Lizzy's Happy Home Page

Lizzy (aka Carla) was rescued from Animal Control on what would have been her last day of life. This little girl was so sweet, we just could not leave her behind. And now she has the most wonderful and loving "Forever Home".

8/5/2007

I was visiting your website and read the article on Craigslist. It was very good and worth linking! Mike and I were just saying today that it would have been a real shame for Lizzy to be killed, knowing what a great animal she is. This was this evening after Lizzy having 2 A-plus days in a row (making great progress), and receiving so much love from her. Mike was laying on the floor watching tv and she came up from behind him, curled up and used his shoulder to lay on-wrapping her head around his neck and bumping her nose on him and kissing him. Incredible! I know I keep saying it, but we love her and she just loves us so much! Well, God created these creatures and made man to have dominion over them, so we should be responsible with them. That being said, Lizzy was a God-send for us-we just never thought we'd get over pet # 3; Lizzy isn't Annie, but she's right up there with the best! I found her original picture on your website as "Carla". Boy, does she look different in the picture I sent to you-much happier, wouldn't you say?

Sandy

8/1/2007

Here are two pictures! Isn't she a sweetie?? We just love her (and she is madly in love with us!!!) And is she SMART! She is really coming along and learning lots of new rules, boundaries and tricks! I must say, she snores louder than a lot of humans I know! Ha Sandy

7/20/2007

Hi Jackie! Thanks for the suggestions. We bought a Kong and put peanut butter in it. It took almost a week, but she's beginning to show interest in chewing it; good thing because she does having chewing issues, but not nearly as bad as some of our other pets. So far, no damage except for a very large plastic flower watering pot! I heard all sorts of commotion outside and couldn't figure out what was going on-it was Lizzy trying to roll it around like a ball and she was having a very good time! It was hilarious, but of course her sharp teeth poked holes in it! It took everything out of me not to let her see me laugh because I had to tell her that was off limits.
Anyway, we saw the nylabones in the pet stores and was interested in them. We didn't know anything about them though, so I'm glad you mentioned them. Is the nylabone like the rawhide bones? Is the nylabone similar to the Kong that the dog can't actually eat the material it's made of?
We're so glad we adopted Lizzy-she is really a sweetheart and very special. Mike was out of town several days this week and when he returned, she was so happy to see him that she was whining. It was really sweet. She's very attached to him too and just doesn't leave him alone in the evenings. She does get very spooked by strange things and then can't concentrate or forget about it for quite a while. Last night when it was only sprinkling, our neighbors were on the side of their house holding umbrellas looking at something. Mike was walking Lizzy and when she saw the umbrellas from the distance, she freaked. He had to bring her back home and she seemed upset for about 1/2 hr or so. Strangely timid! Talk later! Sandy

7/16/2007

The week-end was busy for us as we continued to work with Lizzy. Mike had been out of town Tuesday thru Friday night and was curious as to how Lizzy would react to him. She was very excited and happy to see him and just wouldn't leave him alone! With him being gone most of the week, he was able to see her progress getting acclimated to her new home, too.

Early Saturday morning he took her for a big walk on the bike trail that is accessible from our subdivision. She loved it, but was very afraid of the bikes, as she is trucks, cars and some other noises (she has a timid disposition.) She was tired when they arrived back home and took an immediate nap. We then decided it was time to introduce her to the rest of the house. After telling her earlier in the week that she couldn't go up the stairs to the main level of the house, it took some coaxing to get her to come up. It also seemed as though she had little experience with stairs. When she arrived at the top, we leashed her and allowed her to walk through the house and sniff every square inch, several times through. We thought that by keeping her leashed, it may give her a sense that we were still in control of where she was going and what she was doing; she did not "squat"! We put her outside to play, and when we brought her back in through the lower level, we told her she could come back up the stairs to the main level. Cautiously she did so, but this time we allowed her to "walk through" freely and explore. That was it, she's been great; no accidents and just enjoys being in the same rooms that we are in. She lays down nicely in the living room, but keeps one eye on where we are. If we're out of sight, she follows us. She sleeps in one of Annie's beds in our bedroom and stays there all night. Saturday we also took her for several car rides back and forth to and from the house so she'd get the idea that when she's with us in the car, she will be coming "home"; her throwing up in the car has now ceased. We took her to a park in Maryville where it was quiet and Mike had to run into our eye doctor's office. They invited her in to watch-because no one else was there! She sat in the waiting room and watched him try on lenses! Hilarious! We are no longer having to hand feed her, she's eating well from her bowl. She wasn't playing ball, but after working with her for a week, she loves to chase the ball and has learned to bring it back to us and drop it in our hands! When I take her outside, I tell her to "go potty"; as crazy as it sounds, she "pees on demand"! Sometimes it's not much, but she will go. I just keep saying to her "Lizzy potty outside-good girl". (We trained our Annie to do the same-I don't think it works with all dogs, but I think we just got lucky again.) We only had the 2 accidents the first day we had her-SO FAR! Still working on the boundary training, and she's still interested in what's on the other side of the fence/gate. I've been taking her through the front door to the front yard on the leash to hopefully give her a sense that there's not a lot that's too interesting. That may take a long time, and she may never get over the curiosity and desire to run. But besides her microchip (thank you), she's got a new collar (after her first shopping outing to PetSmart-which by the way she was an angel in the store and behaved well as she did when we took her to PetCo!), she's wearing 4 ID tags (Madison County, Glen Carbon, Personal, and her Microchip #). If she gets out, we've done everything we can to identify her. My oldest daughter brought "Jack" (the full grown giant black lab) to visit with her "step-cousin" yesterday. They romped and played and had a grand time-all was well as was her visit with "Jill"! Lizzy is also not running through or tearing up the many burms and rose and flower gardens in our backyard-the yard is very big and she's got plenty of room to explore and run. When Mike is in his office working (he also has a home office here at the house), she goes in and lays down under his desk; she's oblivious to his conference calls! ha We have noticed that she likes to chew, but hopefully is on the down side of that and won't do any real damage. She decided she likes all the chew bones you gave her and has devoured a few-we've now taken them away from her because we don't want her to "eat one a day" get sick! I'll re-introduce to her with moderation. We need to find something else to keep her busy to chew that she can't digest every day! (Any suggestions? I noticed lots of different ones at the pet stores and know nothing about any of them. Annie wasn't interested, so I never bought them.) We got her a cong, not real interested yet. Oh yeah, we also took her with us to the produce market on 157-I went into the market area and Mike kept her outside on the other side of the chain link fence. That's the only other time she's gone through the "routine" like she did the day we first saw her-rubbing her body along the fence and flashing those eyes at me! We've never seen her flirt with her eyes since! Well, she's a dandy and a very sweet, good animal-one that was definitely worth saving! Her tail wags all the time and she's not only smart and wanting to be obedient, she's a pleaser and wants to give back and love as well. We heard that Border Collies are very intelligent; you may be right as she just might have some in her!

I have a brand new digital camera, but am waiting for my son in law to deliver a new computer to me. I get upgrades every few years because he's in the computer field. My current computer doesn't have a burner, so I can't upload my pictures to email to you. I'm not sure if I'll have my new one by the time you go to press on the newsletter. Let me know the closer it gets, and would love to get together for you to take her picture!

Sandy

7/11/2007

Hi Jackie (and Kim, too)! Well, the little darling is doing quite well for all the trauma she's been through. She went to see "Dr. Phil" at Hawthorne last night. He reminisced about all our other dogs we had through the years. Phil was very impressed with Lizzy and told us that we made a very wise decision to adopt her-he thought she was a healthy, terrific animal and couldn't believe her! He said she will give us years of fun and joy, and was especially happy that we were able to consider adopting again after such a long grieving period over "Orphan Annie". His opinion is that she has no Border Collie. He said she's a good 50% pointer and the other 50% is probably a very interesting family tree! He got a kick out of her ears-said he's never seen ears like that in any breed! They really are funny, and it's like they're double jointed-she can turn them 3 ways! And her face is so 'boxy', that through him off about the Border Collie, too. She's 42.2 pounds, a little more than we thought, and he also thinks she's right at a year old. Lizzy wasn't eating very well; we were hand feeding her and at best, she's eaten only about 3 cups of dry Science Diet through last evening. Part of her problem was a fear of the bowl. She then started nudging my hand with her nose, then nudging the food with her nose in the bowl and doing that over and over, asking me to hand feed her. Phil said not to worry, as long as she was eating something and showing some interest-she is just getting acclimated. We gave her a vienna sausage to see if there was interest or if she was getting sick. She thought it was great treat, so we knew the feeding was just something she's going through. This morning she ate about a cup by herself, so she'll be fine. Phil said it was a good idea to give her something like we did to test what was going on. She threw up in my truck today, so she may have a little motion sickness going on, but she was very good (and I was prepared and had old blankets in the back seat.) Because she is so tentative and shows no signs of being a runner, Mike decided Monday evening to let her walk out to the mailbox with him. She BOLTED and didn't come when he called her-it was a typical scene through several neighbors front yards! He scolded her (and she held her head down-ha). When my oldest daughter came over yesterday morning, I warned her to be careful and sure enough, Lizzy bolted out the gate. But she did come back when Stefanie called her, sort of crawling along the sidewalk, but she did respond. So now I'm working on "boundary training" in the front yard as well as teaching her that she can't go through the gate without permission. Of course all that is now being done with a leash around her neck, but she is actually beginning to act like she knows what I'm talking about. She stays very close to us and follows us all the time, wants us to play with her a lot, and gives us lots of hugs and kisses! She's doing very well with "potty outside" as we refer to it with only having a few accidents in our lower level. She hasn't been introduced to the main part of our house yet, and really doesn't show too much interest in the steps which lead to the upper/main level of our house. My youngest daughter brought their 1 1/2 yr retriever/lab mix to meet Lizzy tonight. They ran miles in the backyard and Lizzy had a great time playing and socializing with "Jill". (My oldest daughter's black lab's name is "Jack"). So Lizzy was exhausted tonight and went to her "room", got in her bed all by herself. Speaks volumes I think-she knows that's her place to go sleep! So as you can see, she's really making good progress. Phil had nothing but wonderful compliments to say about Hope Rescues! You are very appreciated for all the work you do and it is recognized!

I'll keep you updated on Lizzy's progress and hopefully you can visit her soon.

Sandy

"Lizzy's Happy Home"