Sleeping Marsha

While I've been away on business travel, Marsha has been spending lots of time with her foster daddy. I got lots of updates of all the furkids in the house, including some particularly cute ones of Marshmallow cuddling with her foster dad.



Stop taking my picture Dad, I'm trying to sleep!



Do you have to sleep right on top of me?



That's much better.



Finally, some relaxation!

Feeding Time with Marsha

A lot of times people wonder how much of a challenge it is to have Marsha in the home with her special eating habits... well here's proof that it's super simple!

The Tale of the Tail (or lack thereof)

If you look at photos of the adorable Marshmallow, you may notice that she is a bit lacking in the tail department.  During our weekly trip to the Alexandria Petsmart for adoption days (you can always see Marsha at the Sunday adoption events for Lost Dog Rescue), people always approach and ask "did someone dock that poor girl's tail?" But no, no one docked Marsha's tail... in fact, her whole litter was born with the stubby tails. That's one of the reasons that we think there is Australian Shepherd in her DNA, in fact! 

The best part about Marsha not having a tail is when she's excited and happy (which is quite often), her whole back half wiggles around like she's dancing.  There's no need for a swooshy tail to read whether Marhsmallow is in a good mood... if she's doing the booty dance, you know she's happy to see you!

~LM~

Sunshine, Lollipops, and Marsha!

The weather has been amazing, and Marsha has definitely taken notice. Every morning she goes out in our fenced-in backyard to frolick around with my resident dogs, and Marsha is always the first one to go find the sun. This girl just loves grabbing a good stick, finding a spot in the sun, and just relaxing and letting the rays her from her snout to her nubby tail. Just another one of the simple pleasures in life that Marsha enjoys oh so much!

"Bonding" Time With Marshmallow

One of the important things when feeding Marsha is that after you're done, you need to keep her propped up vertically for 10-15 minutes to make sure that gravity helps the food make its way down to her belly.  When she was a young puppy, I carried her around on my hip like a young baby, but being close to 40 pounds, that's not as much an option.  While I traveled for work for a couple months, another foster home took Marsha right as she hit her growth spurt.  When they couldn't hold her any longer, they called their after-meal ritual bonding time, which I have adopted.  Marsha doesn't need to be standing; she just needs to be sitting upright.  So we climb into bed or on the sofa, and she sits in my lap while I'm Indian-style. As you can see from this picture, she really likes bonding time.  Right now, we are currently catching up on Grey's Anatomy on Netflix... she really likes McDreamy. 

Marsha's eating ritual is super simple, and this post-feeding "bonding" is a great time for us to spend time together just the two of us.  Just another wonderful thing about living with Marsha!

Meet Marsha!

Marsha is a seven-month old sweetheart, and I've had the pleasure of knowing this little lady since she was only eight weeks old.  Marsha is a special dog that is going to make some family incredibly happy, and I'm happy to be a part of the journey to bring her to her forever home.

Back in October, Marsha and her siblings (then known as the Brady Bunch) were brought to the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation from a rural West Virginia shelter. For two weeks, I took care of the litter at home, and then they were snatched right up when I put them up for adoption.  But we noticed that Marsha was having some issues keeping food and water down, so we took her to our veterinary partner, Blue Ridge Veterinary Associates, and after extensive testing determined that Marsha had canine megaesophagus.  I had never heard of the condition before, and was nervous what this meant for Marsha's long term care, but thankfully we learned that it's a completely manageable condition that requires some extra attention to her care. Marsha's esophagus is like a wet balloon; when she eats food and drinks large amounts of water, the food stays in her esophagus and doesn't head down to her belly to be digested. So when she being fed in a traditional manner, what we thought was vomit was actually regurgitation... the food was never getting to her stomach.  But now that we know the issue, we know how to fix it.  Miss Marsha just needs to be fed vertically! We feed her wet food with a spoon so she is on her back legs, and then afterwards we keep her vertical for about 15 minutes to help the food digest.  It's so simple and easy to manage, and gets some extra special cuddling time for me and my little girl.

Other than her special feeding time, Marsha is just like any other dog. She absolutely adores playing with toys, loves being around people, and is a total snuggle bug.  She's already crate-trained, housebroken, and knows sit and stay.  She's been living in foster care for so long, she's completely used to the regular lifestyle of a working family, and does fine with other dogs both big and small.

We can't wait for Marsha to find her forever family, but for now, my husband and I are certainly enjoying all the extra affection and love we're getting from Marsha (a.k.a. Marshmallow)!

~LM~