Gone to the Dogs

Where has all my money gone? To the dogs, or rather dog! Or rather, two dogs, one dog gone and now just one dog, doggone-it!

If you didn't get that, neither did I. You see, late in 2008 we discovered Bailey, our beloved family boxer, had kidney disease. And it failed her, eventually causing more medical bills than it could do her any good and so we had to decide that her time on this earth was over. Sad but necessary. We loved that dog so much. She was a good sport and a sweet presence in our family. And when she was gone, we missed the companionship of a dog.

Because we had success with a good boxer and because my sister had success with her good boxer before she, too had an early demise, we opted to give it another go.

We fell in love with boxer dogs back in St Louis when a neighbor had a really sweet one named Sadie. Sadie was only about 4 when she got a cancerous tumor and needed to be put down. That was a sad day for Sadie's family. But they got two more boxer dogs to replace her because she made such a good pet.

When we decided to take the plunge and get a dog, we decided a boxer was the dog for us as well. Bypassing previous attempts at a dog, we ended up with Copper, who chewed our entire backyard up and eventually ate an entire hibiscus tree! That is when I learned that boxers liked to be with their family and not out in the backyard alone, bored.

My sister graciously offered up her larger, chew-free backyard for Copper to be in until she outgrew her chewing stage. Frustrated, I took her up on it. We missed Copper immediately but relief in not replacing sprinklers and drip lines every Saturday soon had us relaxing and enjoying freedom from dogville. My sister fell in love with that dog and she never came home. She also spent no time whatsoever in that chew-free backyard because my sister had figured out that all Copper needed was attention, more than I had realized. She needed to be indoors.

Two years later my sister and her family took a vacation. They travelled from west to east back to the west in a travel trailer, for three full weeks! It was an awesome vacation but certainly no fun with a dog. The least I could do was watch Copper for her during this time. Copper was a perfect angel and a good guard dog. Because of her great disposition, and because she had outgrown all her irritating puppy behavior, we fell in love with boxers again. And this time I vowed that we would get a new boxer and be successful for I had learned a thing or two now!

We got Bailey and loved her for six good years. Between Sadie's cancer, and Copper's tumors and allergies, and Bailey's kidney failure, you would think we would have seen a pattern here.

But instead, we got another boxer and named her Millie. And since then we have attempted to have her spayed. Only to find out her kidneys are not functioning at optimum levels, and to find out that she gets hives and has valley fever! She is on medication for that for a year! She is cold all the time and needs a sweater. She has already had benadryl shots and cortisone shots and she needs periodic valley fever blood work at $100 a pop! She still needs to be spayed. She is only 9 months old. I am thinking that all our money has gone to the dogs lately.

Is it worth it? I think there are times when I wonder, then Millie makes us laugh and it is all worth it!