10/4/05 -  It is with a broken heart that I write this.  Our Molly girl passed away in her sleep over the weekend. You'll see from the starting posts that Molly had a severe heart condition, one of the worst her cardiologist has ever seen.  None the less, Molly's heart was pure gold.  She was truly a gift from heaven and her time here on earth was to short.  I am thankful she found us during her difficult journey and for each and every minute we had together. 

My day would start each morning with a greeting from Molly and end each night when I would hug, pet and kiss her good night.  The emptiness she has left in our world and this house is overwhelming.  She was truly meant for a higher purpose as now Molly is the caretaker of all the souls above and watching over all of us still here. 

A kinder soul you will never meet, our Molly girl was by far the gentlest and caring dog.  Even with all that happened to her prior to her joining our home.  Those times never stopped her from enjoying life each day to the fullest.  She was a puppy at heart, each night she'd roll on her back and just wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.  Then she'd just lay there like she was sunning herself.  She had kisses for everyone and our one cat Murph is going to miss her as well as all the others.  She leaves a lot of sad souls here. 

Molly would draw people to her.  Her beauty and her silly antics and her facial expressions with her tongue just hanging out.  As soon as you would pet her, you didn't want to stop, her coat was as soft as silk.  It was always a comfort to be near her, she sighed a lot and it was so cute.  She didn't bark, but had this tiny whimper kind of sound and it spoke volumes. 

Molly was a magnificent animal, one that comes along on rare occasions and I am so honored that she picked us to be her forever home..for the short time it was.  I cannot stop crying, it will take us a very long time to be able to stop crying or tearing up at the sound of her name and all the memories we have of her.  Now the hard part, to live without her, it's the worst feeling in the entire world.  Many times when I was writing my posts, she'd be right here beside me..this time, she's watching me from above. 

We love you Molly girl, with all our hearts and soul. Please help us get through this time and we'll see you on the other side when it is our time.  You are forever in our hearts. 

Thank you BAR for our loving boxer Molly.

9/23/05 - Molly says hello to everyone at BAR!  She wanted me to say a special hello to her foster mom Patty S and in particular to her son.  Molly doesn't remember his name but sure does remember the kind and loving treatment she received from him and his family; they helped her in her time of need and she will never forget that.   

Molly is still under treatment for a UTI.  We've done extensive testing and she's been on meds for a steady 6 weeks now.  Whereas before, as soon as we'd stop the meds, it would come back in full force.  We're truly praying we've got it this time.  She has a couple more days of meds then she'll be retested.  Please, everyone, say a prayer for her that it is finally gone.  She's been battling this since February of this year. 

I'm late with my monthly report but we've had quite a summer.  The bad news is that we've lost one of our beloved cats.  This year has been not very good for our critter crew.  We had switched over to a new food, which was supposed to be the best on the market and it seems it was the very worst thing to do.  Never have we had so many cats with UTI's and the dental work that has had to be done is unbelievable.  That Molly is having such trouble with UTI and that we didn't do a food switch with her...well, needless to say we've been quite concerned and baffled with all of this. 

Our 10 year old cat Mitts, passed on 8/4/05.  She had congestive heart failure. Molly is close with all of the cats/dogs here.  She is the mother hen of them all.  She truly feels it's her duty to watch over each and every one of them.  Molly was close with Mitts and you would see them together often.  Molly is very kind and sensitive in nature.  A kinder soul you would not find.  We're working though the loss and Molly is ever vigilant watching over the rest of the crew. 

Molly is a scamp.  She loves to run and play and her whole body, head to toe is just one big wiggle! Her inner beauty has always been there and her physical beauty is second to none. Since she's had an ugly tumor removed earlier this year and her teeth and mouth fixed, with the love and care she's getting she is just as happy and proud as can be. I will just sit and talk with Molly, she is such a good listener.  

7/21/05 - Hi to everyone from Molly! Molly is having a heck of a time. She still has a UTI and it's been several months now. Nothing is working to rid of it completely. We feel we have the proper meds and treatment now. This should finally heal her completely. In the meantime Molly has just been wonderful. Having a UTI is painful and uncomfortable to say the least, she'd been having accidents in her crate and it was upsetting her. Several times a day we would change the linens in her crate and Molly would require regular baths. Unfortunately, the accidents didn't stop there, but, it happens. At one point we had to have her off meds and wait 10 days to get an accurate reading on a culture. That was the longest 10 days of our lives. Molly was hurting, she was very lethargic, then, she had to 'hold' whatever she could so they could get a sample by extracting it straight from her bladder. We thought for sure she was going to have an accident in the waiting room at the vets, but true to the excellent dog that she is, she held on and they got a sample. When she got home she urinated for no less than 30 seconds. We did get meds immediately while waiting for the results, anything just to relieve some of the burning pain.

She's so smart. We give her a piece of cheese to take her pill, if you don't do the rapid fire feeding, one piece after the other, she'll spit the pill out. After the entire piece of cheese is gone, she knows there isn't any more coming, you pick up this soggy pill and say "Here Molly" and she'll eat the pill!?! She gets yogurt with her meals and acidophilus as well. She's once again back to her happy playful self. Molly has always been a heavy drinker (water....what where you thinking?? lol) and you will get a bath if you're standing anywhere near the water bucket...(yes, it's a bucket not a bowl) while she's drinking. She has an exceptionally long tongue and throws water everywhere. The floor around the area is always clean. :)

Molly is such a pleasure. The kindness of her soul, the gentle nudge she'll give you to get attention and her love and compassion she has for my husband and I as well as all the animals around her; she loves and cares for her family. Everynight she's grooming one or more of the cats. She's also a resting place for them to hang out near her. Our pug Mogan often runs right into her (he runs into her due to his poor eyesight) or stays underneath her when we're outside...I have no idea why, but that's what he likes to do. Molly doesn't mind one bit. Enjoy your summer.
 

6/22/05 - Molly says hello to everyone! She has enjoyed spring and is looking forward to summer! Something very interesting happened this morning that I would like to share with you. We live in a rural heavily wooded area so naturally there is tons of wildlife. I guess now a days even in heavily populated areas there is tons of wildlife due to the expansion of housing and no where for the animals to go...anyway, we have had several bears around our home and just this past weekend a momma bear and 2 cubs. Molly was indoors and had no reaction to the bears outdoors. It was different this morning.

She was out with my husband and the pugs for their morning walk. My husband heard the noises coming from the woods and knew it was a bear. Molly at this point froze. She didn't move a muscle. I should mention at this point the pugs are playing tag..you're it and totally oblivious to anything going on..lol..that's our pugs! The bear moved on and was a safe distance away that Molly then
allowed Peter to move. I thought this was amazing. I had been looking for an animal that would be my ears since I am hearing impaired, I was hoping that there would be no incidents but it seems this test today proved that Molly in fact is my ears and the boxer that is in my heart.

She is doing great. She's enjoying life and we just love having her around. She is such a happy, loving, friendly, caring...I could go on and on. She just plays and plays with the cats and truly watches over all of us. As always, a million thanks to all the people at BAR and all the
volunteers that dedicate their lives to enrich ours.

4/11/05 - Time for my Molly girl update! Finally, Spring is here and we hope it stays. Molly loved jumping like a gazelle in the snow and is now loving all the new smells that Spring has to offer.

Molly is doing excellent, she has had a full recovery from her surgery. She was such a good girl, she didn't bother the stitches in her leg once. She did get curious but all you had to tell her was 'no' and she didn't lick them. This really saved her from wearing one of those cone collars. She has been through enough, we didn't want to add to her discomfort.

Molly did have a very bad UTI infection after going off the antibiotics. I happened to be home from work that day (talk about a reason) everything was fine in the morning and then Molly had an accident. This is not like her. She had gone to lay in her crate and I was keeping an eye on her. There was a bit of blood in her crate on her pillow but we were used to seeing that from her gums but now, since the surgery there has been no bleeding, so I was alarmed seeing it. I had let her out and when she peed, it was blood. Of course against the snow it showed up really well. That poor thing kept dropping her bottom to go and just drops of blood would come out. I called the
vets ASAP and they got us in. She was put on another antibiotic (clavamox) for 14 days and she did great. We had her retested and she's fine.

Molly is an exceptional dog, lol, you probably know that from my past posts. She never ceases to amaze me. On Saturday we were working around the house and it was time for the pugs to go out, I said to Molly "Let's go get the pugs." Sure enough, she walked right into their room!?! I've never said that to her before but she knew exactly what to do. We had all gone outside, they did
their business and we stayed out for a bit to enjoy the beautiful weather. We have started our nightly walks and I must look like a dog walker with 2 pugs and a boxer!?!

We work daily on commands. The pugs, they do get it but it is taking awhile. It's been almost a year since obedience school but, we're working on it and pugs are pugs. They're so happy go lucky and mischief, mischief, mischief. Molly on the other hand, she learns quick. She executes a command with percision and crisp movments. She will sit like a statue and will not make a move till she is told.

When I am doing floor exercises, Molly is right there with me. She loves kisses and hugs in between sets when I'm resting. Sometimes my rest stops are a bit longer than they should be but who cares, with our crew there is always someone watching me, a cat laying on me and Molly right there too. One time I was working on my stationary bike and was holding a cat at the same time...I'll leave that story for another time..lol.

Molly loves to go for rides in the truck and whenever we can, she's with us. My husband takes her with him to do errands and she loves it. If he goes to pick up a pizza, there is Molly just waiting to go for a ride!

Molly is still holding onto the 2 lbs she's gained since she's been with us (October 2004), we still have 5 to go and it's an uphill battle. We need to do it slow and have the weight stay on. Just the thought of having to 'gain' weight..I think you can understand. Actually, she's gained 2 ounces so it's a total of 2 lbs 2 oz. Every little bit helps.

Molly says hello to everyone at BAR and says THANK YOU! I'll talk to you again next month.

3/2/05 - It's that time for our monthly update, I don't want to be late again!

Molly just had surgery. It was a routine procedure, but for Molly, nothing is routine. When her cardiologist told us several months ago that a normal dog's chances are 1 in 10,000.00 if something goes wrong and then tells us that Molly's is 1 in 20...not good odds. Our Molly girl has one of the worst heart conditions the vet has seen. Molly, doesn't know it, she has a heart of gold and a soul to match. Her gums and teeth were bad, she had the boxer mouth if you will but since she was neglected in her former home, things got worse than they should have. Molly also had a fatty cyst on her back leg. It was just ugly and not our priority, but as months past, it was growing at a rapid rate.

We spent months of talking to her cardiologist and our vet and then they in turned talked to each other. We did not want to rush into anything nor did we want to put Molly in any danger if it wasn't necessary. We thought we'd just have her teeth done, that was most important and we'd just leave the cyst..but, as I said the cyst was growing. So much so that now we had both of these procedures to contend with and to do it as fast as possible and with the least amount of stress for Molly as possible. Keeping her under for the least amount of time as well. Her surgery was on 2/25/05 and everything went great!! They were able to clean her teeth, remove the bad ones and she had many stitches in her mouth where they had to work on the gums. They were able to remove that cyst and Molly came through with flying colors!!

As for my husand and I, we were a wreck! We didn't know which way to turn and I cried from the moment we dropped her off till they called me and said everything was fine! We picked her up as soon as they would let us and brought her home to recouperate. Molly slept most of that first night, she had pain meds till yesterday and she's still on antibiodic's till tomorrow to insure that she doesn't get any infection. She takes her meds like an angel...oh, with lots of cheese of course and when she wants more, she spits the pill out! When I tell you that the very next day...she was back to her old self and you'd never know she had surgery??!! Peter and I were still
recouperating?! We had a quiet weekend to just be with her and to keep things calm. The incision on her leg is the entire width and thensome. Our vet just called and told us that the cyst was not cancerous, we never even thought it was but it's great to have the confirmation. Now that she's had these procedures done, her general health is excellent. She's keeping on the 2 lbs she has gained and
we still have to get another 5 pounds on her...we're working on it.

Molly says hello to all the people involved in BAR and to the familes that fostered and cared for her. I wish for everyone to have their Molly and to my friends and family I'm sending chocolate boxer (the BAR fund drive) to EVERYONE so they will be reminded our our girl and the others out there like her.

1/20/05 - We're long over due with this but I just had to write and tell you just how fantastic Molly and our family is doing. We have resident pugs and many cats and our Molly girl...well, she's the den mother of them all. I've had dogs all my life and never have I had a dog that loves two people so much and alllll of our crew. They usually have a favorite, but not our Molly. When my husband Peter and I sit for the night, Molly is right up there in his lap (and the 2 pugs too), if I get up, she'll follow me. We have several special needs cats, Molly watches over them like they are her own. One in particular, Murph, she has taken under her paw and the relationship that has come out of them being together for these 3 months is so loving and caring. Molly has an oversized tongue, it's often just hanging out. It just makes her more endearing. She grooms Murph with such affection and he just lies there purring. lol The very first time she did this he was walking away YEECCCKKK...but loved every minute of it! He went back for more. The expression on his face is priceless. Trust me when I tell you that he gets a bath! They are often times just sitting with each other, mostly Murph sitting between Mollys 2 front paws and she's just sitting over him in a protective pose. Molly greets all of the other cats and most headbutt her, she loves the attention. We
bring her every place we can (wish she was at work with me now) and she is as good as gold. All of our friends have dogs/cats (what a surprise) Molly loves meeting the dogs but goes nuts for the cats. BAR, in their initial interview ask you "Why a Boxer?"...my answer now would be...Molly. I honestly didn't know why a boxer but figured why not a boxer...my answers were ok for them but now..our Molly girl, she was meant to be in our home and she had sent out her request to us to start looking because she was coming home!! Working with BAR for several months is a pleasure, it is worth it, the animals pick you and just wait till it's the right time. The need BAR, all the loving and caring volunteers who not only devote their time but their hearts as well to this dogs that are just dumped and abused and just..no longer wanted. BAR takes them in, shows them that there are loving and caring people. They get the necessary care and attention
which helps them be prepared for a better life in their new forever home. BAR works with them to forget the abuse and neglect, and gives them good memories to start off their new journey with their new families.
To BAR...thanks...you have given us one VERY special family member who right now, as I write this is sitting at my feet just has happy and content as can be. To the other boxers waiting...your forever family is coming, in the mean time, enjoy, you are safe, loved and cared for.
My special thanks to Patty S. who fostered Molly, she did an excellent job and it shows. To Tina who worked with Peter and I over the months to find 'our boxer'. And to Gary, who fostered her last who we had the pleasure of meeting and seeing all the other boxers and pugs he has at his home.
To the rest of the volunteers, thanks and our prayers are with you at all times. Thanks for people like yourselves that save these precious animals lives and give to people a gift that is priceless. Especially in these cold weather months, it's always on my mind of the animals just left outside. It's helpful to know that you are out there looking for them and then bring them into your homes.

10/17/04 - Molly jest went home with her new family. A GREAT match for this girl, She will have 2 rescued pug siblings, and 14 cats.  Molly LOVES pugs....in fact molly loves every creature she has met...so, she is going to have a great life with a GREAT mommy and daddy