My rescue partner and
I formed 2nd Chance Dachshund Rescue in 2006. In part, our inspiration
was from a little dachshund named Camelot a.k.a. "Cami". Since then we have saved
many dachshunds. Our goal is to not just re-home them, but try to restore them - mind, body and soul.
You can follow our rescue and learn more about what makes us unique here at
our Facebook Page.
Camelot has had obstacles her whole life but has always overcome them or compensated for them. On April 12th, 2010 she was diagnosed with
IMPA. For someone who is a minimalist this diagnosis was more than scary. You see, Camelot has always lived an extremely clean lifestyle.
No chemicals or pesticides and she has never been over vaccinated. Her diet consists of raw/home-cooked meals which are formulated by Sabine
Contreras at Better Dog Care, a wonderful woman who does this for our rescue and has helped many very sick doxies through nutrition.
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Hi my name is Camelot a.k.a. Princess Camelot Von Stammelot, Princess, CamCam,
Cami, Muffin, Muffin Top, Spazzy McGee, just to name a few. I’m a 7.5 lb, dilute red dachshund and this is my story.
I was born in San Diego on Sept 14, 2005 to a local breeder. They knew right away I was different than my brother. I was taken from my mom and brother at 6 weeks of age and given to a veterinarian that ran a kennel/rescue, to be PTS because of my birth defect that at the time they called “swimming puppy syndrome“.
The kennel was a really a loud place with lots of big dogs and people running around - a very scary place for me. I was a very little girl, only 1.5 lbs, and I missed my mommy and my brother. There was a lady there that they called a volunteer. She put her hand in my crate and I remember looking into her eyes and licking her hand. The lady asked the doctor if she could do some research and try to find out what was wrong with me, and if I could be helped. The doctor said sure, "Just take her home because she will get sick here.” So, the lady took me home and I never went back. ;)
My new mom, the volunteer lady I licked, did lots of research and found that I did NOT have “swimming puppy syndrome”, but something unique that there was no name for. The first veterinarian I went to just kept looking at me and saying, “Oh wow.” I thought it was because I was so beautiful and he’d never seen such a pretty puppy. After the doctor took pictures of my back and saw that I had a 45 degree angle in my spine and deformed vertebrate, he told my Mom that things did not look good for me. He agreed I should be put to sleep because it was unlikely I would walk once my bones grew, and I might have internal problems due to the shape of my body and the placement of my organs. I remember his words to my Mom. He said, “You should just let her go, you have a heartbreaker here.” His words made my mom cry so I licked her hand to let her know it would be OK.
A couple of weeks passed and my mom found Dr Robin Levitski, a Neurology Specialist at a fancy hospital. Dr Levitski said “I’ve never seen a dog quite like her.” But I knew right away that she loved me and she let me play with kitty toys while she talked to my mom. The doctor explained that I was born with a severely deformed vertebra in my spine, and the 5 vertebrae in front of the deformity are completely fused together. She said it’s a miracle that my spinal cord hasn't been severed and I wasn’t paralyzed.
Everyone is amazed that I can walk, run, tumble and play with the best of them, and I don’t notice that there's anything wrong with my tiny back at all. Did I mention that I am a master at the game of fetch? At 1.9 lbs I could even take on my big sister and she is 16 lbs. The neurosurgeon felt that surgery to try to correct my back would probably not be possible, and couldn’t be considered done until my bones stopped growing. Until then we just take one happy, spunky day at a time.
On April 13th 2006, I was spayed and Dr Levitski took more pictures of me. She really thinks I’m pretty. The pictures showed that T13 was the vertebra causing the trouble with my spinal cord. The channel narrows there and is pinching on it and deformed vertebra (looks like L1 according to the x-ray) isn't really doing all that much damage. The plan was to have regular pictures taken and just keep watching me for any degenerative changes, and if I made it to 1.5 years with no problems, they would talk about surgery on T13 at that point. My mom told me not to worry because they also make lil’ wheels for lil’ dogs and if we needed to, we could get hot pink wheels with flames and they wouldn’t slow me down a bit.
A princess has to keep everyone on their toes and no one does it better than me. Nothing slows me down. I walk like Charlie Chaplin and hop like a bunny. When I am not demanding that someone throw my ball or pet me, I’m giving kisses and just being plain old cute. I love to go for walks and mama says I look like a crazed bumble bee on a serious mission. I am the smallest and most mighty dachshund in the house. Big Mama Jen Jen taught me size does not matter. She is in heaven now, but would be very proud to know I keep things in order around here. I live with my dachshund sister Carlee and brother Cooper. They are rescues with special needs also. That makes us one special bunch! For the last four years, everything is my life has been wonderful and it appears surgery for my back won’t be necessary at all.
Something happened on April 12th, 2010. My front legs really started to hurt and it made me cry. Mama thought it was my back, the bullet I had dodged for 4 and a half years had finally caught up with me. In less than 24 hours I was completely lame, although I tried to be brave, there was no hiding the pain. I was rushed to Dr Levitski. She always has time for a princess. But, the problem was not my back at all! Dr Levitski said I needed to see an orthopedic surgeon because the problem was my joints. I had to stay at the hospital so they could do lots of tests to find out what was wrong and that bone doctor could see me. Later that night, my mom came to get me. After running his tests, the orthopedic doctor determined I had “Immune-mediated Polyarthritis”. My immune system is confused and it is attacking my joints.
They need to unconfused it before it attacks my kidneys or something else. You can read more about it.
My mom is hoping to get me into remission, whatever that is, and do whatever it takes to keep me there. So starts another journey for a princess. Mom always says that I’m an inspiration to everyone and the embodiment of the saying “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” For me it’s just another day. I’m the happiest, luckiest dog in the world.
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