A Dog's Life

This is a pic of me when I still had my peepers. I've lived with the Cotton's since they rescued me from being chained to a tree. I moved in  with them and my Aunt Rosie...

It was swell, til the "Bully" moved in with us.

Charlie came to live with us when his Baby Daddy moved back home. Baby Daddy moved out but left Charlie. He just never got the pecking order memo. It was Rosie, me and THEN him.

We had a few dog fights and let me tell you, a fight between an English Bulldog and a Boxer / Old English Bulldog mix is not a pretty one. Charlie never won a fight, always started them and refused to ever give up. My family used to call him "Scar Face" because he was always seeming to heal from the wounds he insisted I inflict. He spent the first year of his life alone with baby Daddy and never learned how to play well with others. It took him about a year and a couple of tough butt whoopings but he finally learned. I am "Ham the Man." Rosie was never involved in one fight...at least we both knew who was the "Lady of the House."

Rosie was a sweet girl. Her hips started getting bad and after about a year momma decided we were just keeping her so we wouldn't miss her. She could barely walk, her legs splayed out from under her and had to be helped outside. A nice lady from Animal Control came over to our house and administered the lethal shot. Rosie went peacefully as Charlie and I were locked up in separate bedrooms. We both pawed and scratched, howled and whined. We may just be dogs but somehow knew what was happening. Zach and his buddy had dug her a grave at the back of the yard and she was gently lowered to her final resting place. Momma told me the day Rosie died, Zach  posted on his Facebook wall "RIP Crazy Legs."

A year went by. Charlie got his butt handed to him a few more times but we finally agreed...He's just a brat.

Then a friend of Momma's at work, who owns two Boxers had a litter of unplanned pups. They already had a six month old little girl, two Boxers and seven pups. The female pups sold quickly but the males went slower. Massey and Momma made a Craig's List ad to help her sell them but by week nine she said "Please take one" so we did. We let her pick out the pup and paid her twenty bucks for gas since she brought the pup to us from Paulding County. It's AKC registered and a beautiful black Boxer. It's also an idiot.

So now we have Ziggy too. We are three rescued pups and all happy as can be! My one eye started going bad around the time Rosie died. Over the past year my one eye went totally blind and the other seemed to be racing to catch  up.

All the while, my family had hit the skids. I don't know anything about money but  heard them talking about going from over six figures to welfare and didn't sound happy about it.

Then my Momma did a blog about me. It was an amazing response. People actually helped me. People actually cared about me. People actually saved my life.

A man my Momma has never met but who reads her blog sent us the money to go see a specialist about my eyes. They were really nice and even remembered my daddy who also suffered from juvenile cataracts and had implants from the very  same clinic.

Then I was dealt another blow. Momma took me straight from the specialist to have my shots all updated at a mobile Vet here in our county. They barely had enough money to feed us and certainly didn't have money  for shots or heart worm preventative. This mobile vet was low cost (extremely low cost) and simply gave me an exam and my shots in the parking lot beside our car. The only bad thing is, I tested positive for Heart Worms. You can't have eye surgery and be put to sleep when you have heart problems.

 Momma took me back  to our own Vet and they said it would be over $1,145.00 to do the quick kill. The next  week Momma took me back to my mobile Vet and he said he could do it for $500.00.

People...humans who have never met me sent us check after check. Some were tagged "Dog Food" Some were tagged "Gas Money" and some simply said "Get better buddy."

Thanks to you all I had three quick kill treatments from my Doc in a Box. The first one almost killed me, I didn't move and didn't eat. The next  one was about the same, and my Momma worried the Heart Worms had won. We had three weeks between  the second and third shot and I felt a  lot better. When I went for my third shot  the mobile Vet (shout out to Dr. Marseli)  said my prognosis was good because I am such a strong and muscular dog.

Momma still has money donated to get me back to the eye specialist once I test negative for Heart Worms in February. (Paws crossed)

It's crazy how people love me...although I have to say I am pretty  adorable!

I have had a great life here. I'm loved and loved and loved. My momma has been even luckier. People read about my plight and helped me when Momma simply couldn't.

I start my preventative  tomorrow and go back in a few short weeks to be retested. Once cleared I am headed back to the eye Doc.

Once again I am just a dog, but a very lucky one. Charlie and Ziggy even seem to know I've been sick. I have over seventy friends on something Momma calls Facebook. Ziggy and Charlie helped me write this . Momma just came in and kicked us off the computer...gotta go!

Thanks for loving me ! I want to lick every one of your faces.

Ham Cotton