Doggie mama drama

Now, if you are not an animal lover, you might as well stop reading right here or just resign yourself to thinking that I am completely insane in making a comparison between parenthood and dog ownership.

We always had dogs growing up, but in all the years since I moved out of my parents home, I was petless. I used to say that if I was going to get a dog, I might as well have a baby because its almost as much responsibility, except you can't leave the baby home all day with a bowl of food and a bowl of water. LOL!

Well, a special dog came into my life with a renewed relationship with an ex-boyfriend and we fell in love with each other. After 5 years together the human relationship ended -- not for the first time in the on-and-off relationship of many years -- and he and the dog exited my life. A year later, he turned up again. He had lost his apartment and couldn't have the dog where he would be staying -- would I take her? I jumped at the chance and restrained myself from telling him I had missed the dog far more than I had missed him.

Nea has been with me for two years now. She is a 14-year old dachshund/terrier mix with the sweetest disposition and lively as a puppy. She is smart as a whip, makes me laugh every day, and is great company. No matter how tired, stressed or even cranky I am at the end of the day, I forget all about it at her joyous greeting. Last fall she developed disc disease in her back and while at the vet, I learned she also had a heart murmur AND a mammary tumor and would need surgery to remove the tumor and spay her (tumors are hormonally fed) after we got her stabilized on meds for the back pain. It took several months to gradually taper the steroids to the lowest possible level that would control her pain. It was like having a sick child, totally dependent on you, with all the big decisions in your hands.

Because of her age and the heart murmur, the vet was concerned about her ability to tolerate anesthesia, so she also had to have an EKG. The results looked good, but I was scared of the surgery, afraid she wouldn't make it and I put it off. But I was the mama, and as much as I hated having to make the hard decisions, I knew I had to do it. Once I received Adam's referral, I knew I couldn't wait -- I needed to have her well by the time he comes home.

I did the responsible doggie mama thing and, shaking all the way, took my girl in for her surgery on April 3. Well, she did amazingly well! I brought her in at 8 a.m. and was able to take her home at 4 p.m. the same day. She was still wonky from the drugs and I was so exhausted from not sleeping the night before that by the time I got her home, we both collapsed on the couch. When I woke up a few hours later, she had moved up near my head and my face was inside the e-collar they put on her so she couldn't rip her stitches out. LOL! She was groggy, and a little intimidated by the e-collar at first, but was completly back to normal by the next afternoon. It was, apparently, much harder on her than on me! She had her stitches out this past Saturday.

I think back over my relationship with Nea, developing our indepedent relationship and growing into a "family" of three with her and my then-boyfriend, losing and grieving her, now just the two of us back together , and these few months of her health crisis. She has brought such joy to my life and taught me so much about love and life. And now we are soon to be a family of three again! I can't imagine the love I will have for Adam eclipsing the love I have for this dog -- but I know it will. Its a little scary! I can't wait!