Sequoia is our first 'baby'. She is a Malamute/Chow mix. You can read how she came into our lives in the first journal titled 'Sequoia' (Posted May 24th '07). If we are lucky, she is going be turning 12 years old this September. The average age for a dog her size is around 10 years old, so we already are very lucky to still have her around. Last year we had her groomed, and she could not walk for several days. We ended up putting her on a pain medication for aging dogs called Zubrin. She thankfully started to walk again, but she still had a hard time getting around. Especially after we moved to our new home, she slipped a lot on the wood floors. After she got used to walking on the wood floors she started to get a lot of energy back. She started to run around in the back yard, and jump up when she got excited. We then started to give her the pain medication only when needed, which wasn't often. She just had a new lease on life, and it seemed like she was aging backwards! We think part of it might be the new food we have her on which is supposed to be a really great brand, but we also think she too has been changed with our new addition to our home, our wonderful baby Liam. She has been so sweet with him, and we think she really loves him.

I am embarrassed to admit this, but I have not taken her to get groomed for a whole year! She absolutely hates going to get groomed ever since she was a puppy and she ended up having hip dysplasia, and having her hips blown out of her socket. She fights going there, and she fights getting groomed, and it is so hard on her body. With her being 11 years old, and pretty frail now, I have dreaded taking her because of how she could not walk the last time I took her. I fear that she may not be able to walk again, and the medicine just might not help this time. But, alas she just could not go another day without a bath, she just stinks too much! (Sorry girl, but you do.) Anyway, she is scheduled for a grooming this week, and I have given her the pain meds all this week, so I am hoping she makes it through this time!

We know she does not have much time left on this earth, but we sure would love her to have a little more time with our little guy.

Update On Sequoia-(5-7-08)

She did very well with her groom. The meds really helped. She looks and smells beautiful, and she has a clean bill of health. She is an amazing dog!

Gretchen is our 3^rd dog, who also happens to be a rescue dog...for those of you that don't know...I volunteer with an animal rescue group called Pet Samaritan Fund. Two years ago I had an online ad posted for some pets needing homes on a local news site. One morning I received a voice-mail at my work asking for help to find a home for a stray dog. They told me that they had found her wandering in the street, she was very thin and covered in foxtails. Her rescuers had 3 dogs of their own, and also ran a doggie daycare. They had kept her for about 6 weeks, but realized it was just too much to keep her. So, they had called me asking for help. I asked them if they could drop her off at my vet to be spayed. They agreed, but then their car broke down and were not able to get her there. I then asked them if they could e-mail me a picture so that I could put her on our website. They sent me this picture:

About a year after Mike and I started dating Mike decided he wanted to get a dog. His family had never had one, and he thought it would be fun. My family had two dogs at the time, but Codi, an Australian shepherd mix, was my brothers dog, and the other was a stray that my family took in. Niki was a lab mix...he was a sweet dog, but liked to do his own thing. He wasn't too interested in playing or fetching balls. He generally like fetching buried cat poo.

Anyway, we looked at a wolf hybrid, but he was pretty skiddish. After looking through the paper for a few weeks, we finally found an ad in the Thrifty Nickel for husky/chow mix puppies for $25. The puppies were in Salem, and we called the number. A guy living there said to come on down. So we drove there, and we saw about 10 adorable fluffy puppies behind the fence. We both instantly picked out the same puppy. The pup had the most defined mask, and distinctive colors. We both pointed to the puppy, and said "I like that one". So, we rang the doorbell, but no one answered. We waited around for a while trying to figure out why they said they would be there, and they weren't. We decided to get dinner and come back and wait. Still no people. We joked that we should just take her and leave the $25 on the door. But, we weren't sure if she was spoken for. A long time passed and they still were not home. We decided to go to Mike's work and give them a call (this was before the cell phone era). We found a box there and made a box for her. We called over and over and no answer. Then we decided to go to our vets office to kill some more time. We asked what they thought of chows. They said they are known to be mean. We called again from the vets and FINALLY a lady answered. She said the puppy that we wanted was still available and that she was a girl. PERFECT! So we drove back down there, and picked her up. The lady told us that she was born on September 14th. We got her in the car and I sat in the back with her and put her in the box. She cried and cried all the way home.

We being young kids, still living at home, DID NOT get permission to get a dog. We thought we'd keep her with my families dogs outside. So we introduced them and put her on the ground. The dogs were very curious and chased her. She screamed and peed all over the ground. So we thought, this isn't going to work. So we took her to Mike's house. We snuck her in the window well while we tried to figure out what to do with her, she cried and cried. So we took her back to my house, and snuck her into my brothers room. We put her in his bed, and then went into the family room to watch TV. A little while later, my mom came down to check on Eric, and then came to us, and said in a scared voice, "there is a skunk in Eric's room!" Then we said "really?"and busted up laughing, and she said "that's a dog isn't it?!" So we had to take her out. I decided to stay up with her that night. I took her into the utility room and fell asleep on the concrete floor. The next morning she woke me up licking my face. It was pretty early still, so I took her in my jacket and walked around the neighborhood. That morning we were better able to introduce her to my families dogs. We named her Sequoia, and had a blast with her.

At about 9 months old, I took her to the groomers, and when I picked her up she was limping a bit. By the time I got her home, she did not want to get out of the car. I called Mike up, and he came over to help. Something was seriously wrong. We took her back to the store that she was groomed at, which also had a vets office. They took some x-rays, and we found out that both her hips were blown out. She had advanced hip dysplasia, which is generally genetic, but can be caused by a trauma. It is usually not in both hips, and usually does not show up until the dog is older. With hip dysplasia, the pelvis that holds the ball of the hip is too shallow, and it slips out. Hers were completely out of the socket on both sides. We really felt that she definitely had the genetic form, but with her being so young, we thought something happened during the grooming to progress the dysplasia to that point so quickly, but unfortunately we could not get anyone to back it up. The specialist that saw her did say he'd never seen a case like this, but couldn't prove that it was caused by a trauma. He had a vested interest in staying neutral because he got referrals from the store she was groomed at. The surgery would cost $1500 per side. I had been saving money like crazy for a new car, but I decided that she was more important, so we did the surgery. During the surgery they cut her pelvis in 3 places then bolted them at a different angle, so that the ball of her hip would sit inside. The surgery was a great success. She walked perfectly!

About six months later I moved out of my parents house to a small house in Provo. This rental allowed pets! So, she got to live inside with me. She has been an indoor dog ever since. She has been the best dog ever. She is very sweet, and loves to be around us.

She will be 11 years old this September, and she's starting to show her age. We had her groomed last week, and ever since she has been limping. We know it's age this time, so we got her some pain medication, but it's not helping. The last 2 nights she has not been able to go up the stairs to be with us at night. The first night after trying to help her up the stairs, Mike had to carry her up. The second night she seemed to be OK on the main floor, so we let her stay down there, but at about 4 in the morning, she started barking. Mike went down to check on her. She went outside to go to the bathroom, then he was going to sleep downstairs with her, but she was standing by the stairs wanting to go up. He said she looked like she didn't care how humiliating that she had to be carried, but she wanted to be with us. So he carried her upstairs, and she slept soundly for the rest of the night. She has been such a huge part of our life and we really aren't ready to see her go. So we hope to find a good strong medication that will allow her to live longer. We would love to have her meet our first child. We know she will be a wonderful big sister. We love you Sequoia!