One day the guy next door, who was mowing a lawn of a house that nobody lived in, came over to me and asked me if that was my puppy in his yard. I said my only dog is in the house right now. I didn’t realize it was a puppy I had been hearing for three days cry, thinking it was the neighbors behind me and that I wish that it would stop.
The Puppy was sitting in a kiddie pool, with a huge bag of regular dog food sitting upright next to it, and an empty bowl that I guess had water in it. I took the dog, and called my daughter to ask her if she would like it because she was at a summer college program. I knew she loved labradors and this one was not only just a puppy; it was soft and sweet, coal black with one spot under its neck.
I took the dog to the veterinarian the next day. We had just lost a dog that had been thrown in a ditch in the country near my home that died of Parvovirus within two weeks of us finding it. With that in mind, and because it was only about maybe 2 to 3 months old, off we went to the doc.
Come to find out it was approximately 8 to 9 weeks old max and already weighed 22 pounds! They said the size of the teeth is how they determined the age of the dog.
Today she is 13 years old and weighs 141 pounds after being on a diet for two months! Needless to say, my daughter did not take the dog, and I became a mother to another stray animal.
She does have arthritis in her hocks, hips, and backbone, but she really is doing very well for a dog her age and size. Her size is what got her the name of “bear”, because she is as gentle as Gentle Ben himself and a sweet is the day is long. I know her time is limited, but she’s been treated like a queen since she arrived here.
TERRE HAUTE, IN
