Leo - longterm foster heads north to Canada - by Tina
Thomas
Leo was an 18 month old male purchased over the Internet by a
family in New York from a puppy mill in New Mexico. I took him for
the east coast as they had no foster homes available. He
arrived here 02July06, a sick, terrified animal. He was
intact, emaciated, ears were so bad you couldn't get meds into the
canals, part of his tongue was missing, he had a cataract and a bit
of pneumonia, wound hair all over his body - and a valid AKC
certificate. He developed an umbilical hernia and a trip to the
opthamologist revealed his cataract was growing and he has some
other anomalies in his eyes, likely caused be the dam's malnutrition
while he was in utero.
In the past 19 months that I have fostered him, all his medical
issues have been addressed, I'm most pleased with the progress
we have made with his eyes. I elected to give him a new
medication which had shown to shrink cataracts in young dogs and it
has done its job. The cataract is much smaller and the
fuzziness around the cataract is gone. He is now on a
maintenance dose of the medication - one drop every other day, down
from three drops a day and his vet says he doesn't have to come back
for a year unless there are any changes. At this point, we
don't know if he will need to be on the drops forever as the
medication has only been on the market for two years. He also
takes a grape seed extract capsule twice a day for general eye
health (get a health food store) and the vet feels he is no more
likely to get glaucoma than any other dog as his eyes are no longer
irritated. He does have some mild allergies; I do have him on
fish and potato food, but believe he is most bothered by contact
type, ie, dry grass bothers him a lot. However, I think here
is a behavioral piece to the puzzle as well - if he is bored, he
will chew his feet, but not to the point of getting them infected.
His yearly bloodwork showed a decrease in thyroid function so we are
regulating him on Soloxine. The rest of his blood work was
terrific.
He is housebroken and has become a very friendly and loving guy.
A couple of times I have seen him become nervous and concerned
around a man, but mainly he likes everyone now. Leo is a big
boy at 50 lbs, but quite handsome with a beautiful head. He
walks nicely on leash and is not a puller.
Several days after the above message was posted on the
Wheaten-L, Leo's new family inquired about him.
Leo made the long trek (over 800 miles!!!) from Illinois to
Ottowa, in Ontario, Canada in the first part of 2008. His new home
had just lost their dear Mulligan and felt they were ready to help a
Wheaten in Need. He was given an honorary 'M' name, like his
siblings, Max and Maude, and is now known as Myleo.
Update from Lynne, Myleo's new mom:
We (a friend and I) arrived at the restaurant where we were to
meet Leo a few minutes after 12:15pm. We drove past and had to
turn around, and as we pulled in Donna Lea said, "There is a
beautiful Wheaten! I wonder if that is him? If it is I think I will
take him home and you can have Hunter(her 1 year old wheaten)."
After a good trip back we arrived back in Greely around 4 pm,
where Leo meet our other 2 wheatens, Max and Maude. This meeting
went very well. We decided we would change his name to Myleo so we
would have 3M's again. Myleo was a bit nervous and unsure especially
around Chris (my husband) but after the two of them spent hours
sitttng on the floor together, Myleo is much much better.
We took him up to the stables (where I work) and from the moment
he saw the horses he was in love. All I have to say is "do you
want to see the horses" and he is at the door. When the horses are
in the barn he loves going from horse to horse giving them kisses.
He is a bed hog, so it is a good thing we have a king size bed and
Chris works the night shift. We have started obedience training and
he is doing great.
|
