December 4, 1999

One day a man was driving down the road and saw a lady at the side of the road who was giving away puppies from the back of her car. She told him that if she didn't find homes for all of the puppies, she was going to take them to the pound. He looked at this one little puppy and felt sorry for it. So, not wanting it to end up at the shelter, he took her. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks later he decided that he just could not deal with the normal puppy behaviors...chewing, messing indoors, etc. Consequently, he ended up taking the puppy to the shelter himself.

The shelter called our associate in Westminster, MD and told her about the little puppy, asking if she could take it as they didn't want to see it euthanized. She picked up the little girl and took it back to her kennel until she could find it a forever home.

Louie had called us to ask us about another Chow she had that she wanted us to find a home for. We made the trip up, to pick up the one Chow she'd called us about, and that was when we first laid eyes on the puppy. She was such a precious little girl and we fell in love with her immediately. We told Louie we'd take the puppy as well.

On the ride back to Virginia, the puppy rode on my shoulder and the window sill the whole way. That was when we decided to name her Manulani--heavenly bird--since she liked to perch.

Manulani (Lani) had entropian that affected both eyes, so we had the surgery done to correct the condition when she went in to be spayed.

Lani attended all our adoption days where we tried to find her a good home. One of our adoptive parents was taken with her from the first time she saw Lani and decided she wanted to adopt her. So, while we went out of town one week, Manulani went to her potential new home for a trial run sleepover. By the time we got back to town, it had been decided that the adoption would never work as the two fur kids did not get along very well.

So, back to the adoption days Lani went. No one was interested in adopting her as she was just too rambunctious and loved chewing on everything in sight including the humans. It was finally concluded that it was better if she were to remain premanently with us...by that time we'd fallen madly in love with her, "warts" and all.

Once Lani grew up, she calmed down and became every bit the wonderful little girl we'd always known her to be, gave up messing in the house and chewing, and was the most wonderfully friendly little one anybody could wish to meet. When she would get excited at seeing you, her entire rear end would shake back and forth along with her wagging tail...we called her our "little Tahitian dancer". Every time she'd go to one of our adoption days, everyone who saw her fell in love with her beauty and sweet personality. They were constantly trying to adopt her, but to no avail, as we loved her dearly and would never part with her for anything.

Around 2005, Manulani (Lani) a Sr., developed Pemphigus Foliaceous (an autoimmune disease characterized by large blisters on the skin and mucous membranes, often accompanied by itching or burning sensations). For the past couple of years that she has had the condition, her skin has oozed, and then crusted over at the sites. She has itched terribly. She’s been on Prednisone, Nizoral, and Azathioprine. But the oozing, crusting, and itching have persisted. Within a day of being given her bath, her skin would ooze and crust over, itching immediately.

September of 2008 we took Lani in to see her regular vet, Tom Schmidt, DVM to get her blood workup for her Dermatologist, Dr. Hanson. Last time we'd been to see Dr. Schmidt was in March. It was cold out. But Tom had to open ALL the windows in the exam room due to the strong odor. This time, he didn't have to open window 1!!! He was really pleased with her condition and when I saw him again a few days later, he again mentioned how much better Lani was looking and gave me a "thumbs- up".

10/1/2008: Lani and I went in to see Dr. Hanson yesterday. The tech who took us in and did the skin rubbing and initial look-over, was really surprised when she saw Lani and smelled her odor was almost non- existent. I told her that the improvement had NOTHING to do with her meds. So, of course, she asked what it was attributed to. I told her all about how we first found out about the product from our friends, Barbara and Clarence (I'd asked Barbara if the product was of any benefit for auto-immune conditions and when she said yes, that was all I needed), the trial and error dosage, and then the results we'd experienced. Then I told her that because I was SOOOOO excited over her progress, I had become a distributor under Barbara and Clarence. Told her about the OPC-3 (the human stuff) and how it had stopped the pain caused Michael by his carpel tunnel as well. When she went into the other room and was briefing Dr. Hanson, I could hear her telling him all about how well Lani was, that her skin was DRY, and that I'd told her it was all due to the supplement I was giving her. (BTW, I had printed out all the stuff from the website on the Pethealth OPC, took it with me so the Dr. could see for himself what I was giving Lani, and gave it to the tech before she'd left the exam room.)

Then Dr. Hanson came in and looked Lani over as he usually does, with all the paperwork in hand, including the printout. I showed him how under her shirt (wearing a shirt helps for some reason, and she has less a tendency to scratch and bite herself where she is covered) her skin was not only dry, but her skin was almost clear of any sores/lesions, and has a good amount of hair growing back. He asked me a few questions about how long I'd been giving her the OPC, etc. He finished up by saying that he was extremely surprised at her wonderful condition. He said that she was doing so well that he felt that more than likely, if she were to continue progressing as she has in such a short time, that he felt we could probably start lessening her meds!!! He felt that we could even possibly get her OFF of her meds all together eventually!!!! He discussed with me the fact the medical community doesn't know much about how anti-oxidants work, or if they are really very effective, thus, they don't really get too involved in recommending it. They do know that anti-oxidants do help some with conditions such as Lupus.but still, not much is known. (He did tell me the "science" of what they do.) He said he's NEVER seen such demonstrative results such as what we've achieved with Lani before.that he was "flabbergasted"! He ACTUALLY used that word!!! He was excited to see how it had affected her and felt that we'd hit upon something that might actually be better than all the meds she's been on all this time. He said that Lani's condition was SEVERE.about the worst he's seen of Pemphigus Foliaceous. And he just couldn't get over how radically improved she was after just about 3 months of being on the OPC. He said we should keep doing what we are doing and be in touch every month...that he felt certain that her condition would continue to improve, and that we may be able to actually (as I said before) take her off of all the meds. He said in doing so, getting her off the preds especially, would allow the anti-oxidants work even more efficiently. I told him that I was so excited over the progress we'd seen with Lani that I'd signed up to be a distributor of the OPC. He asked if he could make a copy of the paperwork I'd given him, and I told him he could keep it. I could tell he was really excited to have an actual case study standing before him showing the amazing results that could come from the use of the OPC/anti-oxidants and still couldn't get over how radically Lani's condition had improved, especially considering how really severe it was.

Thank goodness that Barbara had been talking to a woman (Sandy) who'd come into her store one day and she and Clarence decided to become involved as distributors of the products. If it had not been for all the many "coincidences", we would never have known about the OPC when we did and Lani would not have had the amount of progress as she has had. This all has been such a Godsend for our baby girl!!!

March 2009: Lani went back in for her checkup with Dr. Hanson and he was still really pleased with her progress...she'd grown back quite a bit more of her hair and her Hygromas she'd developed on both her elbows have diminished, the one having almost totally closed.

7/27/2009: Lani has been basically lame for the last month or so after she’d taken a tumble off the last step of the back porch. We took her to Dr. Schmidt immediately and he began her on an intensive IV steroid therapy, so we had to leave her for the night. The next day I went back to his office and picked her up along with a prescription of Prednisone. Slowly, but surely, She’d begun to get better...was able to raise herself into an upright laying position, sit once you’d gotten her into the position, had gotten enough strength back into her legs to be able to stand, actually squat with her rear legs to potty, and even had taken a few steps unsupported...and then suddenly she reversed this past week. A few days ago she was breathing strangely...began a familiar cough (one that Manu had developed a couple of days before his passing from cancer). We’d just been to see Dr. Schmidt day before yesterday...he found a few lumps on her one rear leg. And then she was suddenly gone Saturday, around 11 a.m. We got ready and then took our Lani for one last ride in the "doggie mobile" to our vet's office for cremation.

Lani was truly loved and will be sorely missed...we'd had her since she was a puppy and she lived a long life, but still...it was too short. Lani, you are now healthy, and running and playing with all the others who went before. We keep you in our hearts forevermore.

Page created by: Chow Rescue
7 June 1999