Just in case you're wondering...

Hi folks, Mom C here. It's been a while!

I haven't visted this blog in a long time, and I noticed that Jaida still gets the occasional visitor with questions. I'm happy to help in any way I can, so feel free to email me Jaida's hotmail account: help_jaida

As for the star of our story, she's doing just fine and dandy (other than feeling a little itchy today due to spring allergies and the bath I gave her yesterday :-P). She's as sweet and lovely as ever and has been doing quite well health-wise (I cringe saying this, in fear of jinxing the good streak :-P).

Anyhoo, any newcomers with bendy-footed or three-legged pups are more than welcome to drop me a line anytime. :-)

Cheers,

C

The final(?) post

Hi faithful readers.


I think this will be the last post for the forseeable future. You see, life is just, well, LIFE now, and it's pretty boring. Two years ago I started this blog in the hopes that other dog people dealing with similar situations might find some useful or comforting information (in the "oh thank GOODness someone else has been through this before" kinda way).


Jaida is doing quite well. She has good days and bad days and she's still the dog that causes us the most worry out of the three. She still has allergies and may need to undergo a small surgery to remove a lump and fix some issues she's having in her, um, girly parts. She's the one who gets stung by wasps (because she tries to eat them, sigh) and inflates until she looks like a shar-pei. She sometimes get spasms in her front leg that make her yelp and us frantic. She has days when she's a bit stiff and it's obvious to us that she's going to be arthritic at a considerably younger age than most dogs. But MOST of the time she's just happy-go-lucky, sweet, sweet Jaida, who doesn't let her disfigurement stop her from enjoying her life to the fullest.


We all thank you for taking the time to follow Jaida's Journey. If anything super-fantastically-important comes up, I'll be sure to let you know.


Love from us all, and extra love to all the other lucky three-leggers and bendy-footed-pups out there whose humans recognized their worth.

Raw, baby.

Crystal here.

Nothing super-snazzy new to report. The only big change in our pup's lives right now is their diet. We have gone 100% full-time RAW.

Yep, raw.

As in, naked, uncooked, bone-in, meat. Oh, and organs. And eggs. And fish. Yummy.

Without getting into too much detail, as you know we did a fair bit of research on dog food/nutrition this year. Frankly we ended up pretty much horrified by what we've been taught to feed our dogs, via clever marketing and misinformation. This led to a switch from common commercial kibbles (prescription vet diets, Iams, Purina, etc. etc.) to grain-free, meat-based holistic kibble. We settled on Orijen, an absolutely marvelous Canadian product. The dogs did really well. This was a good first step. More research ensued, leading us to dip our toes in the waters of raw.

Lo and behold, Jaida ate her food. Not only wilingly, but RAVENOUSLY. Like she ENJOYED eating. This is the same dog we've been more or less bribing to eat since day one. This was a pretty good indication that there was something to this "raw" business. More research, some diet planning, some seeking out resources like local butchers, fish markets and neighbours with unwanted food in their freezers, more diet tweaking, and voila. Full-time raw.

The girls had chicken thighs, chunks of pork, some liver, some whitefish and some green tripe for breakfast this morning. Nummy.

Anyhoo, they're thriving on this food. I'll probably post more on the diet later, as we're starting to learn about some implications of kibble-feeding (high carbohydrates) for carnivores on gut and overall health. It's an interesting subject, and deserves some discussion.

In the meantime, please enjoy some wintry pics of the lovely ladies in question....

The cuteness. Honestly. And some bendiness.

Crystal here.

Can you stand it? Can you really? It's just too much.

I'm grateful that Charlotte's Mom#1 lets me post these pics. Like me, she became a google addict when this little bendy entered her life, and found frustratingly little information, let alone PICTURES for goodness' sake, of other dogs with leg deformities.

Charlotte's bendiness is different from Jaida's. In my humble opinion, it's pretty neat-o (but then I'm a geek that way, y'all know that). She seems to have a bit of bone protruding in the upper arm, near her armpit (do dogs have armpits?) The vet is planning to xray when she's 6 months, and in for her spay, and they'll figure out what best to do for the arm, if anything, at that time.

(Is it just me, or am I crazy for wanting to smoochie-smooch that bellie???)



Charlotte's Mom#1 is in that lovely limbo-land I remember so well: what on EARTH is going to happen with this pup's arm, and when? The waiting and wondering can be oh-so-frustrating. Sometimes you just want all the questions to be answered RIGHT NOW so you get just get on with gettin' on.

Call the paramedics!!!

Crystal, intrepid reporter, reporting live:

Mr. Dino is down, I repeat, Mr. Dino is down!!! All units report!!!

Jaida takes full advantage of the weakness in her nemesis..."quick, get him while he's down!!" (stuffing flying everywhere)

"Here, let me help, we'll tag-team him!!!"


"Victory is ours, bwah-ha-ha!!!!"

Update: Although the attack on Mr. Dino can only be described as opportunistic and malicious, he has survived the encounter. He thanks the hoomans for their quick response and, although his arm will never recover, he is thankful to be alive...

A face only a mother could love.

Crystal here.

Heidi. Upright: cute. Squishy, but cute.


Upsidedown: not so cute.

BAY-BEE bendy Charlotte is growing up!

Jaida here.

We had to share more cuteness (we're all about cuteness around here). The BAY-BEE bendy is getting bigger! Look like she has some TUFF-ness as well as cuteness! Mom Crystal says that Charlotte has a new mom and dad who is waiting for her to come live with them when she's bigger...yay!