tuscawilla oaks

Congratulations to our October 2020 Pet of the Month, Dino Foley!! Read her bio below!

“Ever since I can remember I have wanted a Great Dane.  I like big dogs and these “Gentle Giants” were perfect to me! Therefore, 8 years ago, when my husband told me there was an all black Great Dane/English Mastiff mix that was 3 months old and weighed 42 pounds, I jumped at the chance to meet her.  I knew as soon as I met her that this dog was coming home with us!  She was perfect and she got along wonderfully with our other dog. 

Dino loves to play fetch! When you throw something she always brings it back to you and drops it at your feet.  She likes playing catch but will not play tug of war.  She likes to play with all kinds of toys and does not destroy them but just nibbles on them.  She loves stuffed animals and has had some of her favorites for 2 years.  She truly is a Gentle Giant and we love her dearly.

“In mid-November of 2013, my husband decided to go on a Monday evening walk around the neighborhood. During the walk, a kitten approached him. He seemed friendly. He was purring, rubbing up on my husband and began to follow him around. When he arrived home, the kitten came right into the house and made himself at home. We were never able to find out to whom he belonged and surmised that he was unwanted/abandoned. We called him Drako. It was different for us because we were usually “dog people”. Soon after our house became Drako’s House! We are happy to report that he does allow us to live here as well. Drako enjoys chin scratches, lying in the sun, and trying to steal food from the dog’s dish. He also enjoys looking for obscure hiding spots.”

Congratulations to our August 2020 Pet of the Month; Riley Brown!

“Riley’s Story

After our beloved dog Scruffy passed away in 2015, we felt we had room to help another rescue dog. All of our dogs have been rescues. We still had two other rescues at home, Bailey and Maggie (each with their own story) and they were both getting up in years. Bailey seemed lost without his buddy Scruffy, so we felt an addition, would be good for him and us.

We have worked with the Silky Breed rescue for the 20 years, so we decide to see if they had any available for adoption on their website. Riley had just been posted as an owner surrender, so we contacted the rescue and started making plans to go get him in Castle Rock, Colorado. We bought an RV so that we could take the other 2 dogs and pick him up. We headed out in November. It was very cold when we arrived at his house to pick him up. When I went into the house, I didn’t see him initially but soon I heard him and looked down and said, “you must be Riley!” I picked him up and held him the whole time we talked, Riley didn’t leave my lap the whole trip home, and is still never to far from his mom! He loves his Grandma too and always announces himself before going in her house.

Attached below are some photos of Riley. I’ve also attached the link below to the flyer from the Breed Rescue site we saw, and decided he needed to be  with us. 

http://www.members.tripod.com/~silkyrescue/riley2015.htm

Congratulations to our July 2020 Pet of the Month, Koko McKinley!

Congratulations to TOAH’s June 2020 Pet of the Month, Sadie Degregoria!! Read her bio below:)

“Sadie was found wandering in Crystal Hill area near Lakeland/Winter Garden, FL. She ended up at Brantley Nurseries, where my son worked. Sadie was scared and skinny and she was injured (probably hit by a vehicle).

The nursery personnel fed her for a while but it was obvious she would need a permanent home. My son sent pictures of Sadie and we decided to give her a home with us.

After a checkup at Tuscawilla Oaks, Sadie’s health issues were addressed and she was on her way to full recovery.

Sadie enjoys playing with JoJo, our Sheltie, and chasing squirrels in our backyard.

She is loving, comforting, and eager.

Thank you to the doctors and staff at Tuscawilla Oaks for taking such good care of Sadie Girl.”

Congratulations to TOAH’s May 2020 Pet of the Month, Pepper Redfield!! Read her bio below:)

“Pepper has been a beloved member of our family since the fall of 2009 when she was adopted from the Dane County Humane Society in Madison, Wisconsin. Having been pet parents of smaller “apartment friendly” critters (cats, ferrets, gerbils, and fish), we decided it was finally time to add a dog to the mix.

We originally were looking to adopt an older dog that needed a good home. As a volunteer at the Humane Society, I knew that puppies find homes faster than older dogs, so we purposely tried to not fall in love with an attractive puppy with ears comically too large for her head and instead turned our attention to an older Husky named Shelby. We tried to spend some time with Shelby, but she did not seem too interested in us and mostly stood by the door to the meet-and-greet room, waiting to be excused. We went home that evening to think it over and when we returned the next day, we found Shelby was being adopted by another family that had Huskies in the past and had fallen in love with her.

To our surprise, the puppy was still available, and we decided to spend a couple minutes with her “just for fun.” In the meet-and-greet room, my inexperience with dogs prevailed as I attempted to pet this puppy while my husband laughed at my clueless attempts at interactions with the little dog the facility had named “Petals.” Petals then took a deep yawn, went over to my husband’s lap, curled-up with her belly high, and promptly fell asleep. She clearly knew who the dog person was between the two of us. I looked at my husband and knew he had already fallen in love.

We adopted “Petals” changed her name to Pepper, a name that was much more appropriate for her spunk and energy, and finally brought her home to join our family. Training and socialization were important to us so we enrolled her in puppy classes early and spent many afternoons and weekends at dog parks and around as many people as we could. As a puppy, her potty training was perfectly timed with the melting snow of winter leaving her to desperately search for a patch of snow to do her business as the warmer Wisconsin weather set in. To this day, she still uses a Staples Easy Button to let us know when she needs to go outside.

Pepper has brought us years of fun as we’ve watched her learn and grow. In 2010, she made the long trip with us to Florida where she has enjoyed the last 10 years playing fetch, hiking in the conservation, going for walks, bike rides, and car rides, swimming in the pool, and protecting our yard from squirrels, birds, and the occasional delivery driver. Pepper has been a wonderful big sister to her feline siblings and in 2017 helped us welcome our son, Benjamin. Every night Pepper puts Ben to sleep, not leaving his room, until he drifts off to sleep.

Pepper is now 10 years young. She still has the spirit of a puppy with a body that isn’t quite as fast, but she still does impressively well. Pepper is lovingly cared for by the great team at the Tuscawilla Oaks Animal Hospital. Although she is starting to slow down in her older age, she still enjoys daily walks and swimming in the summer. She is adored by her family and we are so grateful for the joy she has brought to our life!”

Congratulations to our April 2020 Pet of the Month! Luke Thomas!!! Read his bio below:)

“Our sweet boy Luke is a six-year-old Sheltie who is full of personality, more energy than you can imagine and also, a fair amount of mischief. He is as handsome as he is sweet, not to mention extremely smart and he brings so much joy and laughter to our lives.

His favorite hobbies include car rides, camping trips, walks to the park with his brother “Fave” and chasing anything that moves, i.e. his brother Ripley (the cat), lizards, ALL the squirrels and even flying objects…yes, he loves chasing birds and he will even run full speed across the yard looking up the whole time at an airplane flying overhead. He loves to run laps in our back yard, making sure to look at us each time he passes by, just to be sure we are watching him!! And after that much running he loves jumping onto the top step of the pool for a quick cool down. He loves playing ball….catching balls, chasing balls and occasionally bringing them back to you. His current favorite game is bouncing a ball back and forth with his dad.

Of course, this much energy requires a good bit of rest and sleeping late in the mornings is another one of his favorite things. He waits patiently for one of us to get up and then assumes our position in the bed and goes immediately into Do Not Disturb mode!! His adventures usually leave him worn out at the end of a fun day and if I didn’t know better, I would swear he could tell time. Without fail, at about 10 p.m. every night, HE IS DONE and ready to go to bed. Of course, this is fine….except that he wants all of us to go to bed!! He stands in the living room and barks at us, as if to say…”Do you people know what time it is?”

He has been featured in two different Sheltie calendars but we’ve tried not to let it go to his head. So far, he remains humble!! 😉

Since the day we brought him home Luke has received outstanding care by Dr. Fullenwider and all of the staff at Tuscawilla Oaks Animal Hospital. But recently, we experienced TOAH going above and beyond in their exceptional care for our sweet boy. After an unfortunate encounter with another animal in January, Luke was left with some significant wounds that required surgical repair. After the initial surgery, he continued to have some necrosis of the tissue (which was explained to us and we understood was a distinct possibility). Dr. Fullenwider told us about the success they had experienced with something that she called Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) treatments. She shared some before and after photos of the healing process in other animals who had received PRP treatments at TOAH and we were sold.

After the necrotic tissue was removed, Luke started weekly PRP treatments and the rate of wound healing he experienced was nothing short of miraculous. It’s been right at 60 days since the initial injury and today Luke’s wounds are 100% healed. He still has a few scars, but as soon as that long, flowing, calendar star hair grows back, the scars will be completely covered. He is back to running, jumping, chasing and everything else that makes him our special boy. We can’t thank Dr. Fullenwider and everyone at Tuscawilla Oaks Animal Hospital enough for loving our boy and providing him with the very best pet care in Central Florida!!”