Sunday, December 5, 2010

A Puppy's Tale

Zeumer and Tiller
After having made the decision not go to JJ100 in order to save $$, I talked hubby into getting me a puppy, a future trail companion. Meet Zeumer. He's a rescue, a stray found on the streets of Riverside. And of course, there's a tale....


Next door to the karate studio I work at is a Pet Spa. A high-end, really expensive Pet Spa frequented by the really rich folks across the street at Marbella Golf and Country Club. The Spa owner takes rescue dogs from over-crowded local shelters and finds homes for them. A brave and noble deed one would think.


One Friday morning I noticed a fresh car load of puppies being dropped off at the Pet Spa. Five black and white fluffy bundles of fun in particular caught my eye so I went in to meet them. I just had to have one. Mike had reservations but agreed so I picked out a middle-of-the-pack, not overly jumpy male that I thought my 9-year old son (who's deathly afraid of dogs) could learn to live with. We stopped at PetSmart on the way home with him as we had nothing prepared and took him to the vet for a check up. Slight respiratory infection, nothing that a course of antibiotics wouldn't clear up fast. The boys were amazed that we'd got a dog!


By Tuesday, Zeumer was really sick. Coughing badly. I took him back to the vets. Kennel cough that had developed into pneumonia.  I had to decline x-rays as we couldn't afford them but several hundreds of $$s later and a suitcase full of meds, I had to go home to tell everyone that he might not make it. He was just too young to be this sick. The Pet Spa owner insisted he was fine when he left the Spa and that none of the other puppies were sick (although how on earth she can claim he got that sick during a 20-minute drive to PetSmart I'll never know). The shelter told me if I returned him they'd have to euthanize him (I'm a softie, so not an option)


6 weeks later, I'm happy to report he's doing well. Treating him pretty much blew my race budget for the foreseeable future but he's a welcome addition to our household. Typical pain-in-the-ass puppy; in to absolutely everything, chases Tiller Cat, chews anything... and loves being out on the trails with me!