The Saga of Chloe

Due to an overwhelming demand from our friend Michelle at Galloping Grace Youth Ranch, we're going to share with you the saga of our Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie), Chloe.

We got Chloe from a Sheltie rescue shelter in the summer of 2000. When she was a puppy she was adopted by a family with no children and everything was great. Then they had two babies in fairly short order. Chloe is skittish around little children and the only time she howls is when a baby cries. So, you can imagine how much howling was going on in that house with two small babies.

They decided that either Chloe had to go or the babies had to go. I suspect that wasn't too hard a decision and Chloe wound up in the rescue shelter. When we contacted the rescue shelter they said they had the perfect dog for us. We met Chloe and she went home with us. The only problem was she weighed over 26 lbs. and, for a dog that should weigh about 20 - 21 lbs, she looked like a little barrel on four small legs. Between some exercise and low-calorie dog food we managed to get the extra weight off.

Then we moved to New Mexico and not long after we discovered some lumps on her sides. The vet said they were probably benign, but to be safe they needed to come off. That means that Chloe got both sides shaved and she got to wear one of those very fashionable cones on her head....

One extra outcome from her surgery is they spotted a hypo (low) thyroid condition through her blood tests. Thus, we started a regimen of thyroid pills twice a day for the rest of her life. The vet said that her hair should start growing out in about six months.

Well, after a year and no hair growth we asked the vet, "What's going on?" He said that she might have Cushings disease, but he still thought that her hair might come in.

However, six months later we noticed that not only was her hair not growing in, but more hair was coming out. She continued to lose more and more hair and all the vet can tell us is it's some kind of metabolic problem. Here's a picture taken just this afternoon....


Yes, that's the same dog as the one in the picture at the start of this post. Now, she's our little, neurotic, hairless (almost) Sheltie. We figure that God gave her to us because He knew we wouldn't give up on her.

So, that's the saga of Chloe.

Today is August 9 and if today is your Birthday then you share our day with: Gillian Anderson (actress - Scully in "The X-Files"), Eric Bana (actor - "The Hulk"), Deion Sanders (only athlete to play in both the World Series and the Super Bowl), Whitney Huston (singer), Melanie Griffith (actress - "The Working Girl"), Sam Elliot (actor - "The Shadow Riders"), Robert Shaw (actor - Quint in "Jaws"), Doug Williams (first black NFL quarterback), Rod Laver (Australian - pro tennis player), and Izaak Walton (author - "The Compleat Angler").