Birdie 💕

Meet Birdie 🩷

Some dogs come into our lives carrying a story we wish we could rewrite for them. Birdie is one of those dogs.

Birdie is a beautiful 5-year-old American Cocker Spaniel with the gentlest spirit and a sweetness about her that makes her name feel almost too perfect. She is quite literally sweet as pie. 🥹🩷

Birdie’s person passed away, and with that loss, the life she had known disappeared too. We don’t know how long her owner had been ill before passing, but we do know that Birdie’s veterinary care had unfortunately been delayed during that time. What happened afterward is harder for us to understand. The remaining family did not want to keep her and told us that if we couldn’t take her, she would be taken to the shelter.

I don’t particularly like telling stories like this because I never want someone’s worst chapter to become the thing that defines them. But Birdie lost her person, her home, and everything familiar to her at once. She deserved to have the people left behind protect her mourning little heart until she found somewhere safe to land.

Thankfully, she landed here. 🩷

Birdie came to us severely underweight, with teeth that were in very poor condition. At first, we couldn’t know how much of her weight loss came from the physical difficulty and discomfort of trying to eat with her mouth in that condition, how much came from everything her little body had been dealing with internally, or how much came from the stress and grief surrounding everything she had experienced.

We have a much clearer picture now.

Because Birdie was so thin, our veterinarian wanted to be especially thorough before putting her under anesthesia for her scheduled spay and dental. He performed a complete head-to-toe physical examination, bloodwork, and X-rays before proceeding.

Her X-rays looked great. Her bloodwork looked great overall as well. She was slightly anemic, but our veterinarian was comfortable proceeding with anesthesia and the care she so desperately needed.

And once Birdie was sedated, her appointment became quite an eventful one. ❤️

Our veterinarian discovered a previous spay scar, meaning Birdie had already been spayed at some point in her life and thankfully did not need to be opened up unnecessarily. She will go home with a sterility certificate from our veterinarian confirming that she is already spayed.

He then completed her dental.

Birdie needed 11 teeth extracted.

As awful as that sounds, I am so thankful those painful, unhealthy teeth are no longer in her mouth. She still has the remainder of her teeth, and every remaining tooth was thoroughly cleaned and polished and is in great health. She is currently eating a soft-food diet while her mouth heals from the extractions, but this is temporary. Once everything has healed over the next few weeks, she should be able to return to a normal diet.

Both of Birdie’s ears were also thoroughly examined while she was under anesthesia and treated with Posatex ear medication. She was sent home with additional Posatex so we can continue treating them as directed.

Our veterinarian also found a small mass on the lower portion of one of her back legs. Since she was already safely under anesthesia, he removed it for her. He is not concerned about it moving forward, and I’m grateful it was something we could simply take care of while she was already there.

We also sent Birdie’s fecal sample to the laboratory, and those results did identify one intestinal parasite requiring treatment. She is being treated for that now.

Between the condition of her mouth and her little body simultaneously fighting a parasite, we finally have an explanation for why Birdie was struggling so much to take in and utilize the nutrition she desperately needed and why she was mildly anemic.

And through ALL of this, Birdie has been an absolute champ. 🥹🩷

To say her veterinary visit was eventful is just the gist of it. But we are finally on the other side of it now.

The painful teeth are gone. Her remaining teeth are healthy and clean. Her ears are being treated. The little mass was removed. The parasite was identified and is being treated. Her X-rays were beautiful. Her bloodwork was reassuring. And now her body finally has the opportunity to heal, absorb the nutrition we are pouring into her, gain the weight she needs, and become stronger every day.

She is going to overcome all of this.

And I truly believe that once she is completely healed, we are going to watch this little girl become better than ever. ❤️

What we also know is that somewhere before all of this, Birdie knew love.

You can see it in her.

A dog this incredibly sweet, trusting, affectionate, and comfortable loving people learned somewhere along the way that people could be good to her. I truly believe her person loved her before circumstances changed, and I hope wherever they are, they can somehow know that their little girl is safe with us now. 🩷

And Birdie really is an extraordinary little girl.

Birdie is deaf, but please don’t mistake her deafness for an inability to communicate or experience everything life has to offer. This girl is SMART.

She watches her person closely and has learned to navigate her world beautifully through her eyes, her nose, and her connection with the people around her.

If her eyes are on you when it’s time to go outside, she’ll happily follow you right out. Hand signals and simply being intentional about getting her attention are wonderful ways to communicate with her.

She is house trained and goes outside throughout the day to use the restroom. She is also crate trained and will sleep peacefully in her crate, although if you’d rather put a little bed beside yours, Birdie would be perfectly happy with that arrangement too. 🥹

She’s wonderful in the car and rides phenomenally on road trips. She does beautifully for the groomer as well. She’s a little nervous about being left there without me, but the second I return to pick her up, I’m greeted by smiles and happy little tail wags.

And yes, Birdie does have a docked tail, but what she has left of it certainly knows how to express happiness. 😂🩷

Birdie is incredibly quiet. She isn’t a barker and has such a peaceful, serene temperament in the home.

Outside, though, that little Cocker Spaniel nose gets to work. 😂

She loves wandering around the yard, sniffing everything she possibly can and taking in her surroundings in the way that makes the most sense to her. Being deaf doesn’t make Birdie’s world smaller. If anything, watching her reminds you just how much of this world there is to experience without sound.

She wants to explore. She wants to accompany her person. She wants to be included. And most of all, she simply wants to belong again.

Birdie is wonderful with other sweet dogs and does beautifully with cats as well. She loves the people she meets and has remained remarkably openhearted despite everything that has changed in her life.

There is no hardness in this girl.

Just gentleness.

She isn’t asking for someone to feel sorry for her. She needs someone who will see the beautiful, intelligent, affectionate little dog standing in front of them and realize that her deafness is simply one piece of who she is.

Birdie already knows how to love.

Now she needs the person who will make sure she never has to wonder where she belongs again. 🩷

Birdie is microchipped and current on all of her vaccines. She will go home with her veterinary records and sterility certificate confirming her prior spay, along with the documentation of the extensive veterinary care she has now received. Her fecal testing has been completed and the parasite identified is currently being treated. Her dental has been completed with 11 necessary extractions, and her remaining teeth were cleaned and polished and are healthy. Her ears have been examined and treated, and we are continuing her medication here while they heal. The small mass found on her back leg was removed, and our veterinarian is not concerned about it moving forward.

Her adoption fee is $2,000.

Her adoption fee helps cover the extraordinary amount of care that has gone into getting Birdie to this point: her complete veterinary examination, bloodwork, X-rays, anesthesia, extensive dental cleaning and polishing, 11 dental extractions, ear examination and treatment, removal of the small mass from her leg, fecal testing and parasite treatment, vaccines, microchip, and all of the nutrition, grooming, daily care, love, and time being poured into helping her little body recover.

Birdie came to us having already lost so much.

She lost the person who was once her whole world. She lost her home. And somewhere along the way, her own physical needs had been pushed aside long enough that her little body was asking for help too.

We can’t undo any of that.

But we could make sure the hurting stopped here.

And now that the hardest part is behind her, Birdie gets to do something she hasn’t been able to do for a while:

heal. 🩷

She gets to gain weight. She gets to eat without a mouth full of painful teeth. She gets to feel stronger. She gets to be cared for. She gets to be somebody’s priority again.

We can’t give Birdie the person she lost back.

But somewhere out there is someone who can become her world again.

And when Birdie finally realizes that she has found the person who isn’t going anywhere, I can’t imagine a more deserving little girl to watch fall completely in love with life all over again. 🩷

Photos coming soon 🩷🩷🩷