It's been a while!

Sorry for being gone for so long. There has been so much going on here at the house, I haven't been able to keep up. OK, so let me fill you in on what the boys have been up to in a nutshell, then I promise that I will be better about their blog from here on in.

- The boys had their first snow
We had the boys' first snow! I didn't know what to expect from them (I never do) but it was really fun. Mo Mo was very excited at first, as he is the one that always loves the cold. He was outside for a total of 2 minutes before he realized that it wasn't that great. He basically kicked and screamed in dog language the whole time that we were outside until the last 6 minutes or so, which he spent trying to eat all of the snow/ ice that was on the ground. Mr. Wendel was not very excited at all to see that there was snow outside. He seemed very upset that we would suggest he go outside in that sort of weather, and walked very carefully. To my surprise, after the first few minutes, Mr. Wendel was running around like he was shot from a cannon! He had so much energy and was very excited to be discovering a new thing! He really didn't want to go inside after our walk. Wesley was throwing snowballs at them (typical...), and we all had a blast. Can't wait until next year's snow! Look us up on www.youtube.com/momoandmrwendel to see the snow filled fun!

- Continued Problems with potty training
Well, unfortunately the boys are STILL having a hard time being potty trained. While there has been no more poop in the house (yeah!) they are still peeing if we don't keep an eye on them (especially Mr. Wendel). Mo Mo is doing much better but I am still nervous if he isn't right next to me, so I am leash training them now which is working very well. Basically, you get a really short leash and keep them right next to you wherever you are in the house, and they won't go to the bathroom. Good practice holding it in, but I have no idea how you transition them from being leashed all the time, to not being leashed in the house. They are also still peeing around the baby gate where they sleep. I think that we are giving them too much room in there... they basically have whole room to themselves, and it is gated off with a white baby gate. They pee around the back and sides of the area (never in the middle) so I think that they feel that they are going outside. I don't know what I am supposed to be doing about that. I have tried to look it up online, and they all just say that dogs don't go to the bathroom where they live. That may be true for MOST dogs, but what about puppy mill dogs, that have ONLY gone to the bathroom where they live. How in the heck are we supposed to train them not to go potty in their room?? *Sigh* We will keep working on it.

- Art Landerman
The whole family went to dogfest 2009 in Baltimore, MD earlier this year, and we met with a man by the name of Art Landerman (www.artlanderman.com). He had a booth set up at dogfest among other vendors showcasing his pet portraits. We took the boys there, and talked with Art, who seemed very nice and really was proud of his work. We decided to hire him to do a painting of our boys, and it was the best investment that we ever made. The painting is incredible, and we couldn't ask for anything more. Art is a wonderful, extremely talented, funny, good person that we would highly recommend to anyone that wanted to get a portrait done. He also does people, and other pets.. He is truly amazing.

- Mr. Wendel goes to meet Dr. Cochran
Well, upon getting the $2200 estimate from Dr. Hymen, at the recommendation of my dear friend, Linda, at the Potomac Valley Pekingese Club, I visited with Dr. Cochran in Fairfax, VA. She was very nice and quoted us around $1100, which is way better than the $2200 that we initially were quoted. We are scheduled to get surgery in early January, and are very excited to see the progress that Mr. Wendel makes. We will keep you posted.

- Mr. Wendel get's a tick bite
It is ALWAYS something with Mr. Wendel. We were supposed to be going out to dinner with my family, and as I was getting ready to go, I gave both of the boys a bath, and discovered that Mr. Wendel had a HUGE tick underneath his collar (it must have been there since his last bath- about a week prior- because it was engorged). I, of course being the cool as a cucumber dog mom that I am, freaked out, called the vet, and got him an appointment there. They told me that I had to take the tick off. I remember how to take a tick off from all of my years as a summer camp counselor, and a lifetime of running around in tick infested woods, but it was so much worse taking it off of him. He was crying and looking at me, as if to ask me why I was hurting him. I suffocated the tick with vasline, then took a match, blew it out, then immediately put it on the tick as close to the head as possible to kill it and make it let go. It worked, but I still feel like I left some of it in there. When Wesley got home, I shoved him back out the door, and we all went to the vet. We gave Mr. Wendel to the vet tech (and got Mo Mo and Mr. Wendel both canine flu booster shots while we were there), and the vet tech handed him over to the vet to check him out. He said that everything looked good, to put neosporin on it. He also said that if he was acting funny (wasn't eating, very tired, grouchy, not drinking water) to send him back in. Mr. Wendel was right as rain the next day, so we never had to go back in, though it took about two weeks for the tick bite to go away. Crazy, I know. It is all gone now, and we are no longer on high alert.

- Thanksgiving with family
We took the boys to have Thanksgiving with all of our family and it was lots of fun. It is so nice to see family after not seeing everyone in forever. The dogs had a great time playing with my little Arthur cousins especially. They have three kids, 2 boys and a girl, and they were so great with Mo Mo and Mr. Wendel. One of my cousin's son is possibly a dog reincarnated! He was playing with the dogs like they were on the same wavelength. Impressive for sure. My cousin's daughter was so sweet with Mr. Wendel and as is his nature, he was very depressed to leave her when we had to go home. He is such a drama king LOL. All in all a wonderful holiday dinner filled with fun and family. Just the way that I like it.

Mr. Wendel's First Appt with Dr. Hymen!

Mr. Wendel, Mo Mo, Wesley, and I drove to Annapolis, MD on Friday August 21st 2009 morning for our 10:30am appointment with Dr. Hymen. We were immediately taken aback by how beautiful the building was. It is set by itself with very well maintained landscaping in the front. When you walk in, you are greeted by about 8 really friendly and competent staff of pet lovers. When Mo Mo and Mr. Wendel and I walked in, they all were talking about how sweet and cute they are and being very attentive to them. I sat down and completed the new patient paperwork and the boys sat in the chair next to me. About 20 minutes after I completed the paperwork, we were taken back to the room where Dr. Hymen met with us. She was very nice and really knowledgeable. Her technician, Shelly, was very nice as well. Dr. Hymen did several tests on both of Mr. Wendel’s eyes to check his ocular pressures, tear production, and looked at his retina. There was good news and bad news.
The good news was that she said that Mr. Wendel’s big eye’s (his left eye) retina looked good from what she could see through his corneal pigment. She did say that he would need the surgery. She said that he has some serious pigmentation (which we already knew) that was causing visual impairment for him. She also said that he has a large amount of blood vessels on that eye which she is concerned about so she put him on some mild steroid antibiotics for his eye to shrink the blood vessels.

The bad news was regarding his right eye. We were told that his eye was small due to a congenital defect. Upon further examination, Dr. Hymen told us that his right eye had sustained a serious trauma when he was younger that was evident by a large laceration scar in the middle of his eye. She said that he probably had something that stuck him in his eye when he was young and it was left to get infected. She said that the laceration must have gotten really painful and infected to the point that his eye just stopped developing and that is what caused his blindness and the size of his eye. She did tell us that it doesn’t bother him now, so there is no reason to take it out which we were happy to hear. I was so sad to hear about the pain that he must have endured as a newborn. Dogs are such amazing animals. He went through so much pain and suffering at the hands of these monstrous puppy millers, and he came out a wonderful, cuddly, happy, playful boy on the other side despite the fact that he is half blind. I think that we can all learn something from his strength and forgiveness.

We were given a cost estimate for his surgery (attached in detail). They said that it would most likely be somewhere in the middle of the high charge and the low charge. Dr. Hymen was nice enough to give us a 10% discount so it’s not as bad as I originally thought that it was going to be. Thank you so much for all of you that are interested in helping. As always, feel free to call or email me with any questions, concerns, or just if you want to chat!

Vote for Mo Mo

http://www.cutestdogcompetition.com/vote.cfm?h=B55CEBDDD2F152D8E952334D89C286C5&page=1

Please click on the link above to vote for Mo Mo in the cutest dog competition!!!! Wish us luck!!!

Keep Your Fingers Crossed!

Well, this morning was the first morning that we are trying to keep the boys at home...without their puppy pad!!!!!!!! I am scared for what I will find when I get home...and what Christa and Hannah (our lovely secret dog sitter friends) will have to say about the situation... We will see...

Puppy Pad Problems

So we have discovered that Wendel does NOT like to go potty outside. I don’t know why… but he really likes to go potty on the potty pads in the house and refuses to go potty outside. Wesley took him out for a last potty last night and he told me that Wendel was obviously uncomfortable and holding his potty and he finally decided to let it go outside and he put both of his front paws against the wall outside and pooped right up against the wall standing on his back legs! He is so funny! He is really good at going on the little puppy pads though. He hasn’t had an accident (knock on wood).

Wendel loves to chew the pig ears that we buy, and Mo Mo was never interested in chewing them. Now that we have Wendel, Mo Mo likes to wait until Wendel does all of the work and gets them all mushy and chewed then tries to steal them from him. A fight will ensue and Wendel always wins. Even if Mo Mo gets it from Wendel we just don’t think that it is right to take Wendel’s hard work and give it to Mo Mo so we give it back to him.

We are going to have to figure something out regarding Wendel’s pooping on the puppy pad in their room. They have their own bedroom that they stay in with a little baby gated area that has their puppy pad, water, food, and their beds in it. Wendel goes to poop on the puppy pad then they play in there and they run in the poop. By the time that I let them out in the morning they are both covered in poop! They are still smiling though… but I have to spend 8 times the regular amount of time that it takes me to get ready in the morning when I have to clean up two puppies, change their flooring in their room, change their pad, hose off their baby gate, and dry them both off. It is crazy! Their beds just got out of the dryer from the last poop incident!

Anyway, if you have any suggestions about how to remedy this problem let me know. I have thought about putting a little box around the puppy pad and having the box opening face the wall a little bit so that they can’t run into the box, but since Wendel can’t see very well I don’t want him to think that we got rid of the puppy pad all together. I also am apprehensive about elevating it for the same reason.

Wendel Surgery!!!

After discussing it amongst ourselves, we decided that if there is a way to make Wendel able to close his eye, we want to get it done. I called (literally) every veterinary ophthalmologist in Virginia and Maryland and I found a doctor that we are comfortable with! She is located in Annapolis, VA. We are more than likely going to have him undergo a procedure called a Canthoplasty. Basically, the lateral canthoplasty will shorten the upper eyelid by making a triangular split thickness resection. The success rate is very high, and we are really hopeful.

It is going to be really expensive but it will be money well spent. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it is to sleep with your eye open and never be able to fully close it. He is such a happy boy you would never know that he had an issue, but at this point we have to administer his eye lubricant every two to three hours and I am sure that he would rather be doing something else. Also, if it is hot or really windy or sandy I don’t want his eye to be exposed and that could lead to other foreign objects getting into his eye and terrible pain.

We have our appointment for consultation with the veterinary ophthalmologist in early September, so in the meantime we just need to keep giving him his eye lubricant and his antibiotics. We are very excited!

http://www.jaaha.org/cgi/content/abstract/42/6/435

lagophthalmos treatment for dogs

Good evening!
Does anyone know anything about lagophthalmos treatment for dogs? I am trying to look into getting Wendel surgery so that he can blink and

sleep with his eyes closed...two things that at this point he can't do. I see that in people, they insert a weight in the

eyelid so that the person can blink easier. I am thinking that there must be a surgery to extend the eyelid or something

to that effect. If you know of anything, please let me know!

Wendel update!

Wendel is a dream boy! He is so wonderful! He can already sit and lay down and we haven't even had him for 24 hours! He walks with Mo Mo and I without a leash on and he is the most cuddly boy in the world. He has to get eye lubricant per the vet because his eye is so exposed and it can't lubricate itself and let me tell you, the first time that he got the drops, he freaked out (it is my opinion that he freaked out because he could tell that vet didn't like him...) but when I put them in he was SO happy! He sits still and just lets me rub it and loves to get his medicine! Both of the boys got their heart worm preventative and flea and tick preventative today, so they won't have to worry about that until a month from now.

Wendel makes me hate puppy mills even more than I already did (as if that was possible). Mo Mo and Wendel are both so sweet. They both love to give kisses. They both love to cuddle. They both love attention. They both are smart. The only major difference between them is their face. That's it. Also, Wendel is a little smaller than Mo Mo. When people see the two of them it breaks my heart because everyone immediately goes to pet Mo Mo and won't touch Wendel. They just stare at him and get this weird look on their faces. I think even Wesley is having a hard time with his eye... he has yet to let him kiss him or kiss him on his face. I hope that changes...

He sleeps on my feet when I am on the couch and he LOVES when I hold him like a baby while I am sitting in the living room. He really has taken a liking to Wesley. He cries for him when he is not around and he really likes it when he gets attention from him.

Another thing that is really interesting about Wendel is that he seems to already know that it is not good to go potty in the house. He is already using the puppy pads, and he scratches at the door when he has to go potty. It is unreal how quickly he has caught on to how our house works. Our neighbors have a very barky dog that they always leave out on their porch and when he barks he scares Mo Mo but Wendel barked back and defended Mo Mo! He is a little macho man!

He has the sweetest heart and he is the nicest little boy and I just hope that people can see past his small issue to see the big sweetheart that he is!

WENDEL IS HOME!!!

We picked Wendel up from the airport last night!!! He was very stinky and scared. He didn't want to come out of his crate at first, but when he did he was a wild child! He wasn't following me like Mo Mo did when we first got him, and he was trying to run away. He was so stinky that Wesley had to keep the windows down the whole time that we went back to my parents' house! We went there to have dinner and let them meet Wendel. That went really well. First order of business there was to wash his stinky butt! It cut the smell a little bit, but there was still a lot left on him so we are just going to have to wash him everyday until the stink goes away. So we had dinner with my parents and their dogs, then went home to let the boys meet each other. They get along SO well! Mo Mo is really excited to have a brother. Wendel is a bit different that Mo Mo. He is a lot more possessive of food (as Mo Mo is not at all possessive of anything...except me!), he cries a lot more than Mo Mo ever has, and he doesn't follow you very well. I was so afraid that Wesley wasn't going to love him, but you just can't help loving this cutie!

This morning, we went to the vet's office at 8am. Dr. Reed Hall doesn't work on the weekend so I had to settle for someone else, which I wasn't to happy about but I figured it was worth a shot. The vet was visibly grossed out by Wendel which made me so frustrated. She said that he has to have eye ointment for the rest of his life, he has limited visibility in his big eye and no visibility in his small eye, and his big eye may have to be removed at some point. She said everything else is good. He was a very good boy at the vet and only barked when a big black dog came through the door that he really really wanted to play with. On the way home, we got new beds for the boys, a tag for Mr. Wendel, and some more heavy duty soap for the stinky boy! We got home and took naps because EVERYONE is tired!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6k-ELilv-0SjnZjkoPhotw?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Rg_bFS66gmPKO3-f3G_NLg?feat=directlink

Tomorrow is the day!

So, Mary spoke with the airline yesterday and we are getting Wendel tomorrow. It is final! I gave Mo Mo a haircut this morning and we finally got the air conditioner fixed! What a great day! Mo Mo has a little lump in his lower tummy area from his neutering, and Dr. Reed Hall says that he thinks that it is possibly the sack that wasn't removed and it should go away, but it hasn't gone away or gotten smaller, so I am thinking that we are going to have to get it removed. I have also been watching his stitches closley and it seems like he is getting some scar tissue developing around his insicion. I could also be overreacting... which I tend to do when it comes to my furry baby!

Mo Mo has a secret friend that comes and walks him everyday named Christa and she is wonderful. We call her Mo Mo's secret friend because we thought about it from his perspective and she does seem like a secret friend. We couldn't really communicate to him that he was going to have someone come and walk him during the day, so from his perspective one day someone showed up at the house and played with him and took him out for a walk and has come everyday since. He has never seen us together, so he probably thinks of her as a secret friend that comes to play and we think it's so cute! Whenever we come home we ask him if he has anything to tell us but he never confesses to having a secret friend! Christa is a great secret friend! She keeps a walking diary for him that tells us what adventures they had together, and she even noticed his fur cut and said that she loved it! Yesterday, Mo Mo got to meet a new secret friend: Christa's girlfriend, Hannah. She said that Mo Mo had a great time with her and they had a great time. We think that it is such a riot that it is a party in here for Mo Mo when we are not home. I can't imagine what it will be like when we get Wendel and these two wild men are running a muck in the house! Here comes trouble!

Waiting for Wendel

Well, I can't hardly wait to meet Wendel. I spoke with Mary today and she told me that it may be too hot to send him tomorrow, so I am holding my breath and waiting to find out if I will be able to hug him tomorrow!!! I hope so... We are planning a trip to take the boys out to visit with our friend, Neil's parents. We went with Mo Mo on the 4th of July and we had a great time! He got to go out on a boat and watched the fireworks (he didn't even jump once!) and he was the center of attention with the little kids. I am really excited that Wendel will be able to go with us as well. Hopefully he will be as easy to adjust to the house as Mo Mo was.

There are so many people that are superficial in this world it blows my mind sometimes. I haven't even been able to hug and kiss Wendel yet, but I have gotten some nasty comments about the way that he looks. He is adorable. I don't care, but it just makes me feel bad for him. I want him to get as much love and attention from everyone as Mo Mo does. They look almost identical, except for his eye. I am hoping that when he gets here and people see him in person it will be different.

Mo Mo is healing up nicely (he was neutered about a week ago) and it is amazing, but he is STILL humping things! It is not as often as it was (thank goodness!) but he is still doing it! Oh well, maybe he will get better as he gets older. I trimmed his hair today and he looks really cute (but what's new?). Our A/C is broken and it will (supposedly) be fixed tomorrow, but until then Mo Mo and I have been using a portable A/C unit that Wesley bought for us. At night, Mo Mo has been sleeping with me with the A/C in my room and during the day we move the A/C into his room. He loves it. The colder the better for him. Whenever I open the fridge, he tries to climb inside of it and when we are at our friends house, whenever he finds an air conditioning grate on the floor he will immediately throw himself onto it and veg out. That's my boy!

Well, hopefully I will have a full report of my wonderful Wendel tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

Tanjiro Wendel Howell

Here are some pictures of our new edition, Mister Wendel. We are getting him this Thursday from my friend, Mary who runs a rescue group in Nebraska. She is an angel! He has one eye that is slightly smaller than the other one, but that doesn't stop him at all! Mary tells us that he is a big stinker and loves to kiss and play. Mo Mo is going to have a run for his money.

The story of Mo Mo

My name is Emily, and I guess that I had better catch you up if you are going to be following my Peke boys!

The one pictured above is Mo Mo. His birthday is March 21st 2009, and he is a ball of energy. His full name is Montaro Raul Howell (Montaro means "Big Boy" in Japanese, so I figured that it works). When I wanted to get a dog, I applied to 9 rescue groups to try to get a dog but no one would adopt to me because I didn't have a fenced in yard, I am not married and I live with my boyfriend, and that I don't own my own home. I wanted a dog so badly and I was unable to find one through a rescue so I decided that I would try to buy one from a private breeder, as I didn't want to end up with a puppy mill supplied dog. We scoured the internet trying to find the perfect baby, and then our hearts melted when we saw Mo Mo. He was so happy and full of energy that the woman that was selling him couldn't even take a good picture of him. We knew instantly that he was ours. She was located in Georgia, and we discussed how we were going to get him over to us. She suggested flying him on a plane, but we decided against that because it isn't that far, and Wesley said that his grandmother was going through the area with his aunt and cousins and they may be able to get him for us. We were so excited, so we tried to call them and ask about it. We were immediately at ease with Mo Mo's seller because she had a sweet southern accent and sounded very much like Wesley's grandmother. It turned out that his uncle and cousin were actually lost out at sea (not kidding) and they couldn't be reached by phone. We looked at each other and decided to just get in the car and drive to Georgia to get him (10 hours one way!). Our trip was smooth, as we like to stop along the way to see the sights and take breaks on the way to get him. When we arrived, we thought that the house was very nice and comfortable looking. We knocked and there was no answer, so Wesley went to look around back. We were horrified to see that there was a shack out back made up of particle board, chicken wire, and wooden planks that there were several dogs housed in. It suddenly dawned on us that we had walked straight into a puppy mill. The puppy mill operator came to the door. She was very old and her face was very scarred, with the appearance that she had experienced chemical burns or skin cancer on her face. We entered the small back room of the house, and there were about 50 puppies in wire cages stacked on top of each other. The dogs were separated by breed. There was also a black cat in a cage, and three parrots in a cage. The dogs ranged in size from new born puppies to roughly two or three month old puppies. The youngest ones had their mothers in the cages with them. Several of the small dogs were unable to stand up in the cage because their legs were too small to maneuver over the wire cage. The smell was terrible. She had my Mo Mo in her arms, and she was using a large suction vacuum looking blow dryer to dry him off. She had just given him a bath. He looked so scared and he was shaking badly. I couldn't even speak, and I felt as though I was going to start crying any minute so my boyfriend, Wesley stepped in to save the day. He talked with her, asking her questions about the various dogs and generally keeping her occupied. I was just starring at the dogs. It was the saddest thing that I have ever seen. The dogs were barking very loudly, and the woman yelled "shut up, you! Shut UP!" and held up a fly swatter. All 50 puppies stopped barking at once. All of them. I have never seen anything like that. I think that she was using the fly swatter to hit them, and they were afraid. I hadn't spoken the entire time that we were there, but I did manage to ask if we could see Mo Mo's parents, so she took us outback to the shack where the adult dogs are housed. If I thought that the smell in the house was bad, that was NOTHING compared to the stench in the shack out back. In the Georgia heat, these dogs were housed with no air conditioning and there were not four solid walls that separated them from the mosquitoes and other insects, not to mention the sweltering heat. The floor was made of chicken wire and wooden planks that were held up over a concrete slab with a drain in it. There were about 100 dogs in that small shack. The air was being circulated by a very old fan running at a very slow speed. She had basically every sort of toy breed dog that you could think of. They were all sectioned off by breed and there were about 10 dogs per breed in each section. Toy poodles, shih tzus, miniature pinchers, yorkies, Chihuahuas, Lhasa apsos, and of course, Pekingese. The dogs had no solid ground to put their feet on. She had newspaper piled in the back of each dog's sections. We took Mo Mo, paid her the $400 pet fee that she was charging, and left. A lot of people ask me how we could pay her money. The answer is simple. I didn't want to leave him there. I didn't want to leave any of them there. He was shaking very badly, but he didn't get car sick. When we stopped to get gas, I went inside and called 911 from the gas station to report the mill. I also called PETA. The police showed up at the house, and they found that everything was legal! I was floored. They said that there was no animal abuse that they could see. I have never been so upset. I did more research and to my horror, puppy mills are legal!!!! I have made it my personal mission to stop these evil people that operate these torture chambers. Mo Mo was very lucky. He escaped with minor urine burns, an ear infection, and a cold. Other than that, he is healthy. He has very small nostril openings and we may need to get him some reconstructive surgery at some point.

Pekes available for adoption!!!

I have a wonderful friend named Mary that runs a toy breed rescue in Nebraska and if you are interested in adopting a new family member in need, she has lots of them. That is where we are getting Wendel from! I can't WAIT until Thursday!!!

This is a link to her website if you are interested:

http://www.maryshouse.us/