Belle

For those of you who may read our Two Pups and a Kitty Facebook page, that don’t know me may feel that my post yesterday about Belle and being diagnosed with moderate  hip dysplasia might be considered cold. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.  The back story that new readers may not know, is that early on in our marriage and over the years Greg and I have prayed, talked and dreamed about having a kennel and raising Golden Retrievers.  In 2008 after the NIU campus shootings when I witnessed first hand the healing touch that therapy dogs brought to our hurting campus that dream morphed into also having our dogs become certified to be therapy dogs. Due to many factors the time wasn’t right for any of this until a little over 2 years ago when we brought Bonnie and Belle into our lives.

A funny thing happens sometimes to dreams, they evolve until sometimes the reality isn’t anything like the original dream.  While we do have three golden retrievers that we love to pieces,the dream of having a kennel has faded into maybe having a litter of puppies (in only the most responsible, breed strengthening way of course which was always our intent).  Those who follow our story, ( and I certainly thank you for doing so) know that  we are still working on Bonnie and Belle passing the Canine Good Citizen test. And seeing if either of them will qualify for therapy dog status is way down the line.

The next step towards having puppies was to have Bonnie and Belle be tested for hip dysplasia, which we did a few weeks ago.  We had discussed before hand that we certainly would not move forward in breeding if they had it. We knew that would be highly irresponsible  so when we received Belle’s report yesterday, it was in effect the end of that part of our dream for her at least.  It’s hard when you dream something for literally decades to shrug it off and say ok, there is a small amount of grieving and letting go that comes with the end of a dream.  That was my emotion while writing the facebook post about it last night.

The biggest feeling though when I read that report was concern for Belle. What the future holds for her medically, how will we best be able to help her as the years go on.  She already deals with allergies, and ear infections and now this.  Yes, trust me I know that these things are easy issues.  I know that so many other dogs are dealing with or have just lost their fight against cancer, are dealing with serious injuries and other very difficult health issues. My heart hurts for those dogs and their families. But for us, right now, today this is our issue with our Belle pup and for us it’s pretty big.

We will be talking with our vet to find out what to look for and how we can best help Belle deal with any pain and or other issues that will be a part of her future with hip dysplasia.  As always we will continue to pray and see what Lord has in store for us and our pups as we continue our Golden Adventure.