Monday, October 16, 2000
It’s time, again, for me to try giving Momma her fluids. On Friday I ended up taking her to the vet clinic and Dr. Turgai helped me out with it. She didn’t squeal or flinch and took it fine. His style was different than mine, but then, he is a veterinarian! So, Momma is going to give me another chance. Dr. Rick wants us to do this every 3 days so I have to be able to do it myself. I look at Momma and it’s even difficult to tell she’s sick. She still wiggles her little butt and fusses at the other dogs if they bother her. She scampers in and out; it’s amazing her organs are about shot. I had told myself I wouldn’t put her through the pain of getting fluids. But I can’t just let her die either. She will shut down much sooner if I don’t flush her kidneys out. Is this selfish of me to want to be with her longer? I think she wants to be with me longer, too.

Scottie and I got the 200cc’s in her. She cried a bit at first but then she settled down as he talked to her about the news of the day. It’s a strange feeling to be doing this. I now have her "hospital bed" set up in the TV room on top of a large crate. Rugs and a pillow are covering the top of it for her to lie on. The fluid bag hangs from a nail in the wall where a picture once was. It is perfect height for me to maneuver the needle and the other dogs can’t get to her. They are all worried about our little mother dog, too.

She should’ve been ours after leaving Alice. I was caught up in another rescue of another minpin and had no where to put her. I had no thought of keeping her. A former adopter of mine who had been helping me with rescue offered to pick her up and just let her live with her. I thought this would be great. Mia would be with 2 other minpins, 2 kids and a loving mom and dad. Whew! I sure got snookered on this one! Jennifer may have started out with good intentions just as Alice did. HUA was ok with me putting her in another home but did offer to take her back to Nebraska if needed. I then found out that Alice had never paid the agreed upon adoption fee for Mia. We have Alice on tape saying "it doesn’t matter how much money…" Guess it didn’t since she never paid it. This made me feel awful. I know her rescue was incredibly expensive not to mention the cost of a plane ticket down here. There was no way I could afford to pay it.

So Mia went to live with Jennifer and her family. For about 3 months she was constantly calling me with one problem or another she was having with her. I tried helping her over the phone; I even went to her house on a few occasions. Momma always looked ok. Then in December Jennifer called saying her vet was going to do exploratory surgery on the dog because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. She’d been having explosive diarrhea and there was no explanation. I convinced her to let Dr. Rick see her before doing anything like that. Thank God I did.