Meet Our own deaf
Dane Ambassador
Casper
Sunday 9/25/05 - I just got off the phone with Casper's foster mom. He got his
Percorten shot on Friday and has been on IV fluids all day today. He is
not responding to treatments. In fact he is continuing to deteriorate.
Clearly there is more going on than what we already know about. I made
the decision, based on what the vets that have seen him this week have
said, and what his foster mom had to say, to have him PTS today. I wish
we could have done more. I wish we had had a bit more time before
things got so bad and before he was so clearly suffering. I wish there
was reason to believe that if we could just get him through the next
few days he would rebound and go on to lead a full happy, healthy life.
But that is not the case. And I see no reason to ask him to continue in
obvious pain when there is little to no chance of a light at the end of
the tunnel.
Think of Casper and hug your dogs extra tight tonight.
And remember him as he is in these next two photos, full of life with a family that loved him.
 
We will miss you Casper, more than words can say. You were a very special boy.
 Gender - Male
- Age/DOB - 1/15/2002
- Height at the shoulder -
- Weight - 140
- Spayed/Neutered - Yes
- Taken in on - 9/18/05
- Available as of - Medical Hold
- Housebroken - Yes
- Obedience trained - some
- Good with other dogs - Yes
- with cats - Yes
- with kids - Yes
- with the elderly - Yes
- Temperament
- Casper is so sick at this time, that we are unable to properly evaluate his temperament.
Casper's owners have to give him up He is deaf and also has Addisons Disease. We own an AD Dane ourselves, named Tank, and we also placed another AD Dane that came into our rescue earlier this year, named Hector.
So we are very familiar with what it takes to care for an AD dog, as
well as deaf dogs. We will assist his new owners in learning how to
deal with his AD.
Here is what his owners had to say about him. "Casper is great
with other dogs, he is very submissive. Casper is suffering from
Addisons and has, at least with me, a little separation anxiety. But
other than that he is a very great dog. He seems to think that he is a
lap dog which is very cute. Casper is a very close dog..he will not
stray far from me. of course he is a deaf dog. He gets along fine with
my cats..but of course it took a while because he wanted to play with
them and they wanted nothing to do with him...which was quite funny.
Other than that..he is a white Dane who is a very quiet dog and very
friendly. He gets along well with kids and adults. He is a very, very
lovable dog and will be greatly missed."
Casper's owners are moving in 2 months and he can
not go with them. We are going to try and find him a new home before
they move, so that he does not have to go into foster care. Casper is
currently in Toronto, Canada. We will not be transporting him here to
us unless we have no other option, as we do not want to stress him
that much. AD dogs have a hard time with stress and the less we can put
him through, the better. Losing his master and home, and moving into a
new home will be hard enough on him. AD is easily controlled through
medication, but is not curable so the dog must remain on the medication
for life. For more info about Addisons go here and also be sure to check out this site.
Update 9/20/05 - Well we have Casper in a temporary foster home. Gwen from Birch Haven,
a Canadian Dane rescue, is fostering him for us and has had him since
Sunday. He is in much worse shape than we were led to believe. We do
not know what all is wrong with him at this point, and will be doing
some testing this next week, but for sure he has a raging infection of
some sort in his feet (see photo below). He is also listless and has no
energy, and he seems afraid of people in general, though Gwen did say
he had perked up a bit today and actually wagged his tail at her. Gwen
is not only donating her time and taking him into her home, she is also
helping us out with his vet expenses, despite being burdened with a
number of sick rescues herself. Hopefully we can get in some donations
to help this poor sweet boy out as he, Gwen, and DDRI could really use
some help.
Update 9/24/05 - Casper is in very bad shape. He is in constant pain
now, has lost 30 lb., has not eaten more than a few bites in a week,
all the life has gone out of his eyes, and he is generally up all night
whining and howling in pain. We may have to put him on an IV. At this
point it is unclear if he will even survive. I have added new photos
today, taken by his foster mom. It is almost inconceivable how the dog
shown in the top 3 photos below, which were supplied to us by his
former owner, could have degenerated into the dog that
was handed over to us. Something very wrong has happened to this sweet
boy. We are committed to trying to save Casper if possible, but we are
going to need help. So far his vet bills are over $500, and we have
only barely scratched the surface. This was only his first visit to the
vet. If he has to go on an IV, he will need to be admitted to the vet
hospital full time. We know that under all this pain and suffering, is
that sweet boy we saw in the original photos, and we want to try to
help get him back if we can. But we won't be able to do that without
your help. To donate to Casper's vet fund click here
We will post additional photos of Casper as time goes by, so check
back often.
And if you have any questions about Casper or any of our dogs,
email us or call us at
541-746-0863
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"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader.
He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.
You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion" - Unknown
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DDRI, 2002-2005
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