Bad and Good News

Before I start on the blog, I believed I finished replying to the messages that collected here during our hiatus.

I'm not sure if people want the bad news first or the good news, but I'll give the bad news first since the good news first would start to confuse people.

Bad news: Mika and Nami got in a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE fight a couple of Fridays ago. Mika was hurt pretty bad, and Nami got away with a couple of scratches. I'll upload pictures once my internet is fully up (currently using public wifi somewhere right now). For those of you who don't like to see pictures of stitches or hurt animals, I will post a new post saying pictures are up and then you won't have to scroll down to see them. If you don't like reading about that stuff, you might want to skip to the next paragraph. Anyways, Mika was shaved down so he looks like he's wearing a vest, a majority of his legs are shaved (3/4, actually a little less because not all of his front left is shaved), his front right leg was wrapped because there was so much damage (and we didn't find out until we took him to the regular vet, we went to the emergency vet, that he had two drainage points in the wrap), he had about 8 stitches in his back right leg with two drain points, his tail looks like a poodle's tail but with stitches where the fur was shaved off, one of his teeth had been knocked out but the root was retained, and his tongue was split. Oh, and he is wearing a cone (earning the nickname "flashlight dog," taken from jolly Ollie the golden retriever's blog, but Mika being Mika still came to that name... he comes to any name). When Mika was at the emergency vet, he had to stay overnight because his blood pressure was low and he was given super strong sedatives and pain killers to keep him from screaming in pain every time he moved. He is currently on tramadol, anti-biotics, and the vet just added an anti-inflammatory after the first visit.



After the first visit with the vet, Mika had to be sedated because he wouldn't let the vets change his bandage (but I don't blame him because he was hurt pretty bad), we had a talk with the vet and she recommended that we found a new home for Nami to prevent future fights that go this bad from happening. I didn't get to see the wounds under the bandage (and actually won't until tonight), but the vet said that the wounds Nami inflicted on Mika looked like she had an intent to do a lot of harm. Mika's daddy and I talked it over at night. I had initially thought of asking Hana's mom to see if she was ready to take in another shiba, but I was hesitant to ask because it hasn't been a very long time since she lost Hana. Mika's daddy called the lady we rescued Nami from and told her what happened. She gave us the choice to do what we wanted, knowing that we would find a fitting owner and home for Nami and we know Nami best, so we knew what would work and what wouldn't. When I left Mika at the emergency vet overnight, I called a couple of people to tell them what happened, Hana's mom was one of them.

Good news time: I had been talking to Hana's mom frequently since this incident happened, and one day, I asked her if she would be willing to take in Nami. She said she would talk to her husband and lo and behold a few days later, they are at our house and her husband is meeting Nami. Nami was shy at first, but once she got to know him, she took to him like a duck to water. She snuggled up to him, tried to drink his energy drink, tried to sucker him into letting her drink the energy drink, played with him. She totally enjoyed herself with him. On Saturday, Mika's daddy and I brought Nami to her new house and family, and to check it out to make sure it had been "Nami-proofed (she's still a puppy)."

So, now Mika is recovering, Nami is having fun with her new family (that we will see often because we're in the same meetup group), all is good. I'm just sad that it didn't work out with Mika and Nami, but Nami is with a really good friend of ours, who we know will be taking great care of her (she already gets to sleep in the bed with them). So far, it looks like Nami prefers being the only dog in the house. Best of luck to Nami (for not getting into too much trouble, and for getting use to how things work at the new house), and I wish the Hana's family good health and hopes she doesn't terrorize you two too much. =P (Hey, there needs to be some kind of action and excitement!)