Lola, for those of you who don't know is our family puggle. She'll be three years old in January and has been quite a handful since day one. In this photo of Lola is her truest best friend..Luna, who joined our house this past June. They are never far from one another and wrestle and play and sleep together.
When we first had gotten
Lola, it was love at first sight, but also a long nightmare which was costly and worrisome for us. You see, Lola is a
broken puppy. She is broken because she is the product of a puppy mill, stupid dog breeder who lied and cheated. (Yeah, I'm still bitter of the fact.) When we had gotten Lola...we had been promised her medical records and her papers. We were guaranteed that she was 100% healthy. We were
lied to.
Lola came to us with an intestinal parasite known as coccidia (for more information on this horrid and costly disease visit the web site
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2102&aid=727). It took
2 rounds of
2 different antibiotics in order for
Lola to kick this illness. But oh...the vet visits did not stop there. After we cleared up the coccidia, we brought
Lola in for her routine shots and the vet asked if she was having ear issues. We had said 'no' and watched as the vet stuck his finger in the puppy's ear and remove something which looked like feces. No, it wasn't feces, or even ear mites. It was a sever ear infection caused by the afterbirth and birth sac left in the puppy's ear canal's because the stupid breeder didn't clean her properly. We had to get that cleared up...then had to try and decipher why
Lola was scratching and what food could she eat due to food allergies. It seemed like we were living at the vet, and my vet bills were getting more and more expensive
and extensive. Once we got that squared away....things seemed to go smoothly for
Lola, the
broken puppy.
A few weeks ago the family went to our timeshare, upstate and had a break from crazy cats and pugnacious puggle dogs. The animals were left in good hands to be pet-sat, and
Lola was treated like a queen. Upon our return, our friend who had watched Lola for us asked if she was having sight issues, as her right eye looked cloudy and she wondered if it could be a cataract. So that planted the seed of worry, and I observed
Lola in the house and when we went on walks. She maneuvered the house without any issues, and was always anxious for a walk. But I did notice that loud noises tended to outright frighten her and that when it was after sunset, she did not like going for a long walk, up the block, towards an area where there were no street lights. In the past, the darkness or noises never bothered
Lola. And that right eye did indeed look extra cloudy. So today I took both
Lola and her BFF, Luna to the vet. Luna, to get spayed...and
Lola to get her eyeball examined.
Of course the vet needs to do all kinds of tests on the dog's eye to see what is going on. When I ask if that is covered in the office visit...the vet almost laughed out loud. He then had his assistant draft a new estimate which runs close to $300...and that is to do an eye pressure test, stain the eye, and two different tests. He also tells me that
Lola may need to go to an optometrist. Really?
REALLY??? Why? Is he going to have her read an eye chart? Can my optometrist see her or does she need to go to a doggy optometrist? I did consent to the vet checking to see if there was any trauma done to her eye...and thankfully there was not. So here she is...a
broken puppy. A truly broken puppy. I believe that this stems to the genetics and breeding that our
Lola came from. That is an actual possibility per the vet. It just amazes me however, how much vets are...and how they make you feel like a bad pet owner...when you tell them you can not afford the costly treatment plan they have all mapped out for you.
Lola is fine...her personality has not changed, and she still does everything that she loves to do. As I type this, she is sleeping right under my chair. And just think how much fun I can have with her. I can put a little eye patch on her, and make her a pirate! Plus mom and her make up the perfect team: mom can't see out of her left eye (
Lola can), and
Lola can't see out of her right eye (and mom can.)She may be a broken puppy....but she's our broken puppy, and we'll keep her no matter what.
Have you ever wanted to do something nice for someone? Perhaps you thought about 'paying it forward' but felt a little odd paying for someone to pass thru a toll booth after you on the thru-way. Well here is a *great* opportunity for you to help a stranger, help the world.
