pkg12's Blog

Or, A Story of an SOB

A dog gave birth to a lot of puppies year after year. The dog owner probably sold the puppies or gave away to his or her friends. As time went by, the dog got old and died. The owner was so sad. She was with him or her for a long time. The end of a story, in a perfect world!

 

But unfortunately my story does not end here; rather it starts right after giving birth of some puppies at age approximately five! She gave birth and was kicked out of home because she became old. She became a “Stray Dog” and ended up in a shelter on July 17, 2007.

 

On July 19, 2007 I took my two kids to that shelter to see some dogs. They have been asking for a dog for a while so I thought we get one from the shelter to give one a home. As we were seeing many dogs, someone was telling us something about them. That person told us about this particular dog that she was kicked out from home after she gave birth. My kids then started calculating – she has double sadness because she got kicked out of home and she can’t have her puppies. All the dogs were sad, but since she was “double sad,” we decided to adopt her. We took her for a walk. Oh boy was she good with us! If you saw her with us, you would think that she grew up with us! She was that good with us. So, we applied for her that is we started the process as someone at that office explained the procedure. The next day I took my wife to fulfill the requirement of meeting the dog with every family member. My wife saw her and instantly fell for her as well. She also said the same thing that how sad she looked. We took her for a walk again on that day as it was required. We spent about half an hour with her. My wife spoke to her in her language and she was listening to her. My kids were telling us that she would not understand that. I told them that she has to deal with our accent (my wife’s and mine) and like that’s not enough punishment for her, now she has to listen to another language! We all were having fun with her as she was with us I truly believe.

 

We were told that someone will visit our home on 24th or after to approve us or not. They also told us that they could not do this before because they have to keep her for one week (until July 23rd) to see if the “owner” claims her. After the visit, they will determine and will call us in next two or three days to make an appointment to bring her home if we are approved.

 

Someone came to visit us on July 24th and explained a few things. She said that she saw her the day before and she looked good, it’s a family dog, and we would like her. Then she started talking about kennel cough and how the dogs get this in the shelter. She also told us if we could pick her up on that day that is she had already approved us. I told her that I could not because I didn’t buy anything for her as I was told before that it would take a couple of days for us to know if we could adopt her. I agreed to pick her up on July 26th so I could get a day to buy food, toys, etc. for her. The next day we all went to shop for her at Pets Mart and we bought two types of food, a bag of treats, some toys, etc. for her. I also made an appointment with a vet for her as I was suggested by the shelter.

 

On July 26th, my son and I went to bring her home. We went to the office and did some paper work. They asked for $107.00 for spaying, etc. and I paid. When they brought her in the office, we saw that she was coughing. I asked about this and the lady told me that she started coughing on July 22nd and they are giving her antibiotic since that day and not to worry because it will go away. She gave me a bag some pills inside and dates written on it.

 

We took her to the vet. The vet was shocked that she was still coughing even though she was given the medicine for four days. She gave her some more antibiotics and some other medicine as well. The vet also did blood check. I paid few hundred dollars to the vet and took her home where my wife and daughter were waiting for her anxiously and called us a few times to know why we were taking so long!

 

I wish I could end the story here because in a few years, as I grew old, I would die and she (the dog) would cry for me with my other family members!

 

But the story took another turn. On July 26th, the day she came home, we spend the whole afternoon with her. She was coughing, but she was very playful. We had hard time giving her the medicine as she would not want to eat anything. She would play with us, come to us when we call her, and do anything but eating. Finally she ate very little and drank some water with some medicine. The whole night she coughed and I was up with her the whole night and petted her. I felt so bad for her that I could not just live her alone. I have pollen allergy and I developed allergy from that, thus I know how painful it is to cough and not being able to breathe properly! 

 

The next day she was still coughing and eating very less, but drank a lot of water with the medicine in it. At night time she was coughing more we noticed. On Saturday, July 28th, she was really feeling good I guess because she ate a good amount of food and played a lot with the kids. She also was coughing much less than before. We thought she became well, but on Sunday she started coughing a lot and would not want to eat anything. We became scared again. Our kids were sleeping. My wife and I spent the whole night with her as she coughed a lot. We got scared of the law, which we don’t know of. What if she dies with us and the shelter finds us responsible for her death.

 

At this point I don’t know what was more in our minds – our fear or our feelings for her?

 

I guess fear took over and my wife and I decided to take her back to the shelter the next day to avoid any problem in the future. So I did. On July 30th, I took her to the shelter as my wife and kids were crying. And as I started feeling like an SOB!

Thus, the name of the blog could easily be “A Story of an SOB.”

 

You, my fellow bloggers, please address me by “SOB” when you write if you decide to help me out to find some answers. I don’t understand why did the shelter give me the dog when they knew she was sick and they are better equipped to take care of her? The vet asked the same question. Especially, after I mentioned in the application that I don’t have any experience in the States with pet. When I was a child I had a few pets, but in another country. Totally in different settings and different time; I barely did anything for them except for playing and having company. My parents, elder siblings, and our housekeeper took care of them. I said everything to the lady as well who came to visit our home before approval. I also don’t understand why she hid this information (her cough) to me. She said that she saw her the day before, which was the second day of her sickness.

 

I don’t know. I just don’t know what to say or what to do. My kids still cry for her. We all want her back. But we don’t know how we could bring her home again. The people at the shelter said they won’t give her back when she gets better even though we gave them her medicine, 70 Lbs. of food, etc.

 

I don’t even know that I did the right thing or not by giving her back to the shelter. But I do know that if I didn’t give her up and she died in front of us because we could not care for her properly, I would have felt guilty because I could not take care of her. On the other hand, I still feel guilty simply because I gave her up. Either way, I feel like I am an SOB! Probably I am!

  

Please help me. Should I try to bring her home? How? What should I do?

 

Magic, what I need! I wish someone could do some magic and fix everything so she could live with us for the rest of her life. We die normally as we age and no one kicks out anyone!