Hollie's Page

(Black Velvet for Wolfraven - D.O.B 4th September 1994)

HOLLIE’S STORY

How We Got Hollie!!!
Hollie is Flynn's sister, and we had her at the age of 4 months old. When we visited Flynn, as a puppy we also fell in love Hollie she was such a lovely girl. We don't know what happened with Hollie with her previous owners, but we were told that they could not cope with her. When the breeder told us that she was having Hollie back, Jason and I did not hesitate in saying that we would have her. I managed to get time off work to go and collect her, and I settled her in with Flynn.
Hollie arrived on 27th December 1994, and it seemed like she had been with us all her life!!!

It was evident that she had a few problems, she was very wary of strangers especially men, and she was extremely friendly to dogs (which is unusual for Malamutes). The other problem we had with her was that she liked her food…..really liked her food, she eats, as though she had never eaten before.
Over the years Hollie learnt from Flynn that not all strangers are bad, and whenever we had a visitor, we always gave her a biscuit, she soon learnt to enjoy strangers coming to the house.

Show Girl 'Hollie'????
As we started showing Flynn, we tried to show Hollie, but having a stranger go over her, was just not her idea of fun!!! We wanted to show her, as the breed was not as popular as it is now, and we wanted to promote the breed. We did not want to force her to do something she didn't want to do, but we did not want to leave her at home, while we took Flynn to shows. We tried her on quite a few occasions, and she played up, and looked quite aggressive in the ring, and we did not want to promote this as part of the breed. So Hollie was not going to be a show girl!!!

Sled Dog 'Hollie'????
Jason built a rig, maybe Hollie and Flynn could do this together? We took them out training, and they loved it, maybe this is what they could do together!! We took them to a few rallies, and from this we knew we needed to do more training, Jason and the rig spent most of the time in front of the dogs, and they seemed to go where they wanted to go!! It so became apparent that though Hollie enjoyed the training, when she had enough there was no moving her and Jason had to leave her with a marshal at one of the rallies. So it was decided that this was not the hobby for Hollie!!

Working Girl 'Hollie'????
Could it be that we have found what Hollie likes to do? AMWA, where holding Weight Pulls, which were not far from where we lived, maybe she would like to do this? The very first time, all we wanted was them to pull the empty trolley, well she did that no problems!!! Actually she enjoyed it, and we went all the time and she managed to get a third place, she never beat Flynn, but at least we found something she enjoyed to do!!

Hollies Health Issues
At the age of 5, it became noticeable that there was something not quite right with Hollie. Her coat seemed to be getting thinner, her stomach became bloated, and she was drinking a lot of water? We took her to the vets, and the vet wanted to try her on a special shampoo? We were not impressed by this, as we new it was something more than shampoo would cure!!!
So we decided to change vets, it took us 5 years of tests, and tests, and more test's, until she was diagnosed with what we believed she had all a long…
Due to a lot off information we collected off the internet which we crossed checked with a lot off different sites to be sound with our thoughts…which was Cushing's disease!!! But first the vets diagnosed Hypothyroidism which she was put on Soloxine to treat this..

The picture below left is Hollie in March 2003 at her worst and to the right is Hollie enjoying camping at Leeds 2005, Hollie received alot of sympathy, love and affection and everyone was so pleased and happy for her when her coat came back!!!

Still after a couple off years the condition was not getting any better, so we had a check up with a different vet in the practice she said why not check for Cushing's again, this time it showed she had a broader line Cushing's result.
Hollie was now also put onto 'Vitroyl' this seemed to be a new condition the vets had to deal with but we were hopeful. 4 tablets at 60mg a day and a test after 10 days to recheck level. I checked the tablet makers own web site, and other sites which gave better advice on these tablets and levels and what to look out for.
A good American vet 'Chat Site' with people's comments warned us what could happen if over dosed, which happen to Hollie with in 4 days on the dose given. The tablets were stopped straight away with a couple of days rest, a test was re-done with results being inconclusive, so she was again re-tested this time it indicated that Hollie was on a very low level of Cushing's, so we started on half the dose which was fine for her.
Hollie has now got a full coat, and is looking wonderful, although she has put on a little weight, even though she is eating less then she used to.

Hollie has enjoyed numerous camping trips, here are some pictures that were taken in the Forest of Dean which was organised by AMWA