Chow Wow and Zeus

Life has come to a screaming stop at our house. On Wednesday I hit our Lab Zeus as I was backing out of the driveway. He has a habit of charging our car when we come home or leave. He got up on his own afterward a bit shaken up but okay. I took him to the vet and had x-rays and blood tests done for internal injuries.

He checked out okay, was thought to be just badly bruised. By Thursday night I knew something was not right. Yesterday he had emergency surgery for a ruptured bladder. All went well and from what I was told he will recover very quickly.

In the mean time he will be in the hospital, yes hospital -not vets office, for another day or two.


The biggest lesson out of this ordeal was love. My total vet bills for July are big. The dogs had skin issues and needed a pile of booster shots and I had to refill the flea and tick medicine supplies for both dogs and two cats. The surgery estimate cost was staggering. My thoughts were, we have to have him put down, the price tag was out of our reach. It's very sad but we can't spend that much money on a dog. Plus there are many other dogs looking for a home....we'll take one in.



When I returned to the vet’s office to settle up the bill and say good bye to Zeus he was standing up, waging his tail and happy to see that I was back to take him home. The next thing I knew I was loading him into my car and with directions clutched in my hand--we were off to the hospital.

The financial cost for my family to keep this big dopey dog is great. ( I had to get it financed) But the hole he would leave is a far greater hardship to endure. He is only one and a half years old. If we didn’t save him that would mean we would miss out on over ten years of being loved, slobber on, our toes stepped on and being knocked out of his way as he hurries by to greet someone.

Both my dogs are from Rainbow Rescue, an animal shelter. Zeus was to be killed at birth. The breeder who owned his mother wasn’t sure who the father was and he didn’t want mixed puppies. So Zeus and his siblings were bottle fed from birth.

I’m not sure about Chow Wow’s history. All I know is that she has a razor sharp mind and is almost militant in her thinking. She would make a great general in the Army. She pretty much thinks she is in charge…and she is. All the neighbor dogs come to our yard to play. She is the smallest but she keeps them in line. Mainly she looks out for the not so smart but very sweet, dopey, loving Zeus. She is missing him right now.