow she eats breakfast! So glad our spay-day is done and we can move on to the healing count down! 12 days of keeping things quiet! No running or jumping--easier said than done! :)

Saturday~

Saaaad! We are BACK at the vets! Dang! Piper could not keep water down last night. Even though I stayed up till midnight with her and she was fine at some point she barfed up the water again in a big blob on my bed blanket. Nice to wake up to. More washing, hee hee! So I called Animal House and Piper is getting fluids now under her skin. 

On Cerenia for nausea and a bland diet regime for a few days! She had a reaction to anesthesia. Hope it all helps!!!

Much later~

After a slow start Piper is doing so much better! Here she just finished off a bowl of boiled ground turkey--served on the couch... I know... she has me wrapped around her little paw!!!

Have to tell you something... Piper was sleeping on her back just now... and she was having a little dream. Here's the "tear jerker" part of my story... her tail started wagging in her sleep!!! Thump thump thump!!! (tail wagging is very new for her) Awww... :) A HAPPY dream for a dog that's been through so much! 

Her face makes it all worth it!!! What a SMILE!!!