Pomeranian Rescue Stories

Obviously the phrase, “never say never” was quoted especially for me. After Luka, Mika and Little Sophia died I told myself that I wasn’t going to adopt or foster anymore Pomeranians. Having my own is hard enough… and with their deaths, a part of my heart was ripped out, so my husband and I said no more. No more adopting and no more fostering, no… no… no. We kept telling ourselves that Yoki and Niko was all the furry babies we needed and wanted. Yoki has come into her own and is a bright shining star in the Pommy Mommy household. She plays with my husband and I, has become very demanding and isn’t anywhere as skittish as she used to be… my baby is all grown up. Niko is still the Prince of everything Pommy Mommy, still strutting his stuff and being the cutest boy any Pommy Mommy could ever want. Niko and Yoki have bonded into the dynamic duo… or Bonnie and Clyde, depending on your perspective. They are the cutest when they’re together.

Wait for it… yep, never say never. So, I’m hauling my pregnant butt up the stairs to get into bed and I hear a call from my husbands office. Hun… hun, are you in bed yet? I never like to hear those words… it either means, we have to talk about the business, we have to make some big decision or he needs to show me something. All of which, I don’t want to discuss when I want to crawl into bed and relax. If you know my husband he won’t let me rest until whatever we need to talk about is resolved… sometimes until 2am… OK, he isn’t that relentless now that I’m pregnant but you get the picture.

I answer him with a, “no, what’s up?” I probably should have pretended to be sleeping because what came out of his mouth seemed a little odd for a 10pm discussion. He blurts out, “You won’t believe this”. (add appropriate expletive) If you’ve ever talked to my husband an f-bomb is surely in your future if not your present.  He goes on to explain to me how an acquaintance of his named J.C. whom he new from Cigar Events they both attended, had just died. He was 63 years old and was a former Radio personality here in Vegas. All of which went over my head because I don’t care to much about Radio or cigars… but, what came next made me need to sit down. Rocco got an email from another friend of his asking if he knew of anyone that wanted 2 Pomeranians… a boy and a girl, that were J.C.’s. If they couldn’t find them a home they were taking them to the No-Kill Shelter. Here’s where it gets a little crazy.

J.C. was sick in the hospital for about six weeks. His brother tried to feed them and let them out but worked 12 hour shifts, so they where not getting any attention. If they went to the shelter they would have got less. So, Rocco talked to the brother and interrogated him like he was a murder suspect. After the interrogation he came to me and asked if we could take the brother and sister Poms in until we could find them a loving home. My husband is a 49 year old, 12 year old… he presented his case like he was on trial for his life. Johnny Cochran has nothing on my husband. After he stated his case, I believe I killed O.J., yea… he’s that good. So two Pomeranians were dropped off on our doorstep. I wish that was the end of the story but no… not even close.

We both thought that we would find them a new forever home and that we could go on raising Yoki and Niko and preparing for the birth of our little human boy coming in July. Wishful thinking never fell so short. These Poms were loved but very neglected… I know it sounds like a paradox but that’s the only way that I can describe it. They both are the happiest Pomeranians I’ve ever seen, all they want to do is play, snuggle and be happy. Problem is they were fed garbage food their entire life, Purina Dog Chow to be exact, they were never groomed, smelled like they hadn’t had a bath in years, had breath that would knock you off your seat… and that was just what we were able to notice in the first 15 seconds.

When we brought them into the house a whole host of problems presented themselves. The girl had matted fur that was very thin. You could see her very dry skin through it. You could see her hip bones through her skin… not a pretty sight. The fur on her tail was practically gone but it kept wagging.

The boy was a whole different story. He was 11lbs overweight at a whopping 21lbs. He skin was flaking off in chunks, he had no fur on his back with open sores, had a limp in his right leg, and has a cyst the size of superball on his left back foot. All that and he has an intermittent cough that comes out only when he gets excited. Obviously, he was an incredible mess.

We gave them both a bath and brushed them out… what little fur they had, to see what we were up against. We waited until the next day and started to ease them into a better food. Since their fur and skin looked really bad we decided to supplement their food with anti-oxidants, coconut oil, pro-biotics and made an appointment with the Vet. We took the boy we now called Duke to the Vet a couple of days later because he seemed to be in the worst shape, the girl we now call Duchess was responding well to the new food and supplements and that’s when the bomb was dropped on us. The Vet told us that Duke most likely has Cushing’s disease, a respiratory infection, needs a dental because he’s never had one in the 10 years he’s been alive (that’s why his breath stinks) and may need to have his toe amputated since the cyst we saw grew over his toes. Just the initial costs to treat him would be between $1300 and $1800, not including treatment for the Cushing’s. Duchess would be another $600 to $900 for blood tests, a dental and x-rays to see if there are any bone problems.

I should have pretended to be sleeping.

We were not prepared for this at all. A couple of hundred… even $500 would be alright… but over $2000 is a bit much especially with a new human baby on the way. We couldn’t say no to these awesome but neglected semi-furry babies but now we have a dilemma. We don’t have insurance for them like we do for Yoki and Niko… so do we ask the Pommy Mommy community for help to get them on the mend or take the money out of our savings? Well, we can’t let them suffer and we want them to be healthy so we can find them a forever home, so we came to the conclusion that we would do both.

We were told by the Vet that it would probably cost upwards of $5000 dollars when everything was said and done. Since we have an awesome Pommy Mommy community we thought that if we could raise $2500.00 dollars from everyone we would match the $2500 with our own money.

It’s not like me or my husband to come to other Pommy Mommies for help but this one took us completely by surprise. If you would like to help out with Duke and Duchess’ Vet bills please click this link and donate what you can.

Here is a copy of Duke’s preliminary Vet Bill. I will have a copy of Duchess’ up soon. Thank you in advance. Watch the video below to see Duke and Niko playing.

Cheyenne is my first Pomeranian.

She was kept indoors all the time. When the family left her home alone they left her locked up in the garage… it still breaks my heart to think about it.

Cheyenne was purchased by a man and his wife for their, at the time, 4 year old daughter… yes, I’m still amazed at that decision. They were renting their home and were not suppose to have animals, so they snuck the puppy in and wouldn’t let it outside to avoid anyone seeing her. I was told she was trained to a litter box but she wouldn’t have anything to do with one when I got her.

When I took her in she was full of little bits of tangled hair. It was obvious to me that she wasn’t ever brushed out because every time I tried to brush her she went nuts.  She even snapped at me a couple of times trying to keep me from brushing her. I’m a little tenacious so I kept talking to her in a calm voice and she relented to me brushing her… it was a great bonding experience.

I’m not sure what happened to her in her old home but every time I get anything out with a long handle (broom, mop, rake) she gets upset and starts barking and lunges at it. To add insult upon injury, I was told that the little girl would toss her into the air and catch her, she was 4 years old… really?

A neighbor found out about the dog and told the landlord, so the people were told to get rid of her. Their son-in-law was visiting shortly after this and called me to see if I wanted her. I was mainly a big dog lover. We were living with my mother-in-law at the time and couldn’t say yes without asking her if it would be ok. I asked my husband when he came home from work. I told him about the dog and his exact words were, “Don’t need no damn dog.”

Well, I decided to make an executive decision… and took her in any way. It was kinda weird because there was really no resistance and now she is more his buddy than mine. A month or two after getting her the same nephew and his family came over… and was shacked at how she had acclimated to us. We were sitting in the front room when Cheyenne came tearing into the house… like the tasmanian devil, jumped up on my lap and jumped from lap to lap, jumped back down onto the floor then ran outside with the kids. It was hilarious to watch the looks on everyone’s face…. but that’s our little Cheyenne.

She loves kids but doesn’t want to be held by them. In all honesty I wouldn’t trust kids handling me… so why should she. Cheyenne is now 10 years old and still full of energy and spunk she has always had. A few years ago Cheyenne started losing the fur on her torso and tail. The vet said there was nothing wrong with her, it is something that just happens. We would get little sweaters and shirts to put on her but she didn’t like them. This last spring her fur started growing back and she looks more like a Pomeranian. Not many people at the dog park believe she is 10 years old watching her run around the park. We expect to have many more years with her. Cheyenne is everything to us and don’t know what we would do without her.