Thank everyone, this is a little long but I need to tell his story, it could go in the Happy Dog thread but I'll put it here.
Although my poor guy is having problems right now he is a happy story nonetheless. I had put my black lab buddy down and was still very depressed after 2 months, crying daily and just not able to deal with losing him. Dh finally caught on and gave in to my wanting another dog. He didn't want a puppy and all the comes with it so I agreed on a rescue dog. He wanted something smaller but after a week of researching breeds that are good with grandkids it all came back to the loveable Labradors.
The day we put down the black Lab the vet gave my dh the number of a breeder and the rescue number. I called the Lab Rescue League for an application and to schedule a home visit. I never knew what a process it was to adopt and was a little nervous about the home visit. Things worked out well, the volunteer showed up on a Saturday, checked us out, Tuesday they called saying they had a dog I could look at that next Saturday.
Dh and I showed up at the kennel at the scheduled time, probably a little early if I know dh. We didn't plan on bringing him home, we were just going there to look. The owner brings out this little yellow, skinny, scared lab and both of us melted right then and there. Needless to say he went home with us that morning. We get him home and he's very nervous, so much so that his face is all wrinkled up with stress, dh kept asking me if he was one of those wrinkle dogs lol. It took about a week but eventually he relaxed and settled in and became our dog.
Fast-forward about 3 months, dh gets a call from the LRL, they are going to use our kid as the poster dog for the rescue league that year. His story was going to be printed in the newsletter and they wanted to share it with us prior to the newsletter arrival. I got home from work that night and could see dh was a little shaken, once he told me what happened I understood.
Our little guy had been in a pet shop, no one would buy him because his registration papers were messed up and they couldn't get them right. The pet shop left him in the back room, in a cage, they barely fed him and in fact were trying to kill him. Someone that worked there told a friend about him and talked that employee into letting him/her come in and get that poor puppy out of there. So one night after closing they did just that, two people went in and stole that puppy cage and all and took him to the rescue league.
This little puppy hadn't been out of his cage in 6 months, weighed only 29 lbs and was on deaths doorstep. The first 2 weeks at the foster home were touch and go, he could hardly eat and had to be fed little bits at a time. They thought they were going to lose him but his will to live was stronger than they thought. He gained weight, the gouge on his head (from hitting it on the top of the too small cage) healed and his toes started to uncurl from walking on the wire bottom of the cage. They said it was a week before he would come out of the cage on his own and that he had to learn how to be a dog. He stayed at the foster home for two months but needed more socialization and they were pampering him too much so he was sent to a kennel. They worked with him there to the point that they felt he could be adopted. This is where we come in.
He’s done very well with us, gained weight and has stayed right around 75lbs although you can tell from his paws that he never really grew into them. He probably should have been closer to 100lbs but being starved during his puppy years probably stunted his growth. He socialized as well as could be expected, loves people but is still shy until he gets to know you. It’s funny to watch him, he never really learned how to greet people so he wags his tail and the hair on his back comes up the same time. His personality blossomed and he’s a little character and very intelligent, learning things quickly. He lacks self confidence but once he realizes he can do something he doesn’t stop, for example, he refused to go down our cellar stairs, I tried coaxing but no way was he going down there. One afternoon I became frustrated, put the leash on him and made him go down with me. It was like a light bulb went off in his head, I took off the leash and he spent the next half hour running up and down those stairs, each time giving us that “look what I can do” look.
We didn’t have him 6 months before he started having seizures. On top of the seizures he also has allergies and a very sensitive stomach. We could deal with all of these things but the seizures were becoming very bad, sometimes lasting up to 2 hours. The problem with medicating him for them is they were very infrequent, he’d have one and not have another for 6 to 12 months, but when he had them they were bad. The vet didn’t want to treat him with Phenobarbital until we could find a pattern, until then we were to rush him in if it lasted longer than 30 minutes. We did that 3 or 4 times until the vet gave us Valium to treat him at home, that worked up until the last 2 he had, that’s when we decided to put him on Phenobarbital. That worked like a charm and he hasn’t had a seizure in a little over 3 years.
So you can probably see why he’s been a little pampered (to say the least) and has a special place in our hearts. One of my neighbors said the other day that this dog just can’t catch a break in life, I told him he did...a big one...dh and I. So that’s his story, a sad beginning but a very happy life.
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