Adopt A Good Dog

I’ll be at the San Diego County Fair on Saturday from noon ’til three with somebody else and the pups promoting the German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue. Sure it’s the first weekend of the fair, but make a point to stop by our little outpost in the livestock barn to learn first-hand what these knuckeheads are all about and to see the boy dog in all his post-surgical splendor:

• More lumber removed from side? Check
• Tooth broken down to the root removed? Check.
• Ears cleared of foxtails? Check.
• Toenails clipped? Check.
• Intravenous drug delivery? Check.
• Anti-gnawing head funnel installed? Check.
• Grand total? Three quarters of a kilodollar.

Lovely.

On top of that, the dog is extremely baked right now. The tail wagging has devolved into an all-lanes shimmy. He has become alternately confused and maudlin (“I love you man!”). He’s also decided that the concrete is plenty soft enough (“I’ll just crash here dude.”). Poor little guy.

We’re so afraid of the effects of a general anesthetic on the dog that we wanted to get all of the work done at once. For that, Mr. Bruno suffers a tremendous amount of pain. And I feel guilty because of it.

That’s the reality of adopting a dog. You take the long satisfying good times with the pointed, expensive bad. They’re lovely, joyous, loyal animals who sometimes get into trouble and get hurt. Barring any real pet health insurance options, you just have to suck it up and pay full price. I hope that we can knock a little reality into the “shoppers” at the fair who are looking for a cute puppy with Bruno’s stitches on full display to remind them that adoption is a commitment, not a fleeting indulgence.

I’ve told this story before, but Bruno was raised by a real hunt club jackhole. As a puppy, he was subjected to repeated gunfire, was tossed into the deep end of the pool, and was kept in a crate the rest of his “non-training” time. The result was an animal who suffered deep emotional trauma and was subsequently discarded as “untrainable.” While I’d love to throttle the guy who put him through that, my revenge is simply to pamper and spoil the dog instead. He gets to hunt on his own terms now. When he feels like it. As it should be.

But that guy still deserves a dope slap, at minimum.

So, all I’m asking is that you come and visit us at the fair, stay and chat, and say nice things to a kind dog who doesn’t really understand why we asked the vet to cut him up today.

Your pal,

bob