Ok, I can finally blog about this. It was just too soon yesterday. Plus, I was on HWSW all day, waiting for new stuff. I'm so addicted to that freakin blog, it's not even funny. The good thing is that it's a LOT easier to keep up with stuff than the Cherry Yahoo pages are. And I don't even want to talk about the Cherry Forums, since that place would really consume my every single second. The only thing that keeps me away from there is that it seems to be filled with all the JCW crew, and I'm not one of them, plus, it seems VERY serious, and I just can't do that when I go to a site for stress relief. But I have learned lots of 'craft' stuff there, mostly by lurking.
Anyhow, about my puppy... Yes, my puppy is Hershey. He is a chocolate colored shih-tzu. Truly, he is the most beautiful pup I have ever seen in my life. He earned his name because of his coloring. I've never seen a dog like him with the same color. It's a very rare thing.
He is a tiny little thing, less than 5 pounds. Shaggy hair, adorable face. Wears a cat collar with a bell, because all the dog ones are too big. He's also very protective of me. He sits on my feet when I'm at my computer. He follows me outside when I have a cig. He puts his head on my shoulder when I watch a movie on the couch. He sleeps on Shane's pillow when he's out of town. Ok, to be honest, he sleeps in bed with us many times when Shane is IN town, because even Shane knows better than to try to kick him out of bed. That's pretty sad. My husband can look the Baby (Emile) right in he eye and say "NO, you must sleep in your own bed, not with us" yet he can't put the puppy out of the bed. It just makes me laugh sometimes.
The girls were walking over to the neighbor's house on Wednesday evening. Hershey went with them. Their German Shepherd, Maggie (No, not my daughter!!) thought Hershey was a squirrel. Maggie clamped her jaws around his little body and shook him like a chew toy. Not good. The girls got Hershey home, and he didn't seem to be bleeding. I babied him for a while, then set him down. He wouldn't follow me. That scared me half to death. He ALWAYS follows me. But he just didn't want to move.
OK, long story short, I took him to the Emergency All night Vet. He had x-rays. Then he got shaved on his sides. The vet found a puncture wound on each side. Luckily, no lungs wee punctured. Nothing was hurt but his skin. After antibiotics, and some really good pain meds, I made it up to check him out of there. I got the total, and wrote a check. Would you believe that it was over $400??? We're talking about a DOG here.
Can you believe that?? I ask only because Shane almost choked when I told him the total. Now, I LOVE my dog. Honestly, I've never, EVER loved another animal like I love this dog. I can remember how appalled my MIL was when she called to tell me about my BILs dog getting hit by a car, and how the whole family was gathering for a special day of watching home movies with the dog in them, and I could not stop laughing. She wanted sympathy, and she got snickers and giggles. I just couldn't beleive that anyone could possibly care for an ANIMAL that much. I mean, we've had dogs before, and I've loved them each in their own way, but to invite people over to watch home movies of a dead dog? That just seemed SICK to me. Well, someone got some revenge on me or something. I mean, I spent over $400 on Hershey without even batting an eyelash. I love my kids, you all know that. But if it came right down to it, kids or puppy, which would I choose? Please don't ever ask me to make that choice.
So tell me, have you ever spent more on a dog than you have on your own kid at the ER?
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8 comments:
Hi Dee,
First let me send my hugs and prayers out to little Hershey. Poor baby!
Second, I'm about to out myself as a crazy animal lover. My excuse is that I have no kids. My pets are my kids, but still...
My white Akita Kilroy was the best dog I ever had. I've always had dogs, but (as Pat Gaffney said about her dog Major Tom) Kilroy was my magic dog. He was the dog that everyone loved. Huge, mellow, sweet as can be, loved kids, loved everything. People who didn't like animals loved him.
One night we woke up because he was screaming in pain. We found him with his stomach like a huge inflated balloon. We rushed him to the 24 hour urgent care vet (it was 2 AM) and the doctors took Xrays.
When the doctor came out and told us the surgery would cost between 1,400 and 1,900 we were floored. But from the back room we could hear our gentle giant screaming. It was awful. (I'm getting all teary-eyed just remembering the sound.) My husband and I looked at the doctor and looked at each other and simlutaniously exclaimed, "Save him!"
I will backtrack and say that the doctor told us he'd performed a similar surgery on an Akita the previous week and that he thought the chances of survivial were 90%... but 1,400 to 1,900? For a DOG?
I looked at my husband and said, "We've turned into those animal wackos haven't we?" and he replied "Yes" and that was that.
Kilroy needed a few days of 24 hour care after that, BTW. When all was said and done this Gastric Bloat issue cost us $2,500. Not a typo.
Would I do it again? Yes. He was 6 years old and it bought us 4 more years with him and $2,500 is a small price to pay for 4 more years of the love that Samurai Shiro Kilroy brought to me and my husband and everyone who met him.
He passed away 3 years ago in March and I still think about him, we still have his picture on the refrigerator, and our other dog Nikita who misses him too is now 11 1/2 is in charge of our house. I cannot imagine a life without pets.
Get well soon Hershey,
Kim, Abner, Nikita (woof)& Rutherford (meow)
Oh geez, Kim. You made me cry. You've done that WAY too often lately!!
I think I may be one of those crazy pet people too, but I HAVE kids, so I'm not sure what the deal is.
Actually, it's that I've always wanted a little dog, since we've always had big dogs (we have 4 Chows that stay OUTSIDE, thank you very much!). I begged for a little one for years, but kept getting "No freakin way, Dee. Not gonna happen. We already have a zoo!"
Well, my friend Roxi gave me Hershey. She's a breeder, and her beloved Rosie had a small litter. Hershey was the only chocolate one of the group. I'd never even seen a chocolate colored shih-tzu before. Roxi gave him to me when we bought her house from her, and there wasn't a thing Shane could say about it.
Since then, that little bugger has wormed his way right into my heart, and I love him in a way that I used to think very strange. I mean, I KISS this dog. On the lips. He rubs his nose to mine. He crawls up in my lap and sighs, for Pete's sake.
yeah, I'm a goner with Hershey. I'm glad I'm not the only one out there. I'll tell him you're wishing him well. You know, he really does understand me!!
Thanks Kim!!
On pups:
Michele shares your love for Shitzus. Her first baby, Kira, passed away 2 years ago February. We really bonded during that time because I'd lost Kilroy the previous March and she'd helped me through it. I really got waht she was going through. So many people don't. They think it's "just a dog." Kilroy was like my own child. I know it sounds crazy, but I literally felt like I'd lost my son.
Michele has 2 pups now. Domino a black and white shih-tzu and Diva a shih-tzu/terrier mix. She got both of them from a rescue. I love them. Having Akitas, they look so tiny to me. And so so cute.
and on the Cherry Forums:
You really should hop in and play. It's not a JCW clique at all. The only reason why there were more posts from JCWers in there at first is because they took JCW members as a test group because JCW is smaller than JCF.
It's true that there's no "chit chatting" in there ("The party's in JCF as Jenny says) but there are nice focused conversations. So, if you're interested in just "Reading Recommendations" for example (and I would tell you to go there because that's the board I moderate--though not well since the auction started. LOL) then you can just go to that section. Very easy.
And if you ever wanted to get into JCW and coulnd't because of the waiting list, all the craft stuff is there. Very nice. It'seven divided into Writing Craft, Writing Life, and Publishing. Again, so you can focus on what interests you.
Dee,
On behalf of all German Shepherd owners, I apologize for your neighbor's dog! I hope the owners went out and trained the dog on the difference between squirrels and puppies.
My shepherd Tanji played with a 9-pound puppy at the dog park the other month. She was very gentle with her. The puppy's owner apologized to me for how rough her dog was playing! So there's no need for a dog to be rough just becuase he's bigger.
I'm glad your puppy is doing better. I hope Hershey doesn't have any emotional scars either.
Sending hugs (and a belly rub for Hershey)
Mary (no, the other Mary)
Mary (ntom),
I am totally convinced that Maggie (the dog, not to be confused with my OWN Maggie, the 6yo) was trying to keep her yard free of small woodland creatures. She slips through our fence to play with our dogs on an almost daily basis. I've watched her running through the field with Hershey and the horses many times.
My dear neighbor, Ms. Lois, came over that night, then called the next day to apologize again. They offered to pay the vet bill. Well, it was rather large, and we really weren't planning on letting them do that. But then Shane reminded me of when this happened in reverse a few years back. He ran over our old neighbor's GERMAN SHEPHERD, before we boght this place and moved to the country. It was horrible. I drove Kim and the dog, Gunny, to the Vet. I felt so bad that my husband almost killed their dog (in my mind!) that I paid the whole bill. Kim insisted that it was Gunny's fault, he was out of their yard, he'd broken his lead, and he ran behind Shane's truck as Shane was leaving for work. But still, my husband hit their dog. So it was our fault. You know? I felt better after paying the bill.
So now I'm thinking maybe we'll let them split the bill with us. Does that seem tacky? Would love your opinions on this.
(BTW, Gunny is fine now. All that blood came froma small cut in his moth. He didn't even need stitches! He's as big as a horse, and loves it when we take Hershey over to play.)
All I know is that I would feel better if I paid in that situation. Wouldn't make the puppy feel better, but it would be the right thing to do.
I'm so glad he's doing well!
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