Update on Joy the Min Pin, An Amazing Little Dog

Joy, the Min Pin who was brought to Prairie's Edge Humane Society (PEHS) after being found abandoned in a rest area the day after Thanksgiving continues to amaze everyone every day.  She now weighs 16.7 lbs, down 4.7 lbs and the circumference of her waist is now 20.75 inches, down 2.25 inches from when she first arrived at PEHS.  When Joy first came to us she could not walk further than 5 feet without lying down because her tiny legs could not withstand the weight of her body and she did not have the stamina to walk any further as the weight was affecting her breathing as well.  She can now walk almost 5 blocks without having to stop to rest!  She is a determined little girl and we have quickly discovered nothing gets in her way!

Joy has had a lot going on over the past few weeks.  She has done so well at losing weight that our shelter veterinarian felt she was healthy enough to handle the surgeries she needed.  It was discovered that Joy had some bad teeth so on January 17th, she had a dental cleaning and 4 teeth removed.  She did great with the surgery and the anesthesia. After resting a week from that surgery and losing a little more weight, our shelter veterinarian determined it was safe to perform her spay surgery, so on January 24th Joy was spayed.  The final major goal in her journey to the adoption floor!  Both surgeries were performed at PEHS in our Natalie Smead memorial surgery suite by our shelter veterinarian.  

Joy has also recently been diagnosed with Hypothyroid disease. Joy will begin a lifelong treatment of daily inexpensive medication to treat this condition. Luckily Joy is a champ at taking pills. Wrap it in a tiny bit of canned food or a treat and she eats it right up!  Once her medication is regulated we expect that her metabolism will increase thus helping her to lose even more weight.  We would like her to lose another 6 pounds before placing her on a weight maintenance plan instead of a weight loss plan.  This process could take another 3 months until she is down to the weight that a Min Pin her size should weigh.  It is very possible that her weight loss program will be continued with an adopter instead of fosters or at the PEHS shelter. Whoever Joy's new adopter is they will be required to keep Joy on a strict diet and exercise program which will be monitored on a regular basis by the PEHS medical staff. This dog has endured so much to regain her health that we cannot take any chances with her returning to that unhealthy obese weight.

Joy has recently spent some time visiting the home of another shelter staff member Merilyn, one of our customer service staff.  Joy enjoyed laying in front of the fireplace at Merilyn's house as well as snuggling up to Merilyn's dog Chase, a beautiful Collie.  Since we do not know Joy's history and believe she was very sheltered from normal life, we felt it important that she experience as many new places, noises and other people as possible. She likes to visit the bank and has visited with neighbors on my street as well. She is very curious and sometimes will bark at new noises but learns very quickly not to be threatened or scared. She warms up to new people quickly, especially if offered a treat of her weight loss kibble.  She is showing more interest in toys, but still does not fully understand how to play. My dog Sophie tries to get Joy to play with her and this is how Joy eventually became interested in "Cow".  Cow is a flat toy filled with numerous squeakers and is Sophie's favorite.  Sophie likes to bring you cow and have you play tug with her.  She kept placing "Cow" in front of Joy and would make it squeak until one day Joy figured it out and now gets excited when you make "Cow" squeak for her and will pounce on it. Sometimes other animals are the best teachers. I couldn't give her Sophie's cow so a new cow was purchased for Joy and it is now her favorite.   

As I write this update, it is the day after Joy's spay surgery and she is resting comfortably (with the help of some pain medication) at my home snuggled under a fleece blanket. She likes to burrow herself under the blanket so that you can't even see her.  One time while sleeping under a pile of blankets at my home, my cat Lucy decided it looked like a good spot to take a nap and crawled on top of the blanket pile, not realizing there was a dog sleeping under it. I quickly removed the cat and Joy's little nose popped out from under the blanket to see what was going on then snuggled back in no worse for the wear. I am amazed every day by this little dog and I think about how great it would be if she could talk and tell us what her life prior to Prairie's Edge had been.  When you look into her eyes it is pure unconditional love looking back at you, although I fear in her prior life she probably was not shown much love.  I cannot drive past the rest area on Interstate 35 without thinking about Joy and Praise being left there to die alone and scared.  Unfortunately Praise's story did not have a happy ending. We do not know the story of how these two dogs became companions but sometimes when I look at Joy I like to believe that perhaps Praise is her angel now watching over her.

When Joy does eventually go to her own home with a new adopter, it will be a very difficult goodbye. I know that I will shed a few tears and I'm sure that I will not be the only one at the shelter who does. But this is what we work towards and is the ultimate goal for every animal who is helped at PEHS.  The staff and volunteers at PEHS will miss seeing her every day, I will miss my daily cuddles where she falls asleep in my arms and we will all miss her following us around the shelter "alerting" us to every new thing she discovers or seeing Joy's tiny nub of a tail "wagging" when she gets excited. But it will also be a very happy day knowing that Joy will finally have what she so deserved her entire life; a safe home and most of all...love. 

Here are links to the original story of Joy as well as previous updates:

• http://northfield.patch.com/blog_posts/the-journey-of-joy-the-dog
• http://northfield.patch.com/blog_posts/update-on-the-journey-of-joy-the-dog
• http://northfield.patch.com/blog_posts/update-on-joy-exciting-progress-i...