You see, it all started with Bailey. Mike and I got Bailey shortly before we got married. I wanted a dog so badly, and we went to the pound, and there he was! And so we got him!
He got a lot bigger than we ever expected...lol. But when Jake was little...Bailey and Jake were the best of friends!
When Mike and I had divorced and Vince, Jake and I had moved into our new house, Bailey came with us. He was very uneasy in the new environment. Before then, he had never even seen any animal as big as him, let alone bigger! And now we lived in the country - where deer were an every day occurrence. He didn't adjust really well. Vince and I discussed it and thought that it might help if he had a friend. So Vince and I went to the pound. Bailey is a husky-pit mix, and so we made it clear that we were not afraid of adopting another pit bull. The adoption coordinator at the pound told us of a new set of pit bull puppies that had just been brought into the shelter. The story was such a sad one! There was a breeder that was breeding pit bulls in the area. The circumstances remain unknown to us, but the woman passed away. Apparently, when she passed, no one knew it for a couple of weeks. During this time, the dogs at her home were not cared for...and not fed. As a means of survival, the older dogs starting eating the puppies. The adoption coordinator informed us that some of the dogs (and two of the puppies) were brought to the Frederick shelter, while the others were taken to Washington County. He told us that there was an observation period, during which they had a vet check out the puppies. He told us he would contact us when they were available for adoption. Within a week, we received the call and we traveled to the shelter with Bailey in tow, to bring home a new addition to our family. We got to meet both the puppies and introduced them to Bailey. Vince knew right away which one he wanted. I preferred the darker colored one, but Vince's mind was made up. And so we came home with Lexi.
Make no mistake....this is VINCE's dog. She is crazy about him. When he gets mad at her and yells at her. She will stand there with her head as low as it can go until they are friends again. Its the funniest thing. They have staring contests and Lexi gets so mad!
Then our latest addition was Zoey. Our friend Heather works for a vet's office in Howard County. One of the employees at the vets office found Zoey chasing cars on the highway. They kept Zoey at the office for weeks trying to find her family. She was found wearing a collar, so they knew at one point she had an owner, but no one ever claimed her. Heather asked if we would be interested in taking another dog. And, she is part pitbull, so she knew that would take a special home to take her in. We brought her home for the weekend, and next thing we knew, she was our's. We had her for about two weeks when we realized that she was pregnant. When she was found, she was in heat, and apparently she got pregnant just before being found. So, next thing we knew, we had Bailey, Lexi, Zoey, and 8 new puppies. You know that its a house full of dogs when the dogs out number the humans!
It was quite a long process, but we finally found a forever home for each one of the puppies. Vince wanted to keep one, but that would never have worked. Bailey is 13 now and he did not do well with the puppies at all!
But now Vince's little dog is sick. Last spring, Lexi got a stuffed nose. She would sneeze a lot, and her eyes would water and it never ended. We took her to the vet and they basically told us that she had allergies. Well she is still having the same problems. Except now, she has a horrible lump in her nostril. And it has pushed itself into her nose bone. Her one nostril is completely closed, and we aren't even sure how much air she is getting through the other one. We took her back to the vet this past weekend and without official testing, she has been diagnosed with nasal carcinoma (a cancerous tumor in her nose). The vet basically said that she does not see anything that would indicate that it is not a cancerous tumor. Its awful to see poor Lexi struggling to breathe. Since she is a dog and not a human, its very difficult for her to realize that if she just left her mouth open, she could breathe better. So instead she makes some horrible noises struggling in breathe and eat. If you came up on her in the dark, you would be sure to think that she was a gremlin.
Its hard to imagine that she may not be with us. I mean, we realize that there is a very very good chance that we will out live our dogs. But you still don't want to think about it. We just don't want her to suffer. Its hard to imagine struggling so much to breathe.
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