New Kid in Town

I have another dog. I did not intend to get another one since I have two delightful canines. However, I was taking my traveling dog to Petsmart this weekend. For those of you who are wondering, one of my dogs likes to ride in a car, and the other one hates it. The traveler especially loves to visit Petsmart. He enjoys meeting an endless array of dogs plus a few cats. My dog also dotes on all the attention he gets from humans of all ages. Petsmart is doggie heaven as far as my pooch is concerned.

We arrived at the parking lot and began to make our way to the front entrance. The local humane shelter was sponsoring an adoption fair. One humane shelter volunteer called out to me, "I have the perfect match for your dog!" True to his word, there was a female who looked like a slightly larger version of my dachshund mix. This little girl had been at the shelter for two weeks which means that if someone didn't take her home at the adoption fair, she would get the ax. I swear these volunteers could sell an eskimo an air conditioning unit. They gave me the hard sell about what a perfect companion she would make for my dog. They kept telling me that "it was meant to be" for the two dogs to be together. I am a total sucker. What can I say? I filled out the paperwork and took her home with me. She was given to me for free. Well, not quite.

This past morning I took the new dog to the vet. The news wasn't good. The dog has roundworms, kennel cough, and heart worms. To make matters worse, she is entering estrus. This is commonly known as "being in heat." The roundworms are easy enough to cure. Just pour some liquidy glop down her throat, and the worms go bye bye. The kennel cough will take seven to ten days to play itself out. In the meantime, she is on antibiotics. The real kicker in this case is that the vaccine she was given at the shelter might have caused the kennel cough. My vet told me that the vaccine uses a live but weakened virus. He said that he has seen numerous cases of kennel cough caused by the vaccine. Unfortunately, the kennel cough will delay her heartworm treatment. Heartworms are caused by mosquitoes that are infected with the parasite. The mosquito bites the dog who becomes infected with the worms that incubate in the heart. The worms can invade any organ in the body as well. If left untreated, the heartworms will eventually kill the dog.

Once the dog has recovered from kennel cough, she will have to spend five days at the animal hospital for intensive and toxic medicines. These medicines can cause kidney damage, so the animal must be watched very closely for renal failure. If there are problems, intensive IV therapy must be administered to save the animal's life. She will not be able get any exercise during this thirty day treatment period because of the potential damage the heartworms could do to her various organs by the increased blood circulation.

This treatment is going to be very expensive. Megabucks. But what price do you put on love?
One thing I do know is this: I am not taking the dog back to the shelter. That would be her death sentence. This poochie girl is very loving, has bonded to me and my other two dogs already, plus she gets along well with my numerous cats. She's a winner! You don't stop a winner. In ancient times a laurel wreath was placed on the head of an athlete who won a race or a wrestling match. This girl has a tough race to run. She will win that laurel wreath. On second thought, I guess she would rather have a dog biscuit or a nice squeaky toy. We are in this for the long haul. Woof!