Thorman Yellow Labrador Retriever Mix Male 5 Years Old ID #1799

April 21, 2025

Update on Thorman the Resilient!

Tomorrow marks 3 weeks since this fine fella came into our lives.

He’s come a long way. In addition to feeling much better, he’s now exercising and learning manners. While he initially slept on the bathroom floor, he now sleeps either on the sofa or on a dog bed in the bedroom with us. He has free roam and usually starts in the living room and joins us after getting a midnight drink.

When he first arrived, Thor would barely eat anything except cooked chicken. He now also eats kibble, sweet potatoes, rice, and several vegetables. But he still doesn’t like peanut butter (!)

Thor’s jumping is pretty much under control, and he waits when told as well. We continue to work on walking on lead, and we’re now comfortably up to two 30-minute walks per day. Each day he has more energy plus he’s more confident and better behaved than the last.

He’s also become more comfortable in our yard. While he would not venture off the patio at first, he now freely roams through the grass. Today, he curiously entered the gated veg. garden on his own and was lounging on the Coolio bed while we did some yardwork.

Soon, Thorman will be able to meet with other dogs.

April 18, 2025

Midweek update on Thorman the Handsome!

Just shy of 2 weeks in foster care and Thorman’s Friday X-rays came back as clear of pneumonia.

He does still have some bronchitis and will start on a steroid today to help finish up his medical treatment.

To celebrate, we took him for his 1st real walk around the neighborhood where he met three young men aged approximately 12 to 15 years old.

Previously, Thor lived with two young men in this age group. This made for a good first introduction outside of the home.

He loved meeting them. They loved meeting him.

We had an opportunity to continue to train on ‘down’ because he’s a little bit of a jumper when he’s excited to see or meet someone.

We’ve also been working on ‘stay’. We were initially concerned about door dashing, but with his increased trust and steady training on Stay, we’re becoming less concerned about that. He now stays when we leave, and prior to getting his meals.

Thorman has also lived with a cat, which sadly was also surrendered.  When cleared to meet other pets, he will be introduced to our son’s cat, Jones.

Jonesy grew up with our dogs and cats, so he’s very comfortable around large dogs and will be a great first new friend to handsome boy Thor.

April 14, 2025

Happy Monday from Camp Thorman, everyone!

We’ve had the joy of finishing up another good weekend with this fine fella.

His Friday Vet visit went as expected considering that PASE had suggested a full month of recovery from the pneumonia.

The vet heard a little bit of noise in his lungs and suggested an X-ray. That should be read tomorrow.

Until then, he continues his antibiotics and his steam treatments.

Otherwise, the Vet said he’s doing well considering he was very ill and hospitalized not long ago.

They sent this silly picture to show me how Thorman charmed the staff there.

The Vet also said “He’s a good boy…with bad manners”.

We fully agree and, now that he’s settled and feeling better, we’ve started working on a few things including Stay, Down and Walking on Lead.

Thor should also lose 5 lbs which is easily doable since he already likes walking and wants to play.

We just have to take it slow as his recovery continues.

April 12, 2025

Thor is doing very well this second week in care.

Healthwise, his cough has fully resolved.

Lingering symptoms are an occasional runny nose and a few eye boogies.

His vet appointment is tomorrow morning.

He also has some energy and likes to roll around his puzzle ball. We put kibble in it around 30 minutes after a chicken soup meal, and he’s drinking only water now.

Thor’s shelter intake form said he didn’t eat vegetables, but we’ve discovered that he will eat sweet potatoes. We will continue to introduce more foods to him.

This could help with weight maintenance as he is a shorter type of fella.

Thor was in a kennel for 4 days at the shelter and then crated for treatment at the hospital. In our home, he has had free roam. He’s proven to be a reliable guest. I work from home, and he’s become, unsurprisingly, a bit Velcro, so we started to leave him alone for 20-30 minutes at a time to encourage trust by showing him that we will return.

Yesterday, he was home alone for several hours, and he was a perfect gentleman!

He was very happy when we arrived home and was quick to give his belly for rubs. He wanted cuddles, which we gladly gave him, along with tons of praise.

April 8, 2025

Thorman is feeling much better.

While we continue the pneumonia protocols, he’s feeling much better and starting to show his personality.

Thor is a young, large boy. On Friday, we’ll ask the vet about his ideal weight ( he’s currently around 105 pounds), understanding that he will be in better shape after he is cleared to exercise.

But he will always be a big dog, and he still has puppy-like energy in him.

Our next priority, after wellness, is to control, but not eliminate, his joyful exuberance.

He wants to jump up on us to greet us but is already responsive to commands to not do so. He will stop from jumping instead; he’ll rub up against your legs. We will reinforce this good response.

He knows to sit and will lie down.

He returns to us in the yard when called and willingly follows inside.

This fella sits to wait at mealtime but eats too fast. We will try a slow feeder bowl, but for now, we’re just breaking up his meals into small courses. This also works for sneaking in his meds!

We introduced kibble, and he liked it, so we put the kibble in a puzzle ball to help keep his mind stimulated and slow down the intake of the kibble. Thor is smart and curious. He figured it out right away and enjoyed using it.

He’s really a good dog- smart, sweet, house-trained, pretty obedient – have we mentioned how handsome this guy is too?

April 7, 2025

Thor continues to do very well with this pneumonia recovery.

On Thursday and Friday, he showed a great amount of improvement in both his health and heart!

Thor ate and drank broth freely and took his meds more easily.

He pooped and he slept through the night with just the occasional throat clearing.

He wags his tail when seeing one of us and asks for pets and attention.

He now likes resting on the sofa and continues to use his bed to sleep at night.

He is also more comfortable in the yard. He now bounds toward us in the grass where he was at first hesitant to leave the sidewalk and hardscaping.

We still need to keep him calm, but it is exciting to see him so excited about seeing us.

Thor does appear to be mixed with Golden Retriever, which was noted by the Shelter.

His coat looks fantastic from the daily steam baths.

Unfortunately, he does not like to have his picture taken.

Perhaps the 2 tween/teen boys from his former home overdid the selfies with him?

We continue to work on this because we can’t wait to show everyone what a gorgeous dog he is!

April 5, 2025

Tuesday and Wednesday in Foster care showed small improvement in coughing, sneezing, and wheezing.

He’s still waking up several times at night to clear his lungs, but he chose a dog bed after we covered it with his towel, so he’s resting more comfortably in between.

Thor’s respiratory recovery is moving in the right direction. My current concern is nutrition and the fact that he hasn’t really pooped.

He did not eat for 4 days in the shelter and had can prescription food at the hospital, which he only accepted at home on Monday night. The massive amount of antibiotics are likely causing his gut issues, and we struggled on Tuesday to get him to eat anything.

He reluctantly ate some boiled chicken and finally drank chicken broth, which would help with hydration.

Thor was house-trained. He sits by the door when he needs to go out to pee, and we continue to reinforce that with a lot of praise, which he responds to with a little waggy tail.

Thor also willingly walks into the shower with me. We do two 15-minute steam treatments per day. While in there, I’ve started to bathe him. This good boy has let me touch his face, neck, feet, tail, and rear end.

We’re building trust, so we go slowly. Increased anxiety will hamper his pneumonia recovery.

After 2 days of this, we can see that he has a very nice coat and beautiful coloring.

It is a dark golden yellow that fades to a creamy butter shade. I think he’s actually starting to sparkle!

April 4, 2025

Thorman is a Male, 5-year-old (DOB 2/19/2020) Yellow Lab Mix

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Brookline volunteers, Thorman was rescued from a shelter this past weekend.

The stress from being abandoned and being neutered was overwhelming for him, and he became very sick with double pneumonia.

He survived because Brookline intervened, and he was taken to the hospital for emergency care on 3/29/25.

‘Thor’ was an owner surrender to ACCT in Philadelphia.

He was adopted as a puppy by the surrendering family and lived with the Mom, Dad, and their 2 young adult male children. Now, 13 and 18, they would have been 8 and 13 when Thor was adopted at 4 months old. He also lived with 1 female cat.

Both pets were surrendered due to no fault of their own.

On Monday, 3/31/25, he was released from the hospital and joined us for a 1 hour drive to recover in our care.

Thor was surprisingly good in the car, considering his illness. He intermittently fussed and panted but was easily soothed.

Upon arrival home, he investigated our home and the enclosed yard. After dinner, we learned that this boy is incredibly smart and adept at spitting out pills.

At bedtime, he did not want to use either of the 2 dog beds and chose a large beach towel that we put out on the carpet for him.

Even medicated, Thor coughed much of the night. But he came to me for comfort, which is wonderful considering his change in situation.

End of Day 1 Impression: Thorman is a good boy. He is quite sick but a very good boy.