Your First Love

When you finally find the puppy of your dreams you are in love instantaneously. I think I babied my first fur baby Dodger more than I babied my real babies. We knew we wanted a boxer and looked a few litters but the puppies in those litters just didn’t fit. I remember walking into Dodgers home and thinking “I sure hope we find a puppy today!” The owners wanted to show us how playful the puppies were. They brought out a big broom and the puppies went crazy chasing it and trying to catch it. They were so cute, and that’s when Dodger caught our eye. He was the perfect fawn mix, a good patch of white on his chest and face. We loved on him, played with him and then decided he was going to be ours. We took him home to the beach house (which probably wasn’t the smartest choice with a new puppy!). I cannot recall if we stayed all weekend at the beach house or drove home that day. What I do remember is taking him to meet his “Grandma” and “Grandpa” and how damn adorable he was playing on their front lawn.

Looking back now that broom trick caused more problems than entertainment. I couldn’t vacuum or sweep without dodger going into “attack” mode. We had our far share of holes dug, plants ripped out and cushions tore apart. Not to mention when we got Dodger his sister “Maggie” he got very protective and we could no longer go to the dog park.

At 6 years old we discovered Dodger had a cartilage that was on top of his spin that was fusing together. We finally understood why he wouldn’t jump into the back of our truck (even for liver or peanut butter) and why he almost always struggled to get into our bed on Christmas Eve. We started him on an anti inflammatory and he didn’t seem to struggle any more than he already was.

Dodger is now 10 years old and the last few months he has started to struggle again. Initially, his toenails were bleeding as he was catching them whistle running outside. Then he started to limp on his right side, recently his legs started giving out on him and he goes into the “splits” position frequently. After visiting the vet we tried a steroid pill for two alternating weeks with no improvement. We been given Dodger CBD oil for pets for the last three weeks and although his legs still give out once or twice a day nothing else seems to be worsening. The vet said if he was a human he would be in a wheelchair. Lucky for us he is “Dodger Dog” and still chases his little sister Maggie around the yard on a daily basis.

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