Amelia

Breed: English Bulldog

Sex: Female

Weight: 48 lbs.

2/23/2020 Update:

Amelia has crossed the rainbow bridge.  Her diagnosis and loss has been so painful it has taken me a while to be able to write about it.  I am sorry for the delay to those of you wonderful people that have been following the path of this sweet girl.  

So the spots ended up being T cell lymphoma cancer, which is extremely aggressive and not treatable.  Dr. Crow had said it was a possibility it would be cancer but we were all hoping it wasn’t. The skin condition he thought was the cause and T cell lymphoma have the same physical appearance, so it wasn’t until we got the biopsy report back that we knew the devastating news.  

Once we received the news it was almost like Amelia knew and her body started shutting down.  Up until the diagnosis she had been eating great and still relatively interested in life.  Yes, she slept a lot, but what Bulldog doesn’t?  Almost immediately after the diagnosis she lost interest in food.  Our goal was to spoil her rotten for her remaining days, so we cooked all kinds of food to tempt her and fed her as many treats as she wanted.          

Amelia would get restless and uncomfortable at night.   Many nights she paced and would just stand in the middle of the room like she just didn’t know what to do.   I would get out of bed and get her to lay on her bed while I rubbed her all over and kissed her precious face.   After a while she would finally be able to sleep. 

Amelia got noticeably warmer for about a week.  She almost felt feverish and then suddenly one day she was totally cold.  I noticed her gums and ears were white.   I knew this was a really bad sign and started letting the rescue know.  I was worried she wasn’t going to make it through the night.  

The next morning I woke to her sweet face and she was still with us!   From that point on she was very weak and having a hard time getting herself up.  She would stumble some as she walked.   We already had her on pain medicine but at this point we doubled it.  We didn’t want her suffering, but we could see she was struggling.  Her bodily functions were not normal at all for the last weeks, but if possible they got worse.  

it is so incredibly hard to know when a dog is suffering to the point that it is time to end the pain.   I know I have a tendency to wait too long as I hate giving up on a dog, so I needed the support of the rescue team.  We all decided we should meet at Dr. Holbrook’s office to evaluate her condition.It wasn’t good.  As I had suspected she was bleeding internally, which was causing the white gums and ears and making her cold.  Dr. Holbrook said her organs were enlarged and apparently this awful disease was also on full attack internally.  

My heart aches just remembering our last precious minutes with Amelia.  How had this girl that only came to us two months ago so completely stolen my heart?  How could I look in her eyes and say goodbye?  Why does such a sweet innocent dog have to get cancer? Why Amelia? Why can’t she get years of love and a wonderful forever home? Why? Why? Why? Aaaaaaaaggggghhhhhh! (Inset sobbing here) 

Amelia had so much love to give and had attached very strongly to me in the short time we had.  She never wanted to walk away from me, so I went with her to the back of the vets office so they could set her IV and administer a sedative.  I wanted her to know she had someone who loved her every second.       They gave us some time for our last minutes together and then it was time.   I kissed her and laid my head on hers.  Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out……she was gone. 

I will never forget her and I hope you don’t either.  

Footnote: This has been incredibly hard.  I am sobbing as I write this.  But for how sad this is, I have had amazing joy from helping Amelia and many other bulldogs.  I will continue to help as many bulldogs as I can and I hope you will help us in our quest to make sure no Bulldog is left unloved and uncared for.  There are so many that each have their own story and so much love to give.   We can’t do it with out fosters and all the loving families that make theses babies a part of their family.     Do it for Amelia. We miss you girl.  

2/2/2020 Update:

Amelia Bedelia’s update

This week I went to the doctor.  But it wasn’t just any doctor it was a Dermatologist.   That is a big word for a dog, but foster mom says Dr. Crow is going to figure out the mystery of my skin spots. That would be such a relief.   These spots drive me crazy!First they put me on a scale and saw that I am 49 pounds.  I am not a big girl but muscles weigh a lot. Then I went with foster mom back to a room just for us.  A nice lady asked questions about me and foster mom let her know I came to rescue in December and no matter what we tried my spots just wouldn’t go away.  

And then…..Dr. Crow came in and immediately came down to my level and gave me some scratches and pets and told me what a beautiful, sweet girl I am! Wow! I think I am in love!

But best of all, Dr. Crow said “I am pretty sure I know what this is.”  Wow!  After multiple doctors and lots of people that really know bull dogs, we found the perfect specialist to help me!  He said this condition is super rare, but totally treatable! Whew! I thought foster mom was going to cry from relief, but she held it together thank goodness.  

They had to take me back to get some biopsy’s which was kind of scary but they were so nice.  Dr Crow sent me home with a new medicine to take while we wait for the biopsy results.  He said if results come back as expected that this is the medicine that will make me better!  We are supposed to get the results back tomorrow (Monday)!

The biopsy spots kind of hurt for a few days so I laid low.  I am feeling much better now though and pretty sure I am less itchy.  So now I have been taking this medicine for 5 days.  Foster mom thinks maybe she sees a slow improvement.  She gave me a shower today to help clean up all my scabs.  The skin under is still kind of raw, but boy did it feel good to get some of those itchy scabs off. 

So let’s talk about something besides my skin.    I had a ball yesterday at the No Borders Bulldog event at 9 Bands Brewery.  I love going for rides and I love being around people so it was a win win day! It was fun to see all the other bull dogs and so many people were nice to me.  Thanks to you all that looked past my skin to see the loving dog underneath. You know who you are!

Today I am looking forward to the Super bowl!   I may not stay awake for all of it but I bet there will be some good crumbs dropping!

Yaaawwwnnnnn, time to go take a nap so I am ready for the big game.  

1/27/2020 Update:

1/19/2020 Update:

Amelia had so much fun at the No Borders Bulldog event at TUPPS Brewery!  She loves people and appreciated all the attention.  It’s hard with her skin looking so bad to compete with all the other beautiful bulldogs, but her sweet face and temperament more than made up for it!

Amelia gets along with almost all dogs.  Of the 15 or more dogs there she only growled at one.  

Amelia also LOVES going for car rides.  If she sees the leash she knows it’s either a walk or a ride and she is up for either one.       Amelia has not liked the cold and rainy weather.  When I would ask her to go out she would look away and just hope I would go away. She had a few potty accidents during the bad weather until I realized I was going to have to revert to making her go out.  I would have to get her by the collar and gently encourage her to come out of her kennel or off her bed.  Once I got her going she would then go willingly.  Another thing I have discovered is she would go #1 and then run back to the door and then once back inside she would go #2 by the door.  So now I know I can’t be fooled by her running back to the door.  I stand or walk around the yard and eventually she will sniff around and take care of business.  

One of the cutest things Amelia does is running for her bed once she is back inside.  It’s like she wants to make sure no one has bothered her bed or toys while she was out. When she first got here she would only keep the toys she came with hidden in her kennel.  Slowly she has selected other toys to add to her collection.  

This week it seemed like Amelia got depressed a little with the gross weather.  To perk her up, I took her to my office and it made her day.  She had to go up wood treads to get there and did pretty well.  She stalled out about 3/4 of the way up and I had to help her a little.  Going back down I had to carry her.   I don’t know if she will improve or not. The slickness of the wood treads seems to be some of the problem so possibly she would do better on carpeted stairs.  Either way she was so excited about the new environment and getting time at work.  She also immediately found the “work toys”. Smart girl 🙂

This next week we are making her an appointment with a dermatologist as her skin still isn’t healing as much as we would like to see.  Hopefully we will find out more about what the irritating factor is and speed this up!  

Overall Amelia is just such a sweet girl. She is happy to sleep most of the day but loves it when we come up with an outing for her.  She us so easy going about everything but her bed and toys.  She doesn’t mind humans in her stuff but the furry friends know it is off limits.  If I go to straighten her bed she is right in the middle of it and I just have to straighten around her. Ha!

So if you haven’t met this sweet girl yet you are in for a treat!

1/13/2020 Update:

Amelia 3rd update:

Brrrrrrrr! White stuff is cold!  I am perfectly happy to stay inside when it is this cold.  I was getting pretty brave coming out to hang with the foster fam until all this cold showed up.  My foster mom says I “regressed” to hiding in my kennel again  but wouldn’t you?

Before all this cold showed up we got to sit out front one evening.  It was raining, so I was smart enough to stay right by my people out of the rain. The other dogs had to stay on a lash because they want to wander off.  Not me.  I know when I have a good thing.  Foster Mom is always telling me what a smart girl I am. I think she is pretty smart too for seeing how smart I am. Hey! Just stating the obvious!

 I will come out of my kennel for a walk or if people or dogs show up. Yesterday foster mom’s family showed up and they had a lab puppy.   This isn’t my forever home but it is MY foster home, so I had to let that puppy know who was boss.   I made some scary noises and then I heard “treat” and well…. a dog’s gotta do what a dog’s gotta do.  Establishing who is boss comes in line AFTER getting a treat.  By the time treats were over I decided it was ok to leave the puppy alone.   It was so much more fun to watch all the play time and make sure no crumb went un-noticed.  I just made sure no dogs got near my kennel.  That is a no-go situation for me and I will put on my mean face for that.  I don’t care if Foster mom fluffs my stuff but no furry friends allowed near!

Don’t misunderstand.   I like fur friends but I like getting some respect.  Puppies these days.  Humph.  

Foster mom’s human “Niece” was here too and she was fun!  She was on the floor throwing toys and it was fun!  Kids are fun in my book!   We played for hours last night, so today was a major napping day.  Yaaaawwwwwnnnn. 

 My bad spots are slowly getting better.  Foster mom takes good care of me and gently rubs them which feels so good.  When she doesn’t do it enough I rub my back on things to try and scratch them. The itch is driving me crazy!  I get treats with every meal. Foster mom puts something in it but all I know is they taste great!  She also rubs some stuff on my bad spots and I like that too.  

So I am  just hanging out getting pets and rubs and kisses.  Foster mom says I have a beautiful, kissable face.  If that gets me more attention then I am ok with that.

 I hope to meet you soon!

1/6/2020 Update:

Hi! hi! hi! I am Amelia!  I am feeling brave enough to come out and give you an update this week.  I may have to go at a moments notice though if any sneaky dogs get near my toy stash in the kennel.  I have some good squishy red toys, and a nice fuzzy flat toy, and some bones!  I LOVE my toys and I keep them tucked in safe and sound at the back of the kennel. 

This week I also got a super squishy bed not in the kennel and if no dogs are around, and my toys aren’t at risk, I will sleep there.  Since I am house broken foster mom lets me come and go out of my kennel whenever I want to.  

Foster mom has been getting trained this week.  I had to show her that even if she is super sweet I am NOT coming out of the kennel if fur siblings might get into my kennel.  I had to teach her that the other fur siblings have to stay on the far side of me so that I am always closer to the kennel.  Then I am all about coming out for some good scratches.  I have been teaching her good, but I also did a little learning.  If she has the fur siblings away from my kennel and she says “Want to go outside?” Then I am all in!  Foster mom laughs because once I decide I am ready to go then I skip/run.  If it’s worth going then it’s worth going fast!

When we go outside I have fun sniffing around with my fur siblings.  I like them as long as they aren’t by my stuff!  We sniff around together and sniff each other some, but I don’t like wasting too much time outside.  As soon as I do my business then I skip/run to the door.  Once the door is opened then I FLY back to my kennel to make sure my toys are all safe! Whew! A girl can never be too careful. 

So do you know about BACON?  This week there was this AMAZING smell coming from the cooking room. It was such a good smell that it was worth a trip out of the kennel to check it out.  Foster mom said “Look who decided to come visit?”.  I am IN LOVE with bacon.  Foster mom gave me a little with some stuff called eggs.  Let me tell you…mmmmmuuuuaaaaa. Slurp worthy! So now when I hear any noises in the cooking room, I will probably have to make a trip out to check it out.  

I have also been brave and come out to the room where foster mom and dad sit together watching the moving pictures on the wall.  I like to walk back in forth in front of her to make sure she gets all of my back scratched real good.  I don’t nap out there, so once I get tired with walking back and forth I head back to check on my toys. One night foster mom picked me up on the the couch and kept trying to get me to lay down, but I just didn’t want to. Maybe once I know my toys will be ok I could lay next to her.  

So, another cool thing about foster home is a room called “the pantry”. Did you know there are TREATS IN THERE?  I have to sniff around in there several times a day just to make sure there are none hiding on the floor.  Foster mom and Dad are so impressed how quick I figured out the pantry trick that they usually reward me with a tasty morsel. SLURP!  I know how to raise my paw for a treat which gets lots of laughs and results in MORE TREATS!  

 My bad spots are still driving me crazy but I am pretty sure I am feeling better.   I am finally able to sleep at night a little better since they aren’t hurting and itching so bad.  Foster mom is so good about giving me good scratches and rubbing my bad spots lightly trying to help with the itching.  I think she helps me out so I don’t rub my back on things to scratch them myself.  She doesn’t like how hard I rub them and makes them really red.

Foster mom was so worried about my bad spots that she took me back to Dr. H for a check up.  I love seeing everyone there and they sent us home with some ointment and something called steroids.   Those steroids are making me feel a ton better!  Foster mom says she is finally seeing some good progress.  She says before I know it I will have my silky coat back. 

I have to admit it has been a real bummer having such bad spots.  I hear people say “ewww, gross”.  I don’t want to be ewww gross.  I like it better when people see my face and say “how beautiful!  I love people of all sizes and love getting attention.   I can’t wait until people won’t be afraid to pet me any more.  

Oh! Gotta go check my toys!

1/1/2020 Update:

Amelia 1st pupdate:
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Amelia! We are reporting live from the center of the effort to make Amelia the luckiest bulldog on the face of this earth!  Amelia is already the sweetest, most adorable girl with people and dogs alike, so now it is time to shower her with the love and attention she deserves. No Borders will stop at nothing to make sure she receives the best care and will have her healed in no time!  So I am honored to help her through the healing and report to you on her incredible progress already!

As mentioned before, Amelia came in with serious skin issues (so badly infected that pretty much no one had seen anything like it before).  They were oozing and so swollen it didn’t seem possible that it was just from allergies. When her side was touched her whole side would contract in reaction.  I want you to understand how miserable she had to be so you can appreciate the fact that she was STILL as sweet and loving as could be.
Once we had her wounds cleaned up and antibiotics in hand, we headed home to meet the rest of the foster family.

Amelia met the other dogs one at a time in the yard with no aggression, but some timidness towards the other dogs. Where ever I walked in the yard she was right by my side.  When I sat on the ground to pet her, she wanted to be touching me.  Amelia seemed to enjoy being scratched and rubbed though I was carefully around the bad spots.  In fact, it seemed like her whole body would react like all her skin was itching (which I am sure it was).  I was, and still am, amazed how well she is in spite of the skin issues.  Her eyes  are bright and clear and she moves around very well.  In fact she seems much younger than her 6 years.  After about 45 minutes outside, Amelia didn’t want to play and seemed like she wanted to be in the house, so in we went to introduce her to the house.  Most fosters can’t wait to sniff out the whole house but not Amelia.  She was like glue at my side.   She had come with a nice dog bed and a bag of toys. Amelia went with me to the car to get them and the minute I started carrying the bed she was grabbing at it.  I got to the living room and the minute it hit the floor she was on it and wouldn’t move.   That was HER BED and none of the other dogs were allowed near it or on it.   This was the first growling I heard out of her, but it never progressed beyond that. She just wanted the other dogs to know it was HERS! I also placed a couple of her toys on her bed and she was so happy to see them and immediately let the other dogs know they were also HERS.

At bed time I had to get her off her bed so I could move her and her bed to the bedroom.  She was grabbing at it the whole way but never aggressive with me. Once in the bedroom I quickly put it into the kennel and she almost jumped in on it. I heard her moving around some but we were all soon fast asleep.  I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of her walking around.  I assumed she needed to go outside, so I followed her to let her out.   But she didn’t go to any door.   Amelia was sniffing around the living room at all the dog toys.  Uh oh, she is going to pee in here!  Suddenly, she found one of HER toys and picked it up and RAN back to her kennel where she tucked it in safely in the back corner.  Ha! We had ourselves a hoarder! She knew the difference between all the many toys and just wanted HERS.  

The next morning I got a few more of her toys and placed them outside the kennel. She timidly came out, sniffed them, picked one and scurried back into the kennel to tuck it in with the other toy.  Then she repeated with one more toy but shunned the last one.  

The rest of the week was spent trying to help her feel safe enough to come out of the kennel. Each time I had to pull her out and she did not like any of the other dogs to go between her and the kennel.  I had to hold her collar or have her on a leash to gently encourage her to leave the kennel so she could go out or go eat.  It was hardest when she was still close to the kennel as she would try to scramble back in but the farther we got away the more willing she was.   When we went outside, she would relieve herself and immediately run back to the door.   Once the door was opened she would race back to the kennel.  

Over the week I would sit outside and take her for walks to encourage her to feel safe out of her crate.  We did lots of treats and rub downs out of the crate. The crate stayed in the master bedroom, so the dogs and I would go sit in the master bedroom to give her company.  By day 3 she would walk out of the crate to get rubs only if I was sitting right by the crate.  Amelia would do the slow licking of her chops to show she was content getting rubs.  I would kiss her sweet face and I swear she smiled.

Day 5 Amelia had to head back to the vet for shots and to be spayed.  Dropping her off was tough as she looked at me with the “What? Where are you going without me” look. She came home groggy, but happy to be back with HER bed and toys.   It wasn’t until day 6 that we were in the living room and out she walks!   I was so proud of her, but I had no sooner said “good girl” than she ran back to her crate.  Baby steps.

Later on day 6 she walked out to the family room again and headed to the panty where I had been giving her treats. Smart girl stuck around long enough this time for me to give her a treat before she high tailed it back to the kennel. 😂      Day 6 was Saturday with lots of good football on tv.  As we were watching she showed up by the couch!  I lifted her and she hung out for rubs for the rest of the game.  She never would lay down but just acted like a rotisserie chicken rotating for rubs all over.  She never even jumped when my husband was yelling at the tv (Dad had anger issues with the refs yesterday), so add to her list of attributes that she is a good football dog.   Unfortunately the last of our favorite teams lost yesterday, so she won’t need that skill until next year…. but back to Amelia.

Today is day 7 and Amelia actually walked to the utility room with minimal encouragement to eat her breakfast!  Later she almost skipped to the door when I offered for her to go out.  She will always love her crate I am sure, but she is making huge strides to feel comfortable out if it as well.    Also, her sores are greatly improved, but we have a ways to go.  The pink areas around the scabs are where she is healing.  Amelia is on a limited ingredient dog food, so time will tell if just that will be enough to diminish the allergy issues.  In the mean time she will be getting lots of love and scratches! Stay tuned for the next episode of “The Healing of Amelia”.

12/23/2019 Update:  

Please welcome Amelia to No Borders Bulldog Rescue. Amelia is a 6 year old female English Bulldog that weighs 48 lbs.

Abbey joins the NBBR family as an owner surrender.   Even though Amelia was an owner surrender, we don’t know a lot about her.  The family that owned/surrendered her only had her for a few months. The family was given Amelia by a friend that used Amelia for breeding/puppies.  They took Amelia in and quickly decided that they were unable to take proper care of her.   They contacted NBBR and asked if we would take Amelia and help find her a forever home.  The first thing that was noticed was that Amelia had several large open sores on her back.  We were told that it was allergies.  Her first stop was the clinic, however Dr. H wasn’t there (taking a much needed vacation day). After looking at the lesions further, it was decided that Amelia would go to her foster family’s personal vet.  It was not only apparent that her sores needed cleaning and antibiotics, but that it was painful for her.  So, to the vet she went.  Amelia got cleaned up and was given both a topical antibiotic and a systemic antibiotic.   This was only the first step for Ms. Amelia, as she will be seeing Dr. H later this week for any additional needs.  She also needs to have some of her vaccines brought up to date and to be spayed.  All of this has been scheduled for later this week.

Amelia was very shy when she first met our volunteer, BUT she quickly warmed up and is a very sweet girl.  Many people think that being surrendered 2 days before Christmas is a horrible thing. But, for Amelia this was a present that will change her life forever.   While at the clinic to get registered, Amelia said “hi” to every single person she saw.  She even met a few pups that she was great with.  Amelia seems to like everyone and everything that she meets.  After she was registered she got to meet her Foster mom. Amelia was waiting at the door when Foster Mom came in (we think Amelia was ready to leave), but when she met her new Foster Mom all that went out the window and it was time for lovin’.   Amelia then went to her foster home to settle in.   Her Foster Family has two other dogs, so there will be a slow introduction period to allow everyone to get acquainted.  This Holiday season is filled with much change for Ms. Amelia. While change can sometimes be stressful, this Holiday season will be one that Amelia will never forget.  She received the gift of a second chance. The gift of the good life, to be pampered and treated like the princess that she was destined to be.   Stay tuned for further updates as we learn more about this sweet girl.