Wednesday, May 18, 2011

A (Bent) 'Tail' of Two Puppies: Part 2

Out of all the puppies in the litter, I knew Thunder Pup was the perfect fit for us as soon as I saw his bent tail.




Apparently, it was wrapped around his leg in the womb and the vertebrae in those two spots are completely twisted. His bent tail does nothing more than give him character and in my opinion, makes him a perfect addition to the quirky two and four leggers we have around here.

Not long after bringing him home, I noticed he seemed to have some vision problems. He would miss balls thrown, run into furniture, etc. After a thorough examination by both my vet and a canine ocular specialist (yeah, those aren't cheap), we found out his ocular nerves are undersized thus resulting in poor vision. In his right eye, he can only see light, no movement, and the vision is poor in his left eye. Apparently, this is a pretty rare condition and since the puppies are born with poor vision, they act like normal puppies. In fact, if you didn't know about it, you would just assume he was clumsy and a 'very cautious runner' as he totally runs like his emergency break is stuck. Fortunately, the vision won't get worse over time and Thunder Pup doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all. So truthfully, this was good news to me.

Before we even got home from the veterinary hospital, the breeder was calling me. The veterinarian had called her to let her know one of her dogs was a carrier for the disorder and she was mortified. Honestly, I believe she was more upset than anyone else. After all, only in the Davis household would we end up with a half-blind sight hound. Typical, really.

After a long conversation, the breeder tells me that she wants to give me Thunder Pup's brother, who she had kept to breed and show, as a 'helper' for Thunder Pup. My initial response, was 'no way'. I already had enough work with my 'dependent puppy' and couldn't envision taking on another one. After all, Thunder had become a constant companion:


Yes, he is sitting on my feet as I use the bathroom.




I don't think he liked the water, but the thought of being on the OTHER! SIDE! OF! THE! GLASS! was just too horrible.


He also spent most of the winter riding in our clothing:


He seemed to prefer my puffy coat over all the others.


He wasn't even picky on who's coat he was in:


I never said My Beesh had good taste in sports teams... *snicker*


But in all, he was fitting in to the Outdoordogs household perfectly.


Dorkfish was actually more excited than he looked.


In fact, I think he was my cure for mono.


Sorry for the fuzzy photo, but the picture would have been just as bad if it had been in focus.


But honestly, could this household really handle ANOTHER PUPPY?!

To be continued...

3 comments:

jae said...

Wow. The shower!?! And WHERE did you get that service bell??? Me wanty.

Amo said...

@Jae, my friends Jen (http://www.great-little-stories.com/) and Jessica (http://www.notesfromthegardenspot.blogspot.com/)mailed it to me as a 'Get Yo Ass Bettah and Get to Nashville' gift. Sadly, I still didn't make it to the conference. But I did get a HUGE amount of use out of it. It is now hiding in my kitchen drawer in hopes the boys won't find it again. ;)

Amo

dancing_lemur said...

I was totally going to comment on recognizing that bell!

I have a special fondness for special needs animals. Of course. Too cute!