My name is Stryker.  My Daddy, Greg, brought me home from San Diego when I was about 8 weeks old.  I'm a rescued dog that was on my way to a research lab in Mexico where they were going to stick me with needles and who knows what.  My daddy fell in love with my freckles (and me) and took me home from the Flyball tournament that my new stepbrother and sister, Truman and Maddie were competing.  I got to sit in my borrowed travel crate in the right front seat and watch my new daddy for the six-hour trip home.  My daddy talked to me for much of the trip, but try as I might, I understood little, if anything, he said.  I listened intently as he spoke and when he wasn't talking, I chewed on my little Nylabone.  We stopped several times on the way home and daddy got us out one at a time to potty.  I fell in love with my daddy that night and since, unless he's at work or has taken Truman and Maddie to a race somewhere, I seldom let him out of my sight.  In the fall of 2001, I started my formal training to play flyball and I graduated near the top of my class.  I am trying real hard to please my daddy and am hoping to start racing soon.   Please check back in a few months and hopefully, I will have something to brag about.

January, 2003

A lot of things have happened since my original “bio” was posted.  Last spring, I had been practicing with five other dogs in a line-up and was just days away from leaving for my first tournament in Chula Vista, CA.  It was going to be my homecoming as that’s where my Daddy adopted me.  Anyway, my head started shaking back and forth for a short time.  Corey, one of my Daddy’s human sons noticed something was wrong with me and told my Daddy about it.  Daddy looked me over but everything was okay at that time.  My Daddy had just fed Maddie, Truman and me, and was loading our van with the things he was going to take to the tournament.  When he walked into the kitchen, he looked down at me and cried  “Stryker is having a seizure”  whatever that is.  I looked up at him and with my eyes tried to tell him “Daddy, my head is shaking and I can’t make it stop.”  Daddy loaded me into the car and rushed me to the Emergency vet.  They rushed me back into a room and stuck some kind of needle in my front leg, drew out some blood, then connected a tube to it and started giving me some kind of medicine.   They also put something in my bottom.  I didn’t know what was going on in a few minutes other than I could hardly stand up and when I tried, I had a hard time balancing.  I would walk into walls and things as I staggered around.   My head wasn’t shaking as much afterwards though; maybe every once in a while for a few seconds.  The Doctor was saying something to my Daddy but I was out of it as they had me all doped up.  They put me on a special diet right away to limit my protein intake and gave Daddy more medicine to give me.  My Daddy left me home with Mommy and took Maddie and Truman to San Diego without me.  I had a rough week-end with Mommy as the drugs in me had me so confused and uncoordinated.  I just staggered around the place whimpering and crying.  My Daddy called home every few hours to see how I was doing.  “Not so well.”  was the reply from Mommy.  Monday morning, Daddy took me to Abby Pet Hospital to see my regular Doctor.  He took one look at me and said I was a very sick puppy and suggested that I had some sort of liver problem; “a shunted liver”, he suspected.  He ran some more tests on me and told Daddy that my blood had an elevated ammonia level causing the seizures.  That wasn’t good news.  He said there really wasn’t anything he could do for me and suggested that my best chance to live would be to be taken to UC Davis to their Small Animal research facility.  My Dad called and made an appointment and off to Davis we went.  My Daddy was prepared to stay there a few days while I had the needed surgery to repair the shunt.  My new Doctor, Dr. Mehl, was a very nice lady that treated me kindly.  She told my Daddy that there was the possibility that my problem might not be something that anyone could fix.  My Daddy left me with them for the surgery but they needed to keep me there a few days to get my medicine dosages such that I wouldn’t have any seizures while on the operating table.  They said I wouldn’t survive if I had one during surgery.  I had the surgery that Thursday and the news wasn’t good.  I have what’s called  portal systemic shunts, which can’t be repaired.   They adjusted my diet and changed my medicines again and sent me home.  I made another trip to UC Davis about a month later for a check-up and they changed my medicines once more and said I looked very good.  My Daddy has been faithfully giving me my meds and special diet and I had been doing great.  I put on some weight and was a happy boy.  About six weeks after my first surgery, Daddy noticed I was having trouble when I needed to go potty.  Back to the Doctor I went to find that stones in my bladder had worked their way into my urethra and had it blocked.  My Doctor at Abby, Dr. Holm, performed surgery on me, this time, opening me up, then my bladder and cleaning me out.  It seems like these stones are caused by the liver not working too well.   Since that surgery, I have been fine.  I’m still taking my medicine and eating my special diet but other than that, no one would suspect that I have a problem.  I started back running with the team have performed at a few demos and raced my first race in Chula Vista last month.  I got my first title…Flyball Dog!  My Daddy was very proud and he cried.  (I think my Daddy has always been proud of me!