As everyone knows, the apple of Chris’s and my eyes is our handsome dog, Fred. Christmas, 2002, came at the end of a really long, really traumatic 13 months. During that time we had dealt with illness, family tragedy, a car accident, and two emergency room visits. We needed something joyful. Chris had mentioned how much he wanted a dog, thus for his Christmas present, I wrapped a box full of dog bowls, dog food, dog toys, and finally a stuffed dog. Needless to say the day after I put the box under the tree, he started campaigning hard for a dog. He still claims to have swayed me to buy a dog by his campaign. I maintain that it was my idea all along.

We both went to our respective hometowns for Christmas, and when we got back, the great dog search was on. While he was home, his Mom got the world’s cutest puppy, Darcy, so that REALLY whetted his appetite. We walked dogs at the Animal Rescue League, surfed the web, wandered around Pittsburgh Animal Friends, contacted a Malinois breeder, checked out the shiny new Pittsburgh ASPCA, surfed the web some more, Chris went to a shelter that freaked him out called Orphans of the Storm, and I kept surfing the web….

Chris had his heart set on a German Shepherd or a Malinois. I was kind of partial to Golden Retrievers, since the last family dog was a golden retriever mix. But it was his dog, so we were ready to go to the Malinois breeder. That’s when I found Fred on Petfinder.com. He was at the ASPCA about an hour and a half from Pittsburgh. So even though we had an appointment at the Malinois breeder, we headed out to Indiana PA. They actually had a lot of puppies out there. To go see Fred, we had to walk past a cage of 6-week-old Lab/Australian shepherd mix puppies. Anyway, we got to Fred’s cage, and there he was, a ratty 5-month-old puppy with a long scraggly tail. Without a doubt, that was Fred’s teenage month. All he was missing was braces and pimples. We took him outside in the pen to play a bit, and he was a character. But those littler puppies…they were really freaking cute. Poor Chris, he sort of wanted one of the lab/Australian shepherd mixes. I wanted Fred. Even though it was his dog, we ended up with Fred. We had to get sign off from my landlord, so that meant we had to leave Fred behind for a day and a half until I could pay the pet deposit, we could sign paperwork, etc. When we went back, Chris sat in the cage with Fred, glaring at everyone who went past, while I was in the front office filling out paperwork. Until the paperwork was signed, Fred was still able to be adopted by someone else. I sort of envisioned the staff going “The puppy is good tempered, but watch out for the human!!” And after endless processing in which I had to promise to go home at lunch to let Fred out, and they genuinely seemed reluctant to let Fred out of their shelter, we finally coaxed Fred into the back seat of Chris’s Taurus, and we were headed home.

10 days later we had a vet appointment. The night before, Fred started throwing up. A lot. I can now tell you what the phrase “Sick as a dog” means. It means huddled on the kitchen floor, shivering in fear and pain. Fortunately Chris’s teammate, Annie, is an emergency vet. She recommended Pepto Bismol. She was right, but we had the first of many learning experiences that night. Did you know dogs will not drink Pepto straight from the spoon? After about a half an hour in which I got it on my shoes, the walls, and the floor, we had gotten a teaspoonful down. That was enough to settle his stomach a bit, and that night, Chris slept curled upon my sleeper sofa with Fred-dog while I snoozed in a real bed. You can see the kind of mom I’ll be! The next day, we got a shot and medicine from the doctor. Two days later, we figured out the problem, and he got medicine for the worms he must have picked up at the ASPCA.

Since then, he’s grown, gained weight, and filled out. The scraggly clothesline tail is now beautifully feathered. He’s learned the value of flirty eyes when he wants a treat, and he can pick out a beautiful woman in any area. The ASPCA’s 40lb estimate turned out to be halfway there – try 70 – but you couldn’t ask for a sweeter dog. So it all turned out very well, and in less than 2 months, he’ll be legitimate!
- posted by cam @ 7:57 AM