This post is just a few little anecdotes and one incident that I wanted to share about my newest male addition to the pack, Bugs. Bugs is such a joy to have around. He is sweet natured and smart, but my FAVORITE part of Bugs is his sense of humor. This dog makes me laugh. I’ve had dogs that have won over my heart but Bugs has won over my heart and my funny bone. He is just a jovial fella. Full of joy and antics.
Bugs “walks” Cricket every morning when it’s time to go out, he holds on to her ear and they go together to their poop field. He lets her go once they get to their designated area. It happens every morning. At first I thought it “bugged” (see that play on words) Cricket, but she waits for it too. So if I let her out first to avoid the little pest, she will wait until he is let out and she lets him walk her. They have a strange but connected relationship. They are just funny together. I never considered Cricket as funny until Bugs came along. Now I smile every morning when they walk mouth and ear together to their relief area.
The other thing he does just sends me into rolling laughter and infuriates my poor husband. We have been building our home in Colville, WA for four years. It has been a huge undertaking and for the past year we have lived in our work zone. Bugs came along at the end of the construction, just when my husband took up the finals. Bugs will hunt down my husband’s gloves and steal them. He can take them off for a few minutes to eat lunch, and when he returns for them, Bugs has found them and has taken off with them. I have seen Bugs take them as soon as he lays them down. He literally watches for it to happen. My husband says he comes out of nowhere and I really believe that because I have witnessed it. Once he has a glove the game is on! He runs off tossing his head and shaking the glove and my husband pursues. My husband never catches him and he never comes to him because it’s the best game ever (according to Bugs). I always step in laughing all the way and Bugs will reluctantly (like a scolded, pouting child) bring it to me and peace is restored…until the next time. I’m the disciplinarian that outwardly scolds but inwardly laughs. Because this exchange is one of the best parts of my day. Yes, it’s been a daily thing and it’s usually his gloves, but we have found other objects mischievously moved and chewed on too.
But then…
One day in May my daughter was coming up the driveway and as she was parking the car, she ran over Bugs. It was certainly a very devastating moment for us all. Especially my daughter because I have been very vigilant to stop my car when I come home and the dogs are out. We live on 40 acres and the nearest busy road to us is miles away. So the dogs have so much freedom to roam. They always stay close to home and have never been more than 1000 feet in any direction from our house. If they are out of sight, I just whistle and they come running. But on this day, they had taken themselves on a walk down our driveway about 50 feet from the house and they got so excited when my daughter came up. They love her. So they circled the car and as she was parking Bugs was run over by the front passenger tire. We rushed him to the closest emergency vet 40 minutes from our home, they did prelims on him and discovered he had a broken leg, a broken pelvis in three areas and cuts and bruises all over his back end. The local vet was not equipped to take care of him overnight, so they suggested that we take him another 2 hours to the Spokane emergency vet. It was a grueling trip. Thankfully the vet gave him pain meds to last the trip. We arrived at the emergency vet in Spokane and at 2am made a call to Dr. Harris. He immediately (the best vet ever!) scheduled him for an evaluation and surgery at 7am that morning. It took $6,000, 3 vet clinics, one surgery to repair his leg, 20 stitches to repair his cuts, 2 weeks of antibiotics, 1 month of pain meds and 8 weeks of confinement to a crate for our Bugs to be healed.
What we didn’t know, and what the vets didn’t know was that Bugs’ tail was also injured. Six months after the surgery his beautifully long tail fell off!! It was a shock to us, our vet, but not Bugs. He kept pulling at his tail, he knew. But we thought, what an odd behavior! When we bathed him and groomed him he never cried out in pain, his tail looked normal, there was never a smell and he never acted strange, except when he started pulling at his tail. The day it fell off, we were shook. I called Dr, Harris and he took a look and said that all was well and a dog’s body can and will heal itself.
Today, Bugs is a short tailed, cautious of cars, goofy as ever, good tempered, and fun-loving goldendoodle. He is such a character, and we are so thankful to all the vets that were heroes to us and healers to him!
Now it's time for SHAMELESS vet plugs:
Echo Ridge Veterinary Hospital - Evans
Dr. Kira MacKinnon (Thank you for helping us in a very stressful situation, you’re AMAZING!)
Phone: 509-684-6062
Email: echoridgevets@gmail.com
Pet Emergency Clinic - Spokane
Maike Bachmann (Thank you for caring for our boy over night)
Veterinary Specialist, Emergency and Critical Care
21 E. Mission Ave
Spokane, WA 99202
509-326-6670
John Harris, DVM (Thank you for being the BEST vet EVER!!)
2915 E Crawford St
Deer Park, WA 99006
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