Elly and Dozer; Our Furbabies

Almost seven years ago we saw an ad for basset hound puppies. After getting our male basset, Dozer, I felt bad for him having to be home alone when we were at work. So when I saw the ad for puppies, I knew we had to have another. And I knew I had to have a girl. Not to breed, as Dozer was fixed, but just to have another girl in the house. Haha.

When we got to the breeders house, the set up was questionable. Her mom was there but she seemed super aggressive. There were eight puppies. All adorable with their big feet, long ears and short little bodies. My husband took a liking to one of the puppies, but when Elly came up to me that was it. She was the only puppy that didn’t have the traditional coloring or markings like the others. She was all white with her head brown and white and two large black spots on her back and a bunch of little spots all over. I couldn’t stop playing with her.

The breeder gave us her shot records, we paid and left. She cried the whole way home. Where as Dozer just laid on my lap and relaxed. They got along as soon as they met. It was like a perfect match for our little family. It helped that they were only five months apart.

A few weeks after bringing her home, I woke up one morning to her just laying around. She wouldn’t move a lot, hadn’t eaten or drank any water. My job wouldn’t let me rush her to the vet, so my mom came by and took her to our vet. The vet confirmed that she had Parvo. He gave us a 50/50 diagnosis. He was upfront with us the entire time. They kept her at the vets office for a few days, gave her tons of medications and finally I got the call to pick her up. She had beat the parvo. It was a miracle.

And here we are with both Dozer and Elly. They’ll both be seven this year but now Elly is battling glaucoma in her left eye and the beginning stages in her right eye. She’s completely blind in her left eye. Today we had our check up with the specialist. Her left eye pressure was at 28 (a week ago it was at 57) and her right eye was at 12 (a week ago it was at 11). The medication is definitely helping, but the reality is that her left eye will need to be removed soon. And eventually so will her right eye.

It breaks our hearts that she’s going through this now, and we’re still learning how to cope with this, but I’m realizing this is something we literally have to take one day at a time. The main objective is to keep her as comfortable as possible for now. So that’s what we’re going to do. We have another checkup on May 31st. I’m pretty sure during that visit we will be scheduling the removal. But if she could be a trooper as a puppy and beat parvo, I know she’ll get through this too. They are such an inspiration and us humans could really learn a thing or two from their unwavering and unbreakable spirits.