Happy Birthday Huck

Happy Birthday to Huckleberry! My furbaby is 5 years old today! Matt and I were married about 2 months when we found Huckleberry. We were at Florence Mall walking around and went into Petland. I was just looking at all the dogs and there he was! He was in this little play area with a couple other puppies and he was crying so hard. I looked at him and fell in love with him. I got him out of the play area and held him and he fell asleep on my shoulder. It was the sweetest thing. I put him down and Matt and I talked about him while we walked around the mall. We decided to buy him. It was a bad decision to buy a dog thru a pet store, but we did. He was 8 weeks old and so darn cute.

We brought him home and he crawled all around Matt and the next day Matt broke out into a rash. I don't know if it was the cleaner the stinking pet store used or what. Luckily Matt's rash cleared up in a couple of days otherwise we were going to get rid of him.

A couple of months went by and Huck was not gaining any weight. He was so skinny he looked really bad. We thought it was because he was so long the rest of him needed to catch up. Well, he was 7 months old and stopped eating. He had diarrhea a lot and I knew something was wrong. I took him to Grady Animal Hospital one evening (they were open 24 hours) and one of the vets took a look at him. They did an x ray and could not find any of his internal organs. Something was blocking his intestines and it was something big. We thought maybe he swallowed something, a sock or something. So, they kept him overnight and did an ultrasound the next day. They found he had a fkuid building up and a blockage. The day we picked him up from the store the "pet store vet" told us he had an umbilical hernia and he "fixed it" real quick. The vet at Grady said it was an unneccasry procedure and that was most likely the cause of his blockage. It wasn't performed correctly. So, we had two choices. Pay $2,000 for surgery or let him die. Because he was dying. I love him too much to just let him die. Plus there were no guarantees he would survive the surgery because he was so dehydrated and sick. They told us there was a chance he would never have a normal bowel movement it would be diarrhea and he would need to be on a special diet for a few months. We agreed to the surgery, it was a 4 hour surgery and the longest 4 hours of my life. I just wanted the surgery to be over with.

I finally got the call from the vet saying he was out of surgery and awake. We went to visit him a few times and it was so sad. To see him with iv's in his paws and to be in a little recovery cage. It broke my heart. We finally got to bring him home after 5 days. He did really well, he responded to the surgery. They basically connected his small intestine to his large intestine and cut out the bad part of his intestines. When we took him into the vet he weighed 15 lbs. Way too skinny for a basset hound/beagle mix. By time he left he had gained weight and looked so much healthier. He now weighs 55 lbs!!!!! Plus he has normal bowel movements, no diarrhea!!

He is a little turd, but he is a good dog. I couldn't ask for a better dog. Even when we brought Olivia home he has adjusted to things so well and I feel bad because we are a little neglectful of him sometimes. I try to let him sit on my lap when I can and try to hug him and kiss him and do things for him. Obviously its not the same as life before Olivia, but I don't think he minds too much. He lets her climb all over him and loves to lick her which drives me crazy, but he is so good. I love my little bee bopper!!!