Going To Heaven

Problem Child


I have commented once or twice about our three dogs. In case you weren't paying attention, here is a run down of them.

Bacchus: Abandoned as a 10 week old puppy in our neighborhood, he is considerably the smartest and most handsome dog anyone has ever seen. He looks like a small Husky, and is half Chow-Chow and half Weimaraner. He is loyal, very loving and very smart.

Chella: We adopted her when she was 7 years old, because her previous owner could no longer keep her due to allergies. She is a 125lb full grown Great Dane. While not appearing to be the sharpest tool in the shed, she is actually very smart and sometimes does not realize that she weighs more than the average human. She loves to play (although you had better have padding on when you do) but she can knock you down with little effort. Despite being bred to hunt down and kill wild boar, she is a very laid back and loving dog. She never bites, and loves to give little kisses to anyone that will come up and pet her.

Then there is Max: We call him the 'problem child'. He was also abandoned in our neighborhood as a puppy and we took him in thinking he would be a good playmate for Bacchus when the wife and I are at work during the day. Max has 'issues'. Abandonment issues is one of them. He is a pack animal and when he is separated from the pack, he goes bonkers. He has hyper issues. When someone comes into the room or you take him for a walk, he can't control himself at all. He will jump all over you (51lbs of dog that can jump 7 feet high) and try and lick your face, whether you want him to or not. He also has teething issues. Mind you, he is over 2 years old now and STILL manages to put anything in his mouth that he finds on the floor and gnaws on it

This includes sewing needles.

It seems that Thursday, sometime late in the afternoon he proceeded to chew on a sewing needle and promptly swallowed it. At least he tried to. It didn't make it all the way down and ended up piercing the base of his tongue and lodging in his throat. So when we come home, he is sitting in the middle of the room, wagging his tail, jumping all over us and gaging uncontrolably.

Try as we might, we could not find anything wrong with him. So we took him to the doggie ER and dropped him off. Five hours later and $600 poorer they gave him back to us along with the needle and the x-ray of where they found it. Look for the solid line just behind his jaw bone in the x-ray....that is the needle.





He was back home and bouncing all over the place the next day, no worse for wear.

Despite the fact that we often times can't stand him, and have considered taking him to the pound on more than one occasion, the little guy has become a part of the family. He is the random occurrence and spark that keeps us all on our toes. He won't let us get depressed and is always happy. So we will keep him and we will no doubt be taking more trips to the vet during his lifetime. For this alone, I think my wife and I should move to the front of the line when we get to the pearly gates.