This week, Bruce and I said goodbye to a beloved member of our family. We knew his days were numbered, yet we still were not fully prepared for how quickly he seemed to decline. In the end, we let him go peacefully in the loving arms of the best mama he ever had in his traumatic little life. We are sad and broken, but we will heal, comforted by how far he came in his 5 years with us. In honor of our Marty, I am bringing back two entries that I wrote about my spirit animal, read with tears in my eyes but a smile on my face because that little boy will always hold an extremely special place in my heart. Marty is on to the rainbow bridge, and his suffering is over. May you all experience the love and joy that a rescue pet can bring into your life… and remember please, please, please #adoptdontshop!

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Marty

I have written about how therapeutic pets can be (click here), but today I’d like to write about one pet in particular. Before I continue, I feel the need to state that I love all my pets (past and present) equally, and with every fiber of my being. Even if I did love one of them more (and I’m not saying that I do!), I would never verbalize it! 

When I first saw my Marty on Petfinder, I felt drawn to his picture, and I stopped looking. This is how I had found Mookie (Marty’s now deceased older adopted brother), and I had the same exact feeling back then. I stopped looking because I knew that I had found the one. 

When I first met Marty in person, I was horrified listening as his foster mom told me the traumatic events that brought Marty to NJ. He was rescued from a high kill shelter in Texas, where he was due to be euthanized because he was just another chihuahua with heartworm. He was saved, and endured the painful, grueling process of being treated for heartworm. I’ll also add that he is an albino chihuahua with many sensitivities, just like humans with albinism. He has sensitive skin, bad allergies, and certain sounds or music affect his ears so badly that he howls. That howl of his is what caused him to be “un-adopted” twice before he found me. My husband and I are well-versed in special-needs dogs since Mookie was abused and abandoned with many traumatic memories, and he also suffered from seizure disorder. To paraphrase Bruce’s feeling on the matter, why would we adopt the ones that everyone else wants when we know we should take the ones who won’t find a home?

So Marty joined the family on July 6, 2012. I can honestly say that it took a really long time for me to connect with him. He was not an easy dog to love. He was an incredibly low-energy, temperamental dog. If we touched him in the wrong place, he snapped. If we played the wrong music (Radiohead, for example), he snapped. If we tried to clip his toenails, he snapped. If we moved him or picked him up before he was ready, he snapped. 

I wanted to love Marty and make up for all the bad years and experiences he had endured before he found us, but he made it difficult at times. A few months after he came, we said goodbye to Mookie, and Marty became an only child. Little by little, he softened up some, and some days I think I actually did love him. Certainly I couldn’t imagine my life without him, anyway. 

We have since added Scarlet, rescued about a year after Marty, to our little family. She is just about the sweetest, happiest little girl ever. She is definitely easy to love, and I’ve loved her since the very first time I met her. You always know what you’re getting with Scarlet, which is pure love. With Marty, not so much. 

But about a year ago (when Marty was with us for two years and a scarlet was with us for one), Marty began having even more medical issues. After spending a small fortune at U Penn Vets, we discovered that he has a collapsing trachea, and it is probably 65% collapsed at the moment. They told us that the best thing we could do is have him lose some weight, and they put him on a combination of medications to help manage his symptoms. I finally started understanding why Marty acted the way he did. He didn’t feel well. I don’t act nice when I don’t feel well either! 

Then just a few months ago, we had yet another medical crisis. Seemingly out of the blue, his stomach was bloated, and he was lethargic. When he refused the peanut butter (that conveniently hides his medications), I knew something was up. He was admitted to the hospital for four very long nights, and he diagnosed with Diabetic Ketoacidosis. It took weeks to regulate his insulin, and slowly he started to recover. There were setbacks along the way, including a condition that requires us to put ointment in his eyes, as well as a recent tooth root infection. But he is a trooper and he keeps bouncing back. My sister even commented that he’s like a cat with nine lives!

I think now I see Marty in a whole new light. He, like me, enjoys the simple things in life: a full belly, peace and quiet, and a warm place to snuggle with his family. Even though I look ok, simple things are harder for me than they are for healthy people, and I see that with Marty, too. Both of us live a life that is incredibly happy, but also unpredictable. We both take two steps forward, and one step back. He has been attached to me like never before lately, and I think it’s because he knows that I understand him. More and more I feel like he is me in doggy form, or else I’m Marty in human form. Our struggles are so much the same. We both fight with all our strength and determination, and he is my little Warrior dog. 

Marty has been a part of our family for over three years now. There is a reason I stopped looking at available rescue dogs after I saw his little profile on Petfinder. He was meant to be with us all along because all he needed was the right family to help him thrive. He is happy, and as healthy as he can be (like me) with all of his conditions controlled medicinally, and he is more affectionate, sweeter, and happier than ever. Just like me! 

(PS. If you are looking for a furry little addition to your family, please, please, PLEASE consider rescuing an animal from a shelter!)

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Marty and Me

I know I have written about my dog Marty in the past, but he is certainly worthy of another entry for so many reasons. He’s definitely my spirit animal in that he’s a true warrior dog. I mean, he was rescued from a high-kill shelter in Texas, with heart-worms, mange, and a host of other conditions. He survived all of that, found his way to NJ, and finally found me. 

I didn’t fall in love with him from day one, but there is no denying that he’s my little boy now. Amazingly, since I’ve had him (coming up on five years), we have been through many health crises together, and he has overcome every single one, most notably a collapsed trachea and the sudden onset of diabetes. 

Most recently, on the day of my surgery, as we were rushing out of the house at 6 am, we noticed that one whole side of poor Marty’s face was swollen. Great timing! After my surgery, Bruce deposited me on the couch, ran out to get my medications, and brought Marty to the vet. This had happened in the past yet with a new vet in the practice, she was reluctant to give us any medication without seeing him. She actually wanted to admit him but Bruce insisted that this was not a good time. As it turns out, Marty had an abscess and needed an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory, and some pain management. The swelling went down pretty quickly, but it was obvious he was uncomfortable. The vet suggested we admit him immediately to have a deep cleaning done, but of course we couldn’t do that because we were dealing with human issues. In the interim, we dealt with a lot of crying (on Marty’s part and ours) as well as frustration all around. He can’t tell us what he needs and we did nothing but try everything possible to see what he needed: taking him out, giving him meds, feeding him, moving him to all of his favorite spots to rest… and the list goes on. 

When he finally had his dental work done, the bone in his jaw was so brittle that the vet caused a hairline fracture, which then led us to a doggie oral surgeon to take on his case. Again, our lives revolved around trying to take care of our baby boy and managing his pain. For a middle-aged couple who made a conscious decision to simplify our lives by not having any children, we were living as if we had a child. Besides taking care of Marty, we also had to make sure that Scarlet was not feeling any less loved, despite the amount of attention that Marty required. Rather than simplifying our life, it was exponentially more complicated, especially when taking into account the fact that I was recovering from surgery myself plus the MS that is a constant presence in our world. 

But the truth of the matter is that when you rescue animals like we do, particularly the ones who would not be adopted otherwise, it’s a sacrifice you make. I would not give up on my little man like others did before me, even if it temporarily turns my life into something other than what I had anticipated. Happily, he is on the mend and practically back to his old self again, and we remain grateful for the life decisions that led us to create our little family without human children. It’s a choice we made early on for many reasons, and without any regrets. It was (and has been) an exhausting time for us, and I can’t imagine how we would fare if we had taken the alternate path…the one where we follow the masses and the societal norms simply because most people do. 

The universe clearly drew me to Marty, and there is a reason I felt he was the one to rescue even though I didn’t fall in love with him right away. Our lives are parallel, though, or so it seems. He already had medical issues when we rescued him, and there always seems to be something new to deal with for the poor guy. I, too, had my own medical concerns before he came home with me, and sometimes I feel like I keep having more added to my already well-stocked plate. If it is indeed true that Marty is my spirit animal and he has been given multiple lives in his short little life, then at least I can take comfort in the fact that I have several more to go myself!