Spirit 07-681 [1]

Sponsored by: Carolyn Bailey 

This is an update and photos of Spirit, who was transported from a Brainerd shelter on December 16. Spirit has been diagnosed with lymphoma, and weighed in at 39.11 little pounds. As the one photo shows, she is barely a bone.

Although it seems not much is known about Spirit's past life, I think she was at one time loved and cared for. She seems to like men - a lot! - and must have belonged to somebody with a pickup truck, as when I put the tailgate on mine down, she ran right over and put her paws up on it.

Spirit gets along fine with my resident cats and dogs, and is a quiet little girl who wants nothing more than a soft toy to carry around and to be next to you. She can do the 3 stairs into my kitchen, but until last night didn't try the stairs to go upstairs, or down into the basement. Last night, though, she made her way up the stairs so she could sleep in my room. Of course, going down this morning was another matter, so (luckily only the 39#!), I carried her back down.

She is now eating like a little piggie, I am mixing canned food with dry, also giving her Nutri-Cal, and high protein dog treats, to put some weight on her (and hopefully she will learn to go DOWN the stairs before she puts TOO much weight on!)

The vet put her on prednisone, to keep her comfortable with the lymphoma. She right now seems to feel fine, other than an occasional cough.

We had our first (leashed, of course) visit to the dog park, and Spirit wore one of my (much larger) dog's winter coats, which looked very cute on her, as she looked like such a little waif in there. I was worried that since she has no fat on her, that she would chill easily. She enjoyed walking around while my dogs played. We've played ball in the backyard a bit, and she will run after it for a bit, then seems to feel she's had enough, so will just stay by my side. Of course, if she GETS the ball, the game is off for awhile until she gets distracted and drops it, much to the frustration of my lab.

Spirit is a wonderful little girl, who I am happy to provide a home and love for, for as long as God allows her to stay here with us.