Fanny Update...two months on

It nearly two and a half month since Fanny was dumped, tied up outside my gate. (click to see how she was then)

Since then she's had an ultrasound to see if she had Cushing's Disease - really awful skin, which she had, is a symptom. The result was negative although she does have a very bad heart - on a scale of 4 being bad, the vet said she is 3. She's on antibiotics, two lots of heart pills, something for her crazy stomach that sounds as if it's in the middle of a rough ocean, special baths every five days and cortisone twice a week to help stop the scratching. The vet wasn't sure she could sterilize her because she didn't know if her heart would take the anaesthetic.

Then she came into season and it went on for over a month. The vet said she'd have to sterilize her as otherwise she'd get pyrometra (pus in the womb) but that she'd use the safest anaesthetic she had. And so Fanny was sterilized, had her teeth cleaned at the same time and is now fully recovered.

She has no upper front teeth between the canines - the vet thinks she probably never did. She looks, in profile as if she has an overshot bite but in fact she is vastly undershot, so there is some deformity there. I've not mentioned it to her, of course...

She's put on half a kilo but to do so eats enough to feed a small labrador. She doesn't seem to get the goodness from food and needs more than a dog her size should.

Amazingly she is growing coat where she has the elephant-like skin on her face and under her chin - not around her rear end but then we don't have to look at that too often.

She's very needy - stuck to me like glue. She isn't crazy about the dogs who come to stay but is having to learn dogs share attention in this house but she's now got used to Beau and Mia - she really didn't like Mia at the beginning.

And she barks... so we are working on that. Barking dogs and me - we don't get along.

And she has a godmother in Monaco - a good friend of mine who has undertaken to pay her vet bills for life - and they've been considerable. Isn't that incredible. Thank you to my dear friend, Sue.

Fanny always has the saddest look in her eyes but now she plays with a toy - brings it to me to throw and and I don't think she'd play if she wasn't happy - or at least as happy as she can be. I often wonder about her life before and why those eyes look so sad...

Kisha

Meet Kisha. She lives in Mandelieu, which is along the coast a bit. Kisha is 7 years old and looks a bit like a Briard gone wrong, but in fact she is registered as a Griffon x. Her coat doesn't look like a Griffon to me.

She's a beautiful dog, so gentle, so polite. Very shy yet wags her tail enthusiastically when you talk to her. I've a very soft spot for Kisha.

The Lacemaker's Dog

This lovely old Peke was sitting near his owner in Menton. She's an English lady who is part of a group demonstrating old crafts - her speciality being lace making. They live in Nice.

Baci, the Jet-Set Dog

Baci is tiny, adorable and 13 years old - his name means 'kisses' in Italian. He's also a jet-set dog who flies regularly between his homes in California and La Turbie, a beautiful medieval village above Monaco.

The Lucerne Hound

I did a double-take when this beautiful hound walked towards me on market day in Menton. She looks like a small version of my Beau, who is a Bruno de Jura.

Her owners told me she is a Lucerne Hound and I've included a photo of her walking with her owner to show that she really isn't that big a dog.

Her name is Fanny, she's 3 years old and lives in Vienna.

The Beauceron Sisters

Pippa and Cassie are 12 year old Beauceron sisters who perhaps look fierce but are the gentlest creatures you can imagine. Just look at their kind eyes.

Beauceron is a French short-haired shepherding and guarding breed from the Brie region of France. These two are living out their old age in Monaco.

Pippa is in the main photo and Cassie in the one below.

Tied up in Pink

This little dog looks as if she should be the cute and clever mutt in a television advertisement...

Her lead was fixed to one of the stands at Garden Dreams, a garden fair below the Casino in Monaco. Her owner wasn't there and the lady in charge didn't know her name. All I know, according to the disc on her harness, is that she lives in Monte Carlo.

She has a quiet dignity about her, doesn't she?

Pearl

Perle wasn't at all sure about me, as you can see in the last photo (the one I took first) but she soon settled down and behaved like an angel.

Perle is two years old, was born in Poland, lives in Brussels and was on holiday in Menton, where I met her on the beach.

Ming Tchoko

Ming Tchoko knows he's goodlooking, doesn't he? He has a certain swagger about him even though he's only 11 months old. Ming Tchoko (don't you love the name!) lives in Nice but was bred in Poland to prizewinning parents. I met him walking around Garden Dreams in Monaco.

Chelsea - who loves the sunshine

Chelsea would lie in the sun all day, given the chance and screw her eyes up against it, as you see.

She lives in Monaco with her buddy, Toby - also a Golden Retriever (see smaller photo) and although they are both 11 years old they play together like puppies.

In that same photo you can see Fanny (the abandoned poodle - doing pretty well) and Lizzy who you met a few days ago.

Gerome and Brattdog

Today we have TWO French bulldogs for your delectation.

First, meet Gerome who is a two year old French bulldog from Milan. We met in Menton when the Brattcats were here.

Readers of Brattcat's Brattleboro blog or perhaps you saw the Brattcats' photo on my Menton Daily Photo blog, will know that recently she and Mr. Brattcat came to stay. And one of the gifts (too many!) she so kindly brought from Vermont was Brattdog, who is also a French bulldog. Brattcat had knitted Brattdog herself - a most impressive accomplishment to one who couldn't knit her way out of a paperbag or even into a scarf.

As Brattcat said - she had difficulty placing the ears and eyes. Perhaps they are a little too far back on the head so that Brattdog is forever looking skywards, waiting for manna (or perhaps a bone) to fall from heaven. And that he falls over because one leg doesn't quite reach the ground - well that's life and he has learned to live with it. He found a home on a wine rack, sleeping across a rather interesting Bordeaux, but it wasn't very comfortable (and in any case, I've drunk it), so now he sits on my desk - a treasured reminder of the lovely time we had when the adorable Brattcats came to stay.

And lest you should doubt that Brattdog is a real dog, look at Thandie, the dachshund - she knows the right end to sniff...even if she did knock him over to do it.

Lizzy

Lizzy lives in Nice and is as adorable - and naughty - as you'd expect a 7 month old puppy to be.

In the photo below, Lizzy is playing with Roxy, the other Cavalier who stays at Pension Milou and also Daisy, the labrador, and Stormy, the Saluki - all of whom you'll find on this blog. Sorry about the rather disgusting rope toy!

Pipouille

This is Pipouille, who is half Jack Russell terrier and half Papillon. We met on the Promenade le Corbusier in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. He was walking along with Baki, the Labrador, who you can see by clicking on the link.

Pipouille, you can see, is looking up adoringly at his owner.

Lord Byron

This gorgeous bulldog is called Bryon (Lord Bryon to be precise...) He's 5 years old and lives in Menton but on the day we met he was outside the market of Ventimiglia, across the border in Italy.

Luca and his sunglasses

Not hard to see how bright the sun was in Ventimiglia (just across the Italian border) yesterday. This is a very old Yorkie - 15 and a half - and he needs the sunglasses to protect his eyes.

Luca lives in Nice.

Baki on the Promenade le Corbusier

This is Baki - a beautiful four and a half year old Labrador who lives in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. I met him on the Promenade le Corbusier which is the beach walk from the point of Cap Martin to Monaco. You can follow that walk by going to Menton Daily Photo.

Lucky Lucy

Lucy is a nine and a half year old Husky/Border Collie mix who was rescued from the Ventimiglia refuge, across the border in Italy. She now lives in Menton and you can see how focused she is on her owner. Normally, I can get a dog to look at the camera - not Lucy - she wasn't going to let her saviour out of her sight. Lucky dog, lucky owner. Isn't she beautiful.

Zoe, the Monagasque Biker

Don't you just love this adorable Yorkie in her travelling bag fixed on top of a motorbike - quite unperturbed by all the traffic and me taking her photograph.

Later that day I saw her again, parked in a different part of Monaco and with her owner. He told me her name is Zoe, she's six months old and proudly told me she is a Monegasque citizen, which means of course that he is a Monegasque citizen. Monaco has many thousands and thousands of residents but only 5000 are actual citizens.

Fanny update...

Fanny update 6 days after she was dumped on my doorstep. As you can see her eyes are now pretty much cleared up, ditto her ears. You can see in the last photo the wizened skin on her cheeks - this is also under her chin and around her rear and tail. That skin probably won't change and won't grow coat again.

Otherwise, she is coming along really well - just isn't crazy about having her photo taken and looks rather bothered, especially in the middle photo. I had to put her harness on and fix her lead to the gate as otherwise, she is so stuck to me like glue that I can't get far enough away from her to take a photo. Also she's a bit scared of the longer lens but will doubtless get used to it in time.

Fanny, the old new dog...

This post is for anyone who hasn't followed the story on my Facebook page...

This little dog was tied up outside my gate 4 nights ago - abandoned. At 9.30 that evening I'd let the dogs out and they had gone bonkers with barking. Once I'd quietened them down I could hear a tiny tiny bark just beyond the gate. I called my neighbour and asked if one of her dogs was out and then she told me that a poodle had been tied up outside since around 6 p.m. when she'd got home. My neighbour assumed I had friends visiting and perhaps they had a dog in season and couldn't come in. Then I realised what was going on. I'd had a phone call earlier in the day asking if my place is a refuge for dogs. I said no. The lady said the dog's owner, from Menton, was sick, in hospital and dying and they didn't want his dog! I explained this is not a refuge and they should call the SPA in Monaco but somehow they found me and left her outside the gate anyway.

The next morning we went to the veterinarian - she is about 13 years old, very thin and is now on antibiotics, two different eye drops, one four times a day, one six times a day - one she will need for life as her eyes don't make tears. There's ear medication, and a special bath every five days. She has a heart murmur and filthy teeth which will be cleaned when she has gained condition. Parts of her skin are hard like elephant hide. When I got her home I scissored off all her fur, she's her had first anti-bacterial bath and she is on all the other treatments. Already her eyes are pretty much better, the inflammation has gone from inside her ears, her skin has calmed down - and she is adorable.

She's very neglected but not abused as such. I think her condition is probably the result of an old person just letting her care get out of control. Perhaps I'm being over-generous here as she is a mess. As the vet said, she's been neglected for years.

On the way home from the vet I stopped off in Monaco to have coffee at the Café de Paris with blogging friends from the UK. It was quite funny to see this mess of ungroomed coat and weepy eyes sitting on a chair alongside the immaculately coiffed Monte Carlo dogs. She sat there as if she's done it all her life.

So now we have another dog as part of the Pension Milou family - she really is a very bright little dog, very needy (of course) but very easy. She's absolutely clean and is stuck to me like glue. She also isn't a yappy poodle, thank goodness. My two big hounds, Beau and Mia, don't give kisses so now I'm so lucky and have this little love who does!

Of course, she needed a name and I asked on Facebook - got an enormous number of replies which was so helpful - reading through them all made me realise she reminds me of an old movie star, fallen on hard times. There were many possibilities, Clara Bow, Norma Desmond and so on. I tried several names on her - when I said 'Garbo' for instance, she looked at me terrified and ran back to her bed!

And so she's called Fanny - named for Fanny Brice who was the inspiration for the Broadway show and later the film called Funny Girl. Fancy Brice was also the first person to sing Second Hand Rose when she starred in the Zeigfeld Follies of 1929 - and this little dog is very much a 'second-hand rose.' She seemed to approve of Fanny and ran towards me when I said it.

And so Fanny she is!