December 30, 2005 - Tigger #06 went to his forever home. Tigger will be enjoying the rest of his life in Hallowell, ME with Dawn and Craig and two Rottweiler siblings, Otis and Sofi!

Congratulations!

September 24 , 2005 - Chaz #07 went to his forever home. Chaz will be enjoying life in York, ME with Mike and Jennifer, where he will go for walks, play fetch in the yard, continue is obedience training and even go boating!!! Chaz will finally have the life he deserves…one filled with lots of attention and love.

Congratulations to Mike, Jen and especially Chaz.

August 30 , 2005 - On April 26th 2005, we lost Bruin our 7-year-old male to bone cancer. We were devastated including our 5-year-old female Vixen. Our pain was made that much worse having to watch her mope and snuggle with Bruin's blanket. She would wine for him she was so lonely. After several weeks of our spirits being very low, we decided to contact RRUFF about fostering. We felt it would be the distraction we needed and Vixen definitely needed the companionship of another dog. Not wanting to commit our hearts completely to another dog, we felt fostering would be a way for us to help a Rottweiler in need while protecting ourselves at the same time.

It wasn't long after we made our decision that we were contacted by RRUFF about Yukon. Yukon was pulled out of a shelter in CT around Christmas time in 2004. He had some extensive medical needs: heartworm, entropion, cherry eye and a scrolled third eyelid. While in a foster home in CT he was treated for heartworm and once cleared of heartworm had several eye surgeries. After weeks of being sick or recovering of one procedure after another, he started feeling better and thriving. Now being a healthy young male, Yukon tried to make a place for himself in his foster home. Not surprisingly he didn't see eye to eye with the already dominant female Rottie in the house.

We made arrangements to meet Yukon and were curious what Vixen would think of him. They hit it off right away and we decided to foster him and bring him home to NH with us. Vixen was ecstatic to have a playmate and for the first time in weeks maybe even months we had a reason to smile and laugh. It didn't take Yukon long to try to establish himself in our home and to our amazement Vixen let him. This was extremely out of character for her and we figured eventually she would put a stop to it. After a few weeks she started showing signs that she was having enough, but she was still very patient with him. I thought then that there must be something special about him. We've had other males at the house and she didn't act the same with them.

Yukon had been with us a month when his eye problems started up again. His cherry eye popped out and he was still having problems with chronic irritation with his left eye. During a vet visit in June to check his eye, they found a heart arrhythmia. Now, he had the threat of heart disease on top of everything else. Yukon was scheduled for an ultrasound with a Cardiologist and was cleared of any heart disease. The arrhythmia was determined to be a result of his heartworm battle. It was during this time we began to realize just how much he had come to mean to us in such a short time, but we still tried to keep a line between foster and family member.

In July after another visit to the vet for eye irritation and being on drops for over a month, they recommended that we bring him to see an Ophthalmologist. The specialist diagnosed him with a detached retina and recommended removal of the problem eye. On Tuesday August 23rd, Yukon had hopefully his final surgery. The doctor didn't realize until during the surgery how badly the area was and it turned out he required some reconstructive muscle work. Our hearts sank when we went to pick him up and saw the extent of his wound. He had stitches going down the side of his snout till a few inches from his nose and his face was swollen and bleeding. It was very difficult to look, but everyday the swelling went down and he started acting more and more like himself.

It was the day of Yukon's surgery that it became clear he was meant to stay with us. When I dropped him off, they mentioned to me he might need to stay overnight. The possibility of him not coming home bothered me more than the actual surgery itself. When I talked with my husband and mentioned they might keep him overnight, he said to me, " He better come home" and I knew it bothered him too. It hit me then like a ton of bricks…if we couldn't let him go for a night how were we ever going to let him go forever. Knowing he was a foster, we tried to keep a wall up and not get too attached. Now thinking back, there were lots of hints along the way that he was meant to be with us forever.

It has been several weeks since Yukon's surgery and he doing great. He adjusted quickly to having his eye removed. Since it was just a constant bother to him and he couldn't see out of it anyways, I guess it would be like missing a toothache.

Thanks RRUFF for everything you did for this special boy and our family.

Lisa, Bill and Vixen D'Errico
Adopters & Fosters for RRUFF