Dots

Monday, August 22, 2011

Meet Pepper


As I promised, I'm bringing you a post today about my brand new foster puppy, (Yes, puppy! She's only 8 months old) Pepper. Or Pepper Potts, or Paprika, or Paprikash (Any "When Harry Met Sally" fans out there?) or Patches, or the myriad other names I call her. This lucky girl came with her cute name, but Patches, as you will soon see, might be more fitting for her.

(A heads up to you now -- the photos below of Pepper aren't very pretty! There's no gore or anything, but she's got a skin problem and if you have a weak stomach, you might want to skip this one. If not, read on!)

See, the reason Pepper was surrendered to us was because Pepper had a severe case of demodex, or as it's more commonly known, mites. Her owner couldn't afford the treatment, so she surrendered her to us.

And are we glad she did! We immediately took P to the vet and got all of her shots taken care of, in addition to getting her dipped (she has 4 dips to go before she'll be completely healed of the mite infestation) and getting her medication (as a result of the mites being untreated, she contracted a bacterial infection on most of her skin).

When Pepper first came to me on Saturday, she was extremely timid and seemed very exhausted. After our visit to the vet, she curled up on the couch and slept for hours. But once she got her nap, her medicine and some food in her, she turned into a puppy again! She does the adorable puppy run that we all know and love, and she loves to wrestle and play with Toby and Olivia. She's already mastered "sit" and "stay," and follows me when I go to get the mail.

Pepper's a good dog that got caught in a bad situation, but I'm so glad she's here now! Pepper will be available for adoption in about a month, once she's all healed up. During that time, I'm going to share some photos of her with you, and we can track her healing progress together on a weekly basis so you can see some of the good work that the Boston Terrier Rescue of North Texas does (they paid for all of the vet bills, and will also pay to have her spayed next month!). It's also a good way to demonstrate that a lot of dogs come to us, young and cute and healthy like Maggie and Buster, but more often than not, there's a little recovery involved for these poor pups! But if you put in the time and the love, you'll get a best friend in the end. (So cheesy! But it's true.)

So let's take a look at Pepper as she is now (but hopefully won't be for long).


Is this Pepper? Not yet! But I took a photo of Pepper to Pixelmator to draw out a cartoonish idea of what Pepper might look like in about a month! Please excuse the rendition, it was my first time and I'm no graphic designer. On to the real Pepper!


It's easy to see how infected Pepper is, but especially when she's laying next to healthy-as-a-horse Olivia. Maybe soon they'll start looking more alike.

There's a whole lot of CUTE under all of that RED!



Here's the before. Check up a few photos for the after!




The vet said that Pepper's mite problem was worse than the illustration in his handbook!


She may be a little beat up, but she still has that adorable "Huh?" puppy move down.

Check back here for more updates on Pepper and life at Brooklynne Boston! I'll be posting a weekly assessment of her recovery in addition to regular updates of goings-on around here!

5 comments:

  1. Bless her!! What a sweetie.

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  2. She is adorable already, but will be a knockout when her fur comes back in! :) I've been fostering an 11mo female Boston through the group for the last month & we are definitely going to be foster failures, we're keeping her! LOL

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  3. She is such a sweetie! She's a perfect example of a physical dichotomy -- so puppy like, jumping around and rolling in the grass, but her skin makes her look like a grandma. But I know the moment she is ready to be adopted, she'll go fast! I would love to keep her, but I think Sam would have my head if I adopted her!

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  4. She is so gross I threw up in my mouth a little, I am proud you can foster these poor pups. If it was me I would get a razor and look for the person that let this happen and make them look the same, so awful eh!

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  5. Can't wait to see her all healed up and pretty!! Bless you for taking care of her.. = )

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