Yup, there's no shame in my game: Mac is the four-legged, furry love of my life. I justify it because I don't have kids- so he's my child substitute. And he really is full of personality. I'm convinced that's what saved him when he was at the dog shelter. He had SO many issues...he had been taken away from his previous owner because of abuse. From the little I know about how this stuff works, for a dog to actually be removed from a home, the situation must be pretty bad.
When I got him, he was about 7 months old- still a puppy, and just the cutest little thing. All gangly legs. He had been bounced around a little bit already- spent a couple months at the shelter, been adopted a couple times, but then the families never showed up to claim him. I found him on Petfinder.com, and it seriously was love at first sight. I saw that little face and knew he was mine. Even though he was in Pennsylvania, fate intervened: it just so happened that the week I found him on Petfinder, my dad was away on business- about 30 minutes away from Kittanning, PA, the tiny town Mac was in.
Apparently the shelter doesn't usually adopt to people so far away, and they usually don't expedite the process to wrap up in just a couple days. But I was on a mission and made it happen.
When Mac arrived, he was a mess. He wasn't housebroken, as the shelter had told me. And, more upsetting, he was pretty aggressive. He attacked often and without provocation. It was really scary. But in between his outbursts, I could see his spunky little personality and his eagerness to please- it was like he really wanted to be a good dog, he just didn't know how.
To make a longggg story short, I ended up working with a really great dog trainer who showed me how to handle Mac. After months of private lessons, Mac graduated.
Fast forward ten years, and here we are. I can't imagine my life without him. He is feisty, funny, smart and loyal. He can be such a pain in the behind...but he has more personality than any dog I've ever seen. One day I tried counting how many words he recognizes, and I got to over 200. I call him "the Einstein of canines."
I'm convinced he overcame all his early obstacles because he has such a big heart. Ironically, that turned out to be true not just figuratively, but literally too: a couple weeks ago we learned that Mac has congestive heart failure. He has always had a heart murmur, and a couple years ago it started getting worse. The day he was diagnosed as having pre-congestive heart failure I started him on medication as well as a prescription diet. I know that I've done everything I can to slow the progression, that this really sucks, and there's not a whole lot that can be done. I really, really hope that the same indomitable spirit that has gotten him through everything else will somehow get him through this. I'm praying for a miracle.
I know he's a dog, and a nearly 11-year old one at that. I know that in the scheme of world problems, this is nothing. But I love that damn dog more than anything in the world.
Tomorrow I'm taking him for blood work to see how he's tolerating a new medication. It's a diuretic to help with the fluid around his heart, but his vet has to make sure his other organs can tolerate it.
One blessing has been Mac's wonderful vet- she is amazing. It makes me feel better to know he's getting such great care. She's not big on giving a prognosis in terms of time, but she did say a best case scenario could be as much as a couple years. Here's hoping!!!
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