Shadow's near death experience

After only 2 weeks after having him, after his first trip to the vet, Shadow got super sick. I came home from work and he was just laying on the floor, struggling to breathe. Stephen was kneeling over him and looked at me with a face full or worry and concern. Shadow got up onto his shaky paws, walked a few steps towards me before collapsing.  I felt like I was dying! How could my little baby puppy be sick!?!?!

We hurried and called the vet and she said we needed to bring him in immediately...to Uvalde. Over an hour away. By now, I'm bawling and Stephen has shed a few tears, I'm in work clothes and he's in his uniform. We hurry and change and rush into the truck. Shadow is once again sitting in my lap, drooling and diarrhea-ing all over me. But I'm past caring. I mean, I hate poop and throw-up, but when it comes to someone or something you love, it's one of those things you get over.

Stephen drives, which is good because my eyes are still full of tears and I'm on the verge of hysteria. It seems to take FOREVER to get there. Our amazing vet is waiting for us along with 2 other techs. They hurry him inside and leave Stephen and I in one of the examination rooms alone. We're both just in shock. They took x-rays of his lungs, started an IV with medicine and got him on oxygen. I was so restless not knowing what was going on. I actually started to sneak to the back before Stephen caught me.

Once we were allowed back, Shadow is face down on the x-ray table with an oxygen tube to his mouth. He was breathing so hard. I felt so bad for him. His x-rays showed that his lungs were almost completely filled with fluid, with additional fluid around his lungs. Once that fluid completely fills his lungs, he'd be drowning from the inside.

Due to the severity of his condition, and the lack of equipment at their office, she gave us a referral/transfer to a San Antonio pet ER. This time, I drove. I'm a bit more of an aggressive driver than Stephen, and I didn't think I could handle the possibility of having Shadow die in my arms, not able to do anything to help. At least while driving, I felt like I was doing something. We probably averaged 10-15 miles over the speed limit the whole way, close to 2 hours of driving.  We are so lucky we never saw a cop, and they didn't see us.

We finally get there, run in, and they immediately take him back and get him set up in their nifty oxygen chamber. We then have to sit and wait and cry, while all the rest of the people around us slowly start to leave. We're the last ones helped, but we can't feel too bad, Shadow jumped to the front of the line and was taken care of first before all the other people's pets.  The dr talks to us. They did more x-rays and it showed that it was worse than what it was in Uvalde. He told us to prepare our possible good-byes to Shadow, as even with the treatment, he might not make it through the night. We walk back to the oxygen kennels. Shadow is face down still, not moving besides breathing. He did pick up his head slightly when he saw us, but that was all the energy he had.

That was so sad. Saying good-bye, not knowing if it was going to be the last time we saw him alive. I'm still a wreck. We drove to Stephen's friends house, Joe who let us stay there. He also bought us dinner from my favorite sandwich place, just trying to help ease our night. I honestly don't even know if I said anything at all though.

The next morning, first thing, the dr called us to tell us Shadow made it through the night, but without any improvement. We went down there to see him. This time when he saw us, he lifted his head and gave a small wag of his tail before putting his head down. We stayed with him for almost 45 minutes, much longer than the 10 minutes we were supposed to see him for, but all the techs and vets were super nice and never made us feel in the way. They brought us puppy food to try to get him to eat, and water, but the only thing we could get him to have was a little water from our fingers. It was so sad and scary to see him in such a vulnerable place.  The vet decided to up the oxygen concentration in his cage to 40% to see how that would help him. They could only keep it that high for 24 hours though.

We then had to leave, get some food of our own, and pass the day. I took a 3 hour nap while Stephen and Joe played Call of Duty or something...we went back and saw Shadow again, and brought him a pink dragon squeaky toy. We squeaked it for him and he perked up his ears and wagged his tail a bit more before getting too tuckered out. It was a vast improvement from the night before. We finally had a little hope. The problem was his lungs were still not clearing. There was still a good sized risk that he might not make it through the night. But we had to go back to Del Rio and go to work. We were very lucky to have understanding boss's. After an agonizing night, the doctors calling and saying no improvement, but he's still alive, then a full day of work, we were back on the road to San Antonio.

The bad thing was we were starting to get low on money. If he had to stay longer than the weekend, we weren't going to be able to pay. Thankfully, USAA extended our credit limit so we could pay for the weekend. We drive straight to the hospital to meet with the with his doctor. She happily had called us in the afternoon saying he was finally improving! They took him outside for a little, he was out of his oxygen cage to see how he'd do, eating all the food he could get, and barking his head off! We went in with high spirits, not even minding the new vet bill that was about half of my paycheck; by this point, we didn't even blink at a low bill like that. They took us to an examination room, where we were going to be able to talk to the vet in private before going in and seeing him. She came in with a surprise!

She brought Shadow in! We were so happy to see him up and walking around! And he was so excited to see us as well! Stephen and I both shed a few tears of joy! It was so nice to be able to pet him and play with him and hold him again! I didn't even mind him licking my face! It's crazy how the little things don't matter in the end when they are threatened to be taken away forever.  We took him outside to the grass for an attempted potty break and fed him some peanut butter as well as some puppy food. That hour was wonderful! As long as he kept getting better through the night, we would be able to take him home in the morning!

We were so happy! No new vet bills and we got to keep our pound puppy! The next morning, things were still going great and Shadow was coming home with us!  He met Sammy (Joe's cat) and then slept the entire way back to Del Rio, so did I (I was totally exhausted and Stephen was nice enough to drive).

The next few days he was still pretty weak, but luckily it was right before Thanksgiving, so we only had to worry about him for a little, before he would get 4 straight days of 24 hour care. After that, our challenge was to keep him from going crazy with his pent-up energy! Such a challenge trying to tell a 5 month old puppy to not run around and play after being on the brink of death!

A pound puppy becomes family

  This all started two and a half years ago when Stephen and I went on our first date.  It was during this night out that I knew that I could possibly marry him. On our way home from dinner, we talked about a lot of things including our personal life plans and goals. Amongst many other things, two things we had very much in common were: wanting to have 5 kids and wanting to have a dog.

   Fast forward to when we first got to Laughlin, this July. As we filled out the rental agreement for our home, the woman asked if we were planning to start a family at some point time while we were here at Laughlin. We both said yes. She then also asked if we were planning on getting any pets. Simultaneously, Stephen said yes, and I said no.  She laughed and said that she heard that a lot.

  Now fast forward to October, by this time I've realized that something in my body isn't quite right. Over the past year or so, I've had multiple cysts that have been super painful but have always gone away within a month or so, and we haven't really thought much of it.  But then I got a feeling I needed to go in and get everything checked out.  That has led to several doctor appointments with numerous tests and labs, the results of which I received on October 31st.  More or less, what the doctor told me is that it would take a miracle for us to get pregnant and a bigger miracle for me to actually carry a baby to term. She gave me a referral to see a specialist and said that we might have to look into fertility treatments and other options. Worst. Day. Ever. I was devastated and heart broken. As the little trick-or-treaters came by our home that evening I had to quickly shut the door after giving them candy to keep them from seeing the tears rolling down my cheeks. It made me sick to see those beautiful children all dressed up and excited, and not knowing if we would ever be able to partake in the joy and blessing of having children.

   The next Monday, the 4th of November, I was helping set up the new kennels/animal control facility for the City of Del Rio.  During my work there, I had to walk through the dog kennel area regularly. Being an animal lover, I couldn't help but feel bad for all these animals that had been abused or abandoned. Many of them were adorable and I was hoping and praying that some good person would take them into their home before they had to be euthanized. Since the kennel space is very limited, the animals have a short "expiration date" before which they must be adopted or they have to be put down to make room for new animals. There was one dog, in particular, that caught my eye. He seemed especially sad. I still remember where he was sitting in the second to last kennel on the left. I asked about him and found that he and his brother had been abandoned. Because he was very cute, the animal control officers had extended his expiration date in hopes that someone would take him home. A family had already adopted his brother, and ever since he had become very, very sad. Since I was still anti-pet, I didn't think much of it besides to feel sorry for him. But something about him sparked my motherly instincts, which had been severely hurt by the recent bad news.

   My job seemed to keep taking me back there over the next few days. I kept looking at this little guy when I would be there, and I always asked the officers if anyone had expressed interest in adopting him. It took me all the way until Friday to tell animal control that if they would have to put him down, to call me first so I could talk it over with Stephen to decide if we wanted to save him. By this time, Stephen had already heard once or twice about this sad little pound pup.

  During lunch on November 8th, Stephen agreed to go look at the pound dogs after work, just in case we needed to decide to save the little sad puppy. We had a strict agreement to "only look". We went in to the kennels, and looked at all the other dogs first before I showed Stephen my special dog. Another dog had caught Stephen's eye, but a sniff and a wag off the tail later, Stephen was pretty much sold on my sad puppy. Needless to say, our not buying agreement got broken. Since we didn't have cash in hand to pay for the puppy, the animal control officer allowed us to "steal" the dog for the night since he worked with me. The officer opened the pen and our puppy stayed in the corner to cower in fear. Stephen went in and picked him up while I hurried to the truck to get in so I could hold our puppy. As he sat shivering in my lap, a motherly connection that I had been longing for was formed as he calmed down and cuddled into me.

   First stop with the dog, HEB, the Super market, to get the necessities: food, dog dishes, a leash and collar, and poop cleaner upper spray since he was an "oops" puppy. We brought him home and it took him very little time to become adjusted to life with us. He has been very devoted and loyal.  We named him Shadow because he follows me around everywhere I go. When watching TV and  I get up to get some water, he gets up too, follows me to the kitchen, sits down on my feet, and 20 seconds later follows me back to the living room, instead of just staying with Stephen. Or, whenever he gets scared, he runs to me and hides between my legs. It's really cute!

   Our first weekend with him, we took him to Amistad Lake to play with him and introduce him to nature. We also took him to Seminole Canyon State Park on a 3 mile hike. Since he was cooped up in the kennels for almost a month, his muscles weren't very strong or conditioned. He was lucky enough to have Stephen carry him part of the way! It was also during this trip that we trusted him enough to take off his leash for a little while hiking and let him roam around, knowing that he would run back to us.

  I sort of feel like the guy in Marley and Me, I just want to blog about everything that Shadow does, like how proud of him I was the first time he chased a cat up a tree, chewing up his first tennis ball, having exploding poop all over his kennel and the floor and walls, finding broken off teeth on the floor, running into the screen door, the fun he has with plastic bottles (especially the milk jugs!), peeing a little by my side of the bed every night, trying to claim his territory from Stephen, getting kicked in the mouth by a grasshopper, etc. We have had so many good memories with him already!