(Now forever home) mom posted to the LeoList 03/23/2009
Hello! I took a couple pictures yesterday of our Rescue Leo, Bella Notte.
She's doing great and has put on about 35 pounds since October. Thought you
might enjoy seeing how far she's come from the dog at death's door last
September. Her butt fluff finally came in and looks fabulous. She's still
got to get all her tummy fur back from being spayed, but she's got
undercoat. This dog is grateful to be alive every minute of every day. She
is such a joy and we are honored to be her family.
Everyone got bathed outside on Saturday. One of Bella's fears has been the
hose, but she actually did some high speed passes and played with the other
girls (you can't get them out of the water!) and almost enjoyed herself.
Here's the link to see the pictures.
(Foster mom Pam posted to the LeoList on 10/6/2008)
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to bring you up to date on Bella's progress, which has been
nothing short of a miracle in my opinion. It's hard to look at her today
and realize that just over a week ago she underwent a blood transfusion! We
took her home from the vet's office Thursday night. Although she was unsure
what was going on, she snuggled the whole ride home. I stayed home over the
weekend to spend time with her and every single day we've seen such amazing
progress. Friday we discovered her love of squeaky toys. She can be sound
asleep, but if you squeak something, even in another room of the house, she
is bright eyed and ready to play. She destroyed her first toy, after
squeaking non-stop for over an hour. What a wonderful sound. On Saturday,
she got to play outside in the backyard on the grass. She proudly trotted
along and started sniffing and discovering things on her own. She was
definitely building up her confidence. It was truly a blessing watching her
learn how to play and be a puppy! We took some pictures of her playing in
the yard and you can see them on the LIN website where she has her own page:
http://linportableo.com/bella/ (You may need to right click the link and
open hyperlink) She is a beautiful little girl and has a spirit and
personality to match. Sunday, she learned that she could run in the grass,
and that was big fun. She's still building up her strength, so she couldn't
run too far or too long, but she was so happy to be running. She also is
doing very well on her potty training. She went to the back door twice on
Sunday to let me know she had to potty. She loves to be loved and will sit
down at your feet waiting for scratches. Sunday night she got her first
"puppy cart" ride. We have a very large golf cart that my husband Bob has
converted into a puppy cart. It has a cover for shade, carpet for comfort
and picket fence sides so nobody falls out. Our English Mastiff Cessna
loves to go puppy carting because it makes her ears fly. Our 9-month old
Leo girls Sunset & Midnight have just learned to puppy cart in the last
month because it's starting to cool down a little (We're in Phoenix and
summer is really HOT!!) So we loaded up the three big girls in the back
and put Bella on the seat with us. She is so trusting she put her head in
my lap and just went for a ride. Pretty soon, she was looking around and
smiling. Our girls smile all the time, but to see a smile on a rescue dog's
face, especially one that was so very ill, gives you chills and puts tears
in your eyes. Everytime she looks at me, I know she's saying thank you and
I love you all at once. I had to be gone for work today, so my husband Bob
stayed most of the day with Bella. When I got home, I showed her once how
to "give me paw", and she's got it already. She's done it 6 times in a row.
What a smart girl! She was play bowing and dancing in the yard tonight.
Every day she grows a little more. Every day she becomes a more wonderful
and amazing little girl.
Many people have sent me personal e-mails asking about helping with Bella's
vet bills. Because she was so sick, her vet bills were very high. Her
first night at the emergency vet was over $1600 alone, and she spent 16 days
at my amazing vet. They do not do overnight boarding and are closed on the
weekend, but he and his wonderful staff took turns coming into the office to
care for Bella. I am so in awe of their dedication. He discounted many
things for me, but still his bill was over $5,500. Anyone that would like to
make a donation to help with Bella's bills can go to the LIN website above
and by clicking on Bella's page, those funds will be used for her bills.
She still needs to go back for a check up and another x-ray of her lungs.
Right now, she still has a little bit of congestion in her right lung
(she'll be on antibiotics for a couple more weeks) and we're still working
on putting some weight on her. She's a little Leo to start with, and all
her illnesses kept her from eating for at least 2 weeks (maybe longer while
she was in the kill shelter). It's amazing that she didn't lose more weight
than she did. All I can say is that this dog wanted to live. Day by day we
see a brighter light and more life come into her eyes. But to see her smile
touches my heart like nothing else. This was my first rescue. Although
there were moments that were very hard, when I look at her tonight, and she
smiles at me, I know I'd do it again in a heartbeat. She is most definitely
worth it. She gave me Leo Licks tonight when I got home, something she's
just now learning to do!
Thank you to everyone that has kept her in their thoughts and prayers. I
know that they made a difference. I'm happy to report not happy endings,
but happy beginnings for Bella Notte, the little Leo that could!
(Foster mom Pam posted to the LeoList on 9/28/2008)
Hello! This is Pamela Gottlieb from Phoenix, Arizona, and I wanted to catch
everyone up on Bella (aka Samantha). On Monday, September 15th, I saw the
post on the list about a Leo in a kill shelter in Arizona. I've never
participated in a rescue before, but sent word that I could go and get her
out. I first called the shelter to make sure she hadn't been adopted or
worse killed already but they couldn't find her. They told me she was not
in their computer system. She was in a shelter in Tucson which is 2 hours
away from my home. I called numerous times and talked to numerous people
trying to locate the dog, all without success. After several hours, I
decided I would just drive down there and look through every cage myself.
On my way there, they finally located the dog, who was in the "sick bay"
because she had nasal discharge.
This was my first time at a kill shelter and it was a horrendous place. I
was told that it was an adult Leonberger so I was terribly surprised to see
a puppy weighing only about 30 pounds. When they let her out of the kennel,
I bent down on one knee. She came over to me and laid her head on my knee
and pressed herself into me. She was wet, filthy and smelled awful. I told
the kennel attendant that I was taking her with me. An hour later, she was
in my car and on the way to the emergency vet. Unfortunately, my regular
vet closed at 5pm and we were just leaving Tucson. Knowing that she had
green discharge from her nose, I couldn't take the chance of her giving
something to my baby bergers (9 month old Leo sisters Midnight Blue and
Sunset Sky) or my 6-1/2 year old English Mastiff, Cessna. So it was
straight to the vet.
There was not much the shelter could tell me about her, but I know that the
owner turned her in on the 4th. This kill shelter has a 3-day policy. If
the dog is not adopted or claimed within 3 days, they are put down. It's
lucky for her that she was "lost" in the system, but they were putting her
down at 5pm that day and I picked her up at 4pm.
I started talking to her and singing to her on the long road trip. Whenever
I would sing to her, she would snuggle closer to the back of my seat. She
was very calm but would wag her tail for me every time I would look back at
her. She has very soulful eyes that look directly into yours.
When we got to the emergency vet, they ran tests on her to see what was
wrong. They had several emergencies that took priority, so Bella and I just
hung out and waited. She is a very sweet girl. Petfinder had named the dog
"Samantha", but that was not her name and she had never been called that. I
started calling her Bella Notte, which means "beautiful night" in Italian
for her beautiful black mask. The vet had a hard time drawing blood for
testing because Bella was very dehydrated. We were there for about 3-4
hours when they gave me the bad news. Bella had Parvo and Pneumonia. I was
devastated. All I wanted to do was take this sweet girl home, give her a
bath and help her get over her ordeal. She had to spend her first night out
of the shelter at the emergency vet.
Bella spent her first night at the emergency vet. The next day I contacted
my regular vet, who is an absolutely amazing vet and person. I told him
about Bella's situation and he told me to go get her and bring her to him.
The one night stay at the emergency vet was VERY expensive. I brought Bella
to my vet and he started treating her. She is a very a-typical parvo case
and was not symptomatic at that time. The kill shelter told me that she was
vaccinated for parvo/distemper when she was taken into the shelter on the
4th. They gave her a rabies vaccine and micro-chipped her when I picked her
up at the shelter. Bella was also not displaying signs of the pneumonia,
just a green, gunky nose at the time. She was not eating or drinking at
all. Since she was in a kennel with another dog at the shelter, she may
not have been eating or drinking for some time and they wouldn't have known.
I did call the shelter to tell them that she had parvo and got a "what do
you want your money back?" reaction. Bella was put on IV fluids and
antibiotics. My vet's office is closed at 5 Monday, Wednesday & Friday, and
closed at 7 Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are open til noon on Saturdays and
closed the rest of the weekend. Bella made such an impression on everyone
that she met that the vet tech at the emergency clinic called to check on
her at my vet's the following week. He said in all his years of practice,
he'd never had an emergency vet employee (even a doctor) check on a patient
after the fact. The staff at my vet's office made up a schedule to rotate
who would come in and take care of Bella over the weekend. She wagged her
tail for everyone. Although she did have some bloody diarhea and some
vomitting, she always stood up, wagged her tail and rolled over for belly
rubs whenever someone came in to see her.
This precious little girl finally starting drinking on her own, but still
wouldn't eat. The vet was force feeding her. He has tried cooking for her
everything from chicken and rice to salmon, but she just wouldn't eat. (I
mentioned that it might be his cooking!) When she started to get nose
bleeds, my vet gave her plasma and switched her antibiotics. Her white
blood count is the highest he's ever seen. Still, she has a strong will to
live and just loves everyone. Her body is fighting so much. The parvo
compromised her immune system which let the pneumonia take a greater hold.
Last Thursday, my vet called and said that he was concerned that she wasn't
making more improvement. He had a consult with an internal medicine
specialist and they both agreed that she was the most atypical case they'd
ever encountered. The next course of action was a whole blood transfusion.
There was a canine surgeon in North Scottsdale that had a unit of whole
blood available for Bella, so my vet drove the hour each way on his lunch
break to pick it up for her. Friday afternoon, Bella had her blood
transfusion. By evening, her gums had turned pink and she had more energy.
My vet took her walking (away from the normal dog areas) and she trotted
beside him until she got tired. He came back Friday night around midnight
to check on her and offered her some chicken and rice, WHICH SHE ATE! And
she kept it down. She also ate breakfast and lunch on Saturday and ate again
Sunday morning. She still has some watery diarhea, but no blood for several
days. It looks like we're coming out of it!
My vet says that he took her for two walks last night and that she was more
energetic and trotted quite happily along with him. Her nose has dried up,
and she still has a little cough, but even that is much improved. Talk
about a roller-coaster ride. From Thursday, thinking we would lose her to
jumping around like a lunatic today because she is eating on her own, I am
so grateful for the dedication and compassion of my vet in saving this
darling girl. There are tests and treatments he hasn't even charged me for,
but still her care has been quite costly.
Please, everyone keep her in your prayers so she can continue to get better
and hopefully soon come here for fostering. She has the sweetest disposition
and I just want her to be happy and healthy and loved.
Your generosity is greatly appreciated
