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Micah - A Journey from Puppymill and Euthanasia to a Bright new Life Click here to see more pictures of Micah 7/23/2004 Kelly's notes (Micah's Mom): The drive home was hard. I sat back thinking about my life and career taking care of animals medically and all the disabilities in my family between my children and I, and my first reaction was fear, how would I train a deaf dog? How will she interact with my kids? Was the best thing for her to put her down? But when I got home and explained to the children what was wrong. My second son with the most dangerous of medical conditions said "Wow Mom it is like God sent Micah to us. God knows we already accept everyone no matter what is wrong with them." And that did it! I set out to find a trainer to help me not only show the world what puppy mills do but what a deaf dog can do! Micah hopefully will be a gift sent from Heaven not only to my home and children but to everyone who comes in contact with her. 7/27/2004 Kelly's notes (Micah's Mom): 8/11/2004 Kelly's notes (Micah's Mom): 8/23/04: Gina's notes (the trainer)- 8/23/04 Kelly's notes (Micah's Mom):
8/29/04: 9/10/04 Kelly's notes (Micah's Mom): Micah went to the Vet today to get her checkup and make sure she was ready for the Fireman's Festival tomorrow. She weighed in at 11 pounds 2 ounces! She is growing so well now. But unfortunately the shot got messed up and made her sick so she spent the day in the hospital recouping. She was also found to have a double ear infection and started on antibiotics to fix that. Hopefully she will be ok to go tomorrow, so that we won't have to cancel her performance. 9/11/04 Kelly's notes Part 1 (Micah's Mom): 9/11/04 Kelly's notes Part 2 (Micah's Mom): But as soon as I gave the ok that training was done pop up she would go bouncing towards Gina or her papa with her whole butt wagging and just prancing! You could see she was so happy and she knew she had done well! By the last performance she was ready to go even to the point of sitting in front of me and watching my hands sign to the crowd while I was showing them the different signs we use for her. I was not paying attention as she was wandering around at my feet. I was explaining how we use the sign NO and how she knows when she sees this to stop and figure out what she has done wrong. Well as I did the sign, she saw it, stopped, sat and cocked her head! As if to say WHAT? The crowd loved it and just ate it up! Then for her final performance, which we almost cancelled because I was worried she was just too worn out. But I also knew some important people were waiting to see her perform. So out we went, towards the end. I had her do a crawl. This is a new sign for her and she is real hit or miss with this one. But when I gave the sign for crawl, she did a TV performance in slow motion. She threw her front paws out slid on her belly and even let her back legs drag behind her. The crowd loved it and I was so shocked! Micah was greeted by over 100 people. She sat and let them all pet her and was patient while mom had to control kids pulling tails and ears. And the longer she went the more I worried she would get tired and become a brat but the better she did. When she was tired she would walk to her kennel and get in and take a nap. A lot of people asked what I gave her for treats for training to make her respond so well. I told them about the homemade treats and I had taken samples to give away and people actually asked to buy more. So all and all it was a success. She went out there and showed everyone that deaf, malnourished Dal's can learn just as well as the normal size and hearing dogs. It was also nice to be able to show people the myth of Dalmatians is not correct. Some people assumed because she was Dalmatian they are all automatically deaf and some figured she was mean. But Micah showed them all :) 11/9/04 Kelly's notes (Micah's Mom): To think back as far as she has come it is amazing from the puppy that was bow legged and weighing 15 ounces at 5 weeks to a 20 pound gain before 5 months of age is amazing. The vet gave her a perfect health checkup! And said her diet obviously agrees with her :) Micah is up to 34 hand signs. When she chooses to perform :) She loves to work she just wants to be in control. She has just got Through the terrible 2 stage and has calmed down alot in the past few weeks. You can tell she still remembers the abuse. She trembles at the vets and freaks out when they try and touch her. Yet she is great with the public. But I make a tech hold her and I sign to her while she is getting poked and prodded. It made a huge difference. She now seems to be 99% potty trained and has the run of the house during the day and loves to snuggle with us at night. The other thing amazing about Micah is her senses. Dalmatians are not known for a great sense of smell when it comes to dog noses. But boy the deafness has sure helped her. We use to be able to come in from outside and she would never know we were there. But now as soon as she smells her papa or I she will start barking. She can also feel the smallest of vibrations and can feel her papas car from a ways away. So our little gift is still growing and doing wonderful! 2/22/05 Kelly's notes (Micah's Mom):
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Micah found us on Friday July 23, 2004. I was told there was a lady with 10 week old dalmatian puppies that had already been fixed. But when I got there I knew something was wrong. Past experience has told me size of pups along with puppies natural curiosity that these pups were young and sickly. Then the lady proceeded to tell me she was a vet tech and had fixed the litter of 9 puppies in her home. I was shocked and very angry. I was actually going to walk away and call the authorities but this one little pup from this huge litter of 7 that were left of 9 climbed out of the ball they had created and walked over to me and stuck her head through the bars of the small crate. She was small enough to fit in my hand. and she was beautiful but extremely thin. I picked her up, and could not put her back in that cage to suffer. So I loaded her and my children up in my van and drove to the vet. Upon examination she was found to have severe flea infestation, roundworms, whipworms and coccidia. She weighed 15 ounces and had no idea how to drink from a bowl of water offered to her. By her teeth and growth we could tell she was barely 5 weeks old and by the looks of the incision she had been traumatized and had a infected site covered in urine. The vet called the authorities while we worked on this little pup. After about a hour we took her home every bone in her little body showed and she alternated between crying and sleeping. When she walked she walked with her back legs spread wide from what we now know was the damage caused by tying the little thing down on her back and fixing her while awake. She was in so much pain she pulled the muscles in her hips and could not sit for the first week we had her. Friday night was a rough night, she cried in pain and would not eat or drink anything. When she tried she would suck and fill her body with air causing pain to her incision. First thing Saturday after a sleepless night i went and purchased puppy formula and a bottle. She ate like she had never ate in her life starting at first every 2 hours. But we also noticed she slept very sound I accidentally dropped a large can beside her and the noise never bothered her. this continued on and by Sunday we suspected our new baby could not hear. But she had also gained enough energy to start to play and personality started to show. after church we returned home to do a bible lesson for my children and upon opening the bible, I read about Micah the prophet who speaks about how god will Judge those that hurt the poor and helpless. I talked to my family about this and how I had opened it right to this and we felt it was a sign. So she is now and forever will be "Micah" On Monday we had our vet checkup. the vet was amazed Micah weighed in at 2 pounds exactly, doubling her weight in 2 1/2 days. She examined her and was able to see no permanent damage to her hips but she gave us the news that yes Micah was profoundly bilaterally deaf.
The search for trainers begins. I got online and joined the 
Micah is 8 weeks old today. I never once thought i would see this age with as sick as she was, but she is finally a puppy. Her energy level has more then doubled and she is dying to learn about her surroundings. Even though the last few weeks have been basically getting her healthy. She is doing well at sign language too. She has learned to come, watch me, sit and no. This is a big one with a puppy she knows when she sees the karate chop she better reevaluate what she is doing. We had problems with her bladder for awhile but have since learned she was drinking way too much water, we have her on scheduled water times and limited amount and she is improving. She has finally learned to trust us and as long as we are holding her she will fall asleep in the most funny positions. knowing she is safe and sound. Micah enjoys people, and she enjoys being the center of attention.
Micah had her 10 week checkup today 2 days short of her 10 week birthday. She has made a tremendous progress. She weighed in at 7 pounds 4 ounces! yes 7 pounds! can you believe it! in 2 weeks she has gained 4 pounds and over 6 pounds in a month. She is now where a average 5 week old Dalmatian should be. She performed for the vet and cried like a baby at getting her shot and intranasal injection :) but was soothed by treats after. The vet technicians at the clinic have been such great support for me. They encourage me to keep going and remark on how well she is doing. I feel such pride in all this little creature has accomplished in such a short time. She went to lunch at the local pub in Brighton and she is such a good natured puppy everyone had to stop and talk to her, before seeing my Deaf dog shirt and saying. "Oh My is she deaf?" Micah is getting well known around the towns here as the miniature Dalmatian with the big heart. her cute little furrowed brow and inquisitive eyes capture everyone. By the time lunch was over Micah had 11 dogs bones treats from the indoor patrons at the restaurant. Her next Checkup is in 3 weeks. the day before the Fireman's Festival. Where Micah will be helping to inform the public about puppymills and deafness in dogs. She is working hard with Gina & Scout to learn more signs and become accustomed to large dogs being around. 
On August 26th Scout and Micah had their second meeting. This went even better than the time before. Micah was much more confident and did some exploring. Scout had learned from the first time to ignore Micah and let her come to him. A couple of times she tried to get Scout to play and when Scout would look at her she'd be like never mind. But she was a lot more interested in him and wanting to engage play with him and that I like. She is unsure how to play with another dog so it is great that Scout is being patient and letting her test the waters. 
Well The Fireman's Festival is over! She had to do 3 demonstrations where she showed-off some of the 25 hand signals she is working with. Gina, Micah's trainer and I had a very busy day. And Scout, Micah's hearing dog friend gave out about 3:00 and had to go home to take a nap :) I think I was more afraid than Micah was. I really didn't want to talk to the large crowds that first came to watch Micah perform. I was real nervous for her first performance. I knew she didn't feel good and it was cold and wet outside first thing in the morning. I took her up before it opened to see if she would work and she was a bit hesitant. But when it was time and I gave the sign it was time to work, she performed like a champ! The crowds didn't matter once we were in training mode. 
Micah is almost 4 months old and boy has she come a long way! Today she got her final vaccinations, ID chipped and checkup. She is at 21.1 pounds and the vet states she will always be a very minature Dalmatian :)
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