he's back.....

See this adorable face?...

if he got sick and you knew it would be expensive and that you really could not afford it, would you be able to say no?...

We couldn't. This is the puppy Autumn brought home off the streets in December and he has wormed his way into our hearts....well Jessica claims that she hates him, but guess who was loving up on him this afternoon? He has especially become attached to me and has to be touching me somehow with some body part anytime I am sitting or laying down. It's crazy! But I do love him :)

He showed symptoms of being ill on thursday night and friday morning was no better so we took him into the vet. Damn if it wasn't Parvo....this is the nastiest stuff!! We've been through this once before with Jessica's dog and although she lived and is just fine, it was the NASTIEST thing I've ever dealt with. The smell, the mountains of puppy pads, bottles of bleach, paper towels, medicines, twice daily trips to the vet for fluids, etc... and it wasn't cheap :(

Knowing all this and that hospitalization was practically twice the cost, we chose to have the vet & staff keep Buddy there and take care of him. I just couldn't do the mess at home again, especially since our other dogs would be at higher risk and we are "dog-sitting" a coon hound that goes to Hawaii in August. Just couldn't chance it for that dog.

So after 5-1/2 days in "Doggy Hospital" we have Buddy back home with us and our pockets have major holes in them... But we love him and none of us could have spoke the words, "please put him down, we don't have the money to save him" on Friday. :'( So we'll scrimp in other places to pay off the bill and continue to love our pets.

You can see that Buddy's spirit is still intact despite his weight loss & low energy. He found his favorite toy today and wanted to play with it. Yeah!! He also jumped up on Jessica when she was loving on him....not to mention him running outside to bark when Joey did :) That did my heart good!!

I do have to say though, I have smelled some really BAD things in my life....I mean, my grandparents raised beef cattle, my great-aunt had dairy cattle, we had pigs at one time, we also had horses, and so many other smells too.....but NOTHING compares to the way Buddy smelled when we picked him up yesterday! It was like all those above things in one and then rolled in cow manure....lovely isn't it?... I probably don't need to tell you that the first place Buddy went when arriving home was to the tub for a nice bath. And he needs another because the smell is not completly gone.... Wow!