I always had a dog growing up. My dad had always had a dog growing up. I’m pretty sure his dad had one, too. We wanted our kids to have dogs, too. And so we did. We had the most patient, sweet, loving golden retriever a handful of kids could ask for. But all the while we had her, our youngest two kiddos would regularly have their head colds move into their chest and we would invariably have to take them to the hospital for croup. Turns out, they are allergic to dogs. This allergy was effecting their lungs, which meant that their lungs were always irritated, so when they got sick, it didn’t take much for their lungs to start to have issues. Our pup passed away around the same time we found out, so we chose to forgo adding a new one to our family.
Well, after 3 years of allergy shots, and 3 years of seemingly daily requests, pleas, and “I wish we had a dog” comments, we were cleared by our allergist to get a dog, with caveats. The dog needed to be hypoallergenic. They’re still allergic to dogs, just the reaction they have to dogs is minimal. So we need to be able to have as little shedding as possible. We started looking for dogs. Specifically poodle mixes, schnauzer mixes, or we would need a dog that we would have to groom very regularly. Did you know that those poodle mix puppies start off around $5,000?!?! Those people are making a killing!
We changed tactics and started looking at our local adoption sites, specifically the Denver Dumb Friends League. We were having a hard time justifying paying out the nose for a puppy. Why not find a dog that needed a second chance. After months of searching, we found two beautiful doodle-mix dogs that needed their second home. I don’t know why these dogs needed to find a new home, but I’m glad they have their home with us.
That doesn’t mean things have been easy. J, a bernedoodle, has Happy Tail. This means that the tip of his tail was injured, and when he wags it, specifically against something solid, like the chairs, walls, doors, stair railings (I’m believing to think we don’t have anything soft in our house!) it breaks open again and starts to bleed. Now, I am here to tell you that a dog’s tail does not contain a small amount of blood. This tail contains enough blood that my house looks like a murder scene after he’s whacked it open. OMG! And this dog isn’t short, so it’s not just blood from the knees down. There are spots of blood on the walls higher than my head. And he’s not just standing there in one spot wagging his tail. He’s prancing around the house in all his happy glory. And it’s not just once a day that he’s happy it’s all the live long day! Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s happy, but Old Faithful doesn’t produce as much or as often as this dog’s tail!
Unfortunately, the cure for Happy Tail is an amputation. Thankfully, the good vets at Denver Dumb Friends League recognized the issue, the severity of it (there was already some necrosis of the tail) and have the ability to do the surgery. We’re looking forward to continuing our adventure with J and B (a golden doodle), but hopefully with significantly less blood on our walls, windows, floors, couches…
