My Puppy Mill Puppy, Abigail

Abigail knew she was going to be in control. She took over our hearts and our leash.

Abigail was so small she was just a round ball of love. Here she is with a poodle named Popcorn that we once had. Abigail is never timid. She is always anxious to meet new people.

A few weeks later we got word from an animal rights group that the place we bought Abigail from was shut down and that our Abigail's Pedigree papers were fake.

They then offered to euthanize our Abigail as a courtesy for our trouble.

I guess I can't blame them for this calloused attitude considering what they must have seen. But No Way were we losing our Abigail.

For those of you that may not know what a puppy mill is. It is the deplorable place. Despicable people have a bunch of females and they breed them over and over again, they have no life, no freedom, no rest. They just breed. They take the puppies away too soon, they are never socialized or even properly cared for. They are sold to pet stores as purebred with fake pedigrees. The puppies are in bred and kept without love. It is unbelievable.

But our Abigail was now safe and with us and were going to have every advantage. We would never part from her. No matter what. We didn't care about any papers. We had the flesh and blood.

Now we were in for an education.

We noticed from the beginning that Abigail did not run and play like other puppies. She played like crazy and she was very active. But she did most of her fun on her bottom. And she couldn't climb stairs except one step at a time.

When she was about 4 months old we took her to be checked out and found out she had bilateral hip dysplasia. Such a severe case that they advised us to have bilateral hip surgeries before she had arthritis set in and couldn't be helped. She needed the surgery within the next month or two. Of course it had to be done by a speicalist and it was going to cost about $5,000.

Yikes! What were to do? Get the money of course.

So Abigail had her surgeries. She healed up beautifully and she walks to this day. It was very possible that she would not have been able to walk, or she may have developed a paralysis, even partially so, but not Abi, she is such a trooper.

When you see her walk, she has obvious disabilities. She can tell right away she is not "normal", but she doesn't care. She gets to where she is going. And we don't care either. She is not in pain and she is ambulatory. What else do you need?

You can see in the photo how she is bowlegged in the front. That is one of the symptoms in dogs of dysplasia. She has a massive powerful chest and strong front legs that do all the work of her underdeveloped back legs. The muscles are small in her hind quarters and not strong. She is able to ambulate but she has to really work to pull her back end up when she wants to stand. So she really developed her strong front end.

This group of pictures was when Abigail was well past her surgeries, we haven't found out about her other problems yet, we still have her "brother" Nicholas and life is good.

She was very active and interested in everything. She adjusted so well since her surgeries. She was now able to go for about a half mile walk each day and she really loved romping with Nicholas in the back yard. Everything in Moderation. She would romp and play for a few minutes and then lay down, then in a few minutes she would be off and playing again. She didn't seem to care at all that she was a little limited.

So our baby has grown old.

She will be fifteen years old. March 2009. Over the years she has shown exceptional devotion. And is so attached to me I have to be cautious not to overtax her. We have stairs in our home and she is not good on stairs and now that she is older, we have put baby gaits across the stairs to keep her from unnecessarily using them, just to follow me for a quick trip to the basement.

We never keep her separated from us. If we are downstairs so is she. And when we go up, we help her make it too.

The other problems she has developed include thyroid disease, severe skin issues, constant itching, hair loss and frequently infected ears and now she is deaf.

I should clarify that, she can hear the treat can rattling. hmmmmm, can you say selective hearing.

None of it matters, we are so crazy about our Abigail that it just doesn't matter.

I hope you can see why.

Abigail is now 12 years, October 2006. She is slowing down now. We no longer take long walks, On a good day we go several houses down the block, but we can tell she is having more arthritic problems. It doesn't stop her, just slows her down. She is still so happy.

She has been dealing with horrible skin problems, where she itches constantly, licks herself raw and makes sores on herself. I have to bathe her in an anti-itch shampoo and treat her sores and give her Benedryl for the itching.

This problem is one of the most difficult, she has had this since she was 8 or 9 years old.

It must drive her crazy. I do all I can to give her relief.

The best treatment is distraction. So we will go to the park or for a car ride. Unfortunately she has done it for so long, it is more like a nervous habit. She still has this problem today. We deal with it.

Life is wonderful now that we have our Isabel to fill the empty spot in our life after we lost Nicolas. If you would be interested in meeting our precious paralyzed Isabel, Abigail's "sister" just check out her lens
HERE.

Our Abigail's latest delimma is that she has develped a large cyst on her liver. It is not cancerous but it grows in size and then it can burst, she stops eating, looses energy, becomes very weak and bleeds from bowel and bladder.

We have almost lost her twice from this. The last time was one winter ago. It is touch and go. I hold vigil with her keeping her water bowl full because she drinks and drinks and drinks. The nurse in me recognizes that she is actually giving herself fluid boluses to maintain her blood pressure, which is of course, the number one thing that she needs.

She has managed to stave off death yet again.

We live each day knowing she doesn't have many more. We don't dwell on it. This is a very happy home filled with loving people and animals taking care of each other's needs.

We are all doing our best and living life large.

Abigail sends her love to you all.

My Abigail gave me joy right up to the last minutes of her life. We finally had to give in to the inevitableness of her having to leave me. The last two months have been rather dramatic as to the deterioration of being.

Her hips that started her life as a problem with dysplasia and then surgery when she was a puppy, served her well her whole life. But for the last two months she struggled to be able to walk. It got to the point that I was sling walking her to keep her from falling. But she would still insist on doing as much for herself as she could. She insisted she would be with me, wherever I was, so I had to be careful about going up or down the stairs without blocking them from her access because she would try to follow me and it wasn't right for just the few minutes I would be where ever I had gone.

Then on August 4th, she couldn't stand up, she just looked at me, still the most amazing love in her eyes. I carried her outside so she could do her business, and it was a huge struggle for us both. She didn't eat anything that day, only drank a little bit of water. I spoke to my husband Jim about her and I was already having a broken heart. Jim was worried about me and my reaction to what might be happening, but he told me to listen to Abigail with my heart, to hear what she was telling me.

I wrote the events and my feelings on a post that I made on tagfoot August 7th 2009, the day after her death.

You can view it here as well as the wonderful comments that my dear friends at tagfot had to say for my comfort. It is at times like these that truly wonderful friends are so important. Please do visit, it is important to me, and for you if you have lost a beloved pet or if you are facing the issue yourself.

My heart is broken, It has been one week today that she died. I have cried about it everyday. but it is getting to be less now. I am finally able to think about some fonder memories. I am able to accept comfort from friends and loved ones.

I am going to be okay.