[Dailydrool] Happy Gotcha Day, Pelly-Belly! Part 1 of 2--LONG--sorry!)

[L.K. Metzler]

Today, February 25, 2009, is Pelly's 3rd anniversary of his Gotcha Day, and as his Mama, it is my duty to share his day with everyone.

Pelly
is a quiet guy, he doesn't have a lot to say most of the time.  I
believe he thinks deep Basset thoughts, though, on subjects such as
"How can I get Grandma to give me MORE Cheerios?" and "Why won't the
girl houndies let me have a bone all to myself?"  His favorite thinking
spot is in the kitchen on his double-stuffed bolster bed where he can
be King of all he surveys and attend to his Kitchen Dog duties at the
same time.  He does love to supervise the kitchen!

Pelly came to
me through Petfinder and the San Angelo, Texas Animal Shelter.  I saw
him and just had to add him to the family, so I arranged with a lady in
San Angelo to pull him from the shelter so that he could be adopted. (I
was living in Lubbock
at the time, about 200 miles away.)  He'd been picked up as a
stray--they believed he was dumped, although I cannot imagine how
someone could dump such a sweet and loving dog to fend for himself. 
The day I picked Pelly up to take him home, he was sitting on top of a
picnic table woofing to the sky.  When he saw me, he climbed down and
came right over and was very happy for the dog cookies I offered him. 
At that moment, he was mine and I was his, and he has been my big
velcro puppy ever since.  He is named after King Pellinore of the King
Arthur stories, because Pellinore was a wanderin g king on a quest.  My
Pelly has completed his quest for a forever home.

In the past
three years, Pelly has really been through it.  He came to me with a
large cyst on his back at the base of his tail.  It grew from
quarter-sized to golf-ball dimensions in a matter of two weeks, so off
to the vet we went for surgery.  She drained all kinds of goo out of
it, put in a drain, and sent him home.  He was home recuperating when
my Mom called to let me know that my Dad had died, so Pelly and the
girls and I made a fast and furious trip to San Marcos.  We spent two
weeks here, and of course, Pelly had to have the drain removed.  The
vet here said that the cyst might return, and if so, it should be
removed.  About 8 weeks later, that is exactly what happened, and poor
Pelly had to have his rear end and tail shaved for surgery once more. 
Needless to say, he was not too keen on anybody coming near him with
clippers for quite some time.

He
was tested TWICE for heartworms--by the shelter vet and by my own vet
in Lubbock--and came out negative on both tests.  When I moved to San Marcos
later during the summer of '06, I had to have all of my dogs vaccinated
for rabies, etc. so more heartworm tests followed.  This time--the
third time--he came back positive.  We were lucky because he'd been on
preventative since I'd gotten him, so no new worms had developed, but
there were old ones and they had to be taken care of.  For six weeks,
Pelly endured the treatment from the vet and "endured" his confinement
in the house with his Grandma spoiling him every moment.  He had his
own private walks several times a day, and of course, extra special
pets and belly rubs to make sure that he got well quickly.  

Not
three months later, poor Mr. P was found to have a mast-cell tumor on
his left flank during a routine "lump and bump-ectomy".  We were very
fortunate that Dr. Sally was able to get excellent clear margins on
that and he was given a good bill of health.  We still have to monitor
him, but at least he has not had any other problems in that area.  He
is still a "lump-bumpy" guy, and every lump and bump is carefully
checked and removed. 

L.K. Metzler
San Marcos, TX   toppogigio at yahoo.com     "A dog wags its tail with its heart." - Martin Buxbaum     "If dogs could talk it would take a lot of the fun out of owning one." -- Andy Rooney 
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