[Dailydrool] Mutant mutants

[Menzie Campbell]

-------------------

Momperson's story about Llewis' puppyhood inspired me to share about
our current mutant Bonnie.

Once upon a time, two very fancy bassets (long and fancy pedigrees,
multiply-specialed dogs) had puppies.  Of the 7 puppies, 6 were
various kinds of "a mess", to greater or lesser degree.  Sometimes it
happens that way, I am told by breeders of 30+-years experience.

One of those pups was a long-haired girl, she became our Pippa.
Another was Bonnie.  Bonnie had (has) a very bad heart murmur, and her
hips are terribly messed up.  She has hip dysplasia.  But more than
that, she has what seems to be a ligament problem.  her ligaments and
tendons never quite tightened up like they should in her hips and
lower back.  So her hips are very unstable.  She rocks and wobbles and
falls down a fair amount. She also has occasional digestive troubles,
and she has remained quite thin in spite of our best efforts. With her
heart murmur, she was supposed to die before she was a year old.

However, no one told Bonnie that.  She and Pippa are 20 months old
now.  They're both quite small, about 32 pounds (their parents were
normal-sized bassets).  Bonnie runs, plays, bites her sister, barks
for attention, climbs the ramp to the yard and the ramp to the bed.
Her tail wags constantly, so hard it can be a deadly weapon. ( You'll
often hear a weird "thump thump thump" noise, and look around to see
Bonnie happily and obliviously beating her tail against the wall.)
Often, her back legs go out from under here as she races around the
house, but her front legs just keep going full-fire ahead, and her
back legs kind of flail around until they get going again.  But, like
Llewis, she doesn't know that this isn't normal.  As far as she's
concerned, she's living a great life, except for the times her tummy
bothers her.  She's a happy girl, and a source of much joy in our
household.

-- 
Menzie Campbell
Save a Life - Don't Shop, ADOPT!
Owned by Pw. Annabelle ATB, Hector TVL, Barney, Bozlee, Millie and now
Pippa and Bonnie (the sisters)