My Fight

I must be the luckiest dog in the world…………I not only have two terrific owners but two heroes as well. You see……I have been away from my owners for about ten months now. They reluctantly left me with a wonderful care taker so they could join their brothers and sisters in keeping America safe. That’s right……both of my best friends are Army soldiers serving in Iraq.
They are wonderful people that would give the shirt off their backs to see people safe and happy. This is why it devastated my care taker to notify them about my current health situation.
I have had epilepsy since I was a young pup but my best friends have done a terrific job of keeping me on meds to prevent my awful seizures. In fact….wag my tail on wood…I haven’t had any seizures the whole time they have been gone. For the most part…..I have been healthy except for a sudden rapid decrease in my weight. The weight loss began just after my best friends left. My care taker voiced his concerns to my best friends but they thought that it might be the stress of having both of them gone…….yea I am a little stressed without them…..but…..I miss them mostly. They told my caretaker to continue to keep an eye on things and if any other symptoms came about or I got any worse to take me into my favorite veterinarian.
I know what you are thinking….all dogs hate the vet’s office……not me. They are very gentle with me and they talk to me when I get scared. If I’m really good they give me these yummy cookies that help clean the gook off my teeth.
After about a week I had started developing other symptoms……..my belly was very unhappy with me. So my care taker….did I mention he’s awesome……..took me in to see my friends at the vets office. They ran a bunch of profiles…… did some things I didn’t care for much… and in the end they said I had pancreatitis. This meant that I had to get some type of new food…….ooooohhhhhhh I wonder if it will taste as yummy as what I normally get…..wag wag wag. Oh……and more meds…..sorry Mr. Caretaker but I knew they were mixed in the food the whole time… but thanks for trying to get them to taste better.
I began to feel much better and I even gained some weight back. I was feeling great. I was going for walks twice a day and playing ball all the time…….this guys great…. he just keeps throwing the ball every time I bring it back….he must like this game as much as me.
Then I began to rapidly drop weight again except I wasn’t showing any other symptoms. This seemed to baffle the vet.
Now I am only 4 pounds and my best friends are very worried about me. The vet told my best friends that if I lost anymore weight that I wouldn’t make it……that I was slowly dieing. I laid my head on my care takers shoulder and let out a deep sigh……I can’t die before my best friends come home……they would be so hurt and after all they have been through they deserve to see me again. At that moment I decided that I would fight what my body was doing ……. I was determined to hold on until my owners….my best friends…came home. And so the fight began.
It’s hard to be away from the ones that you love. It’s even harder when they develop a life threatening illness……….chin up my friends…….your best friend is waiting for you to come home. See you soon my heroes!

Enhanced Sniffers

One day I was walking with my best friend down a street near my home when I began to bark ferociously. Bearing all teeth and lunging forward I pulled hard on the leash in an attempt to eat the young man headed our direction. This being very abnormal behavior for me, my friend pulled back on the leash and immediately disciplined me with a deep toned…..NO……HEAL. Despite my friends several attempts to get me to listen I continued with my behavior….. increasing the intensity the closer the young man got to us. Because of the scene that I was making the young man stopped walking towards us and crossed to the other side of the street. My best friend was appalled at my behavior and turned to apologize to the young man only to find him spray painting vulgarities on the side of the neighbor’s car. I looked up at my friend with eyes that said....now do you understand? My friend patted my head and whispered “I’m sorry good girl you were only trying to tell me that he was a sketchy person.”

If humans could sniff out the sketchy, dishonest people the way that I did for my best friend would life be a happier place for them?

My best friend came home today looking a little down in the dumps. I ran to the door with my tail wagging so hard that my butt practically lifted off the ground. She bent down and said, “Good to see you girl……at least I know I have a true friend in you.” She went over to the kitchen placed some bags on the counter and kissed her husband on the cheek. I consider myself a very lucky dog to have not just one best friend but two…..and I’m spoiled ………what’s better then that. She began preparing my favorite beef and veggies ….. extra mushy of course with a side of meds. Shhhhh! ……She thinks I don’t know their mixed in there. She placed the bowl on the floor and said the magic words......go ahead. I immediately dove into the bowl devouring the food like a Hoover picking up sand on a carpet.
After dinner I climbed on the couch with my friends and listened to them talk. She told her husband that once again she had let her guard down and learned the hard way that not all people are good people. She had practically given the shirt off her back to a person that she worked with. She had dealt with this persons ups and downs……attitudes…..sudden changes of personality and temper tantrums. She was being walked on by someone that she thought that she could trust. Today she decided to stand up for herself and explained that she didn’t like the treatment that she was receiving and wanted to know why. She explained that she felt she deserved more respect considering all the things that she had done to help this person out. This was met with insulting statements, disrespect and hurtful statements. She said that she had once again put all her efforts into an obviously one sided friendship. As she wiped a tear off her cheek the conversation ended.
I could sense the hurt in my friend so I snuggled even closer to her and nudged her hand. She smiled and patted me on the head.
As I lay my head on my friends lap I couldn’t help but wonder………if humans could sniff out sketchy people like I did for my friend that day …….would my best friend and owner not hurt so bad tonight. She would have known before taking her guard down that this was a bad person. Hmmmmmm…..Don’t worry friend you still have me and I am the most loyal friend you will ever encounter.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz………tennis ball………steak………..kitty cat…….zzzzzzzzzzzzz!