When I was still in private practice I was also running my own dog rescue that took in some of the dogs from the shelter where I now work and also sometimes took in sick or injured dogs (and occasionally cats) that came into my office that people couldn’t afford to treat. One of those dogs was Mickey. Mickey was a large lab mix who belonged to a client who lived in a neighboring town. We had seen him a couple times for vaccinations, but we had never seen him for anything else. Her others dogs came in for heartworm prevention, flea control, and anything else they might need.

One day the client showed up on our front porch with Mickey in tow and walking on three legs. You could tell immediately that she was angry. When we got her in an exam room, she said that Mickey has taken off for a few days, and when he had come back he wasn’t using his leg. She had waited a couple of days before bringing him in to see if he got better. When I felt the leg I was quite sure that it was broken, but it was very swollen and painful so it was hard to tell much more. With x-rays we discovered that the leg was in about ten pieces, and that fixing it would be nearly impossible. And that was when the truth came out. She told us that Mickey was her ex husband’s dog, and that she hated him (both the ex and the dog), so we should just euthanize him.

The thing was that the whole time they were there, Mickey was constantly wagging his tail and even though the leg was obviously painful, he never offered to bite, no matter what we were doing. How could I put a sweet dog like that down? He deserved a second chance with someone who actually wanted him, so I talked her into donating him to me. We scheduled Mickey for an amputation the next day. During his physical exam I had also noticed that he was kind of pale, so we did bloodwork and a heartworm test on him. It turns out that he was heartworm positive, he was fairly anemic, and was positive for ehrlichiosis, which is a disease caused by ticks (which he had plenty of). Ideally, we would have treated his other problems before surgery, but that leg had to go ASAP. I brought one of my labs with me the next day to serve as a blood donor if we needed one.

Mickey did end up needing a blood transfusion, but otherwise his surgery went very well, and I went ahead and neutered him too. By the next day he felt so much better between the blood transfusion and being rid of the painful leg. If possible, he was even happier than he had been before. Then came the long process of treating his other problems so that he would be healthy for adoption. First, we treated his ehrlichiosis which required a three month regimen of doxycycline. In typical lab fashion he was a food hound, so getting his meds to him was easy, and he responded beautifully. After the first week, I took him home with me and kept him in my house. He was great with my cats, and he was super easy to house train, so it didn’t take long for me to start getting attached. Heartworm treatment was also a three month long ordeal that required him to stay relatively quiet during most of it. That meant leash walks for Mickey since there was no stopping his antics with the other dogs if he was loose. By the time that was done and he was finally ready for adoption I was fully attached and decided that he could only go to the best of homes.

I turned away several potential adopters, holding out for that perfect one, and finally they came along. They owned a good sized horse farm about forty five minutes from me. When I went to meet them, the place was gorgeous! The people were very nice and showed us (Mickey and I) around. They had a beautiful house with an screened in pool and another lab mix. The two dogs immediately fell in love with each other. At night the dogs would live in the house with them and during the day they had run of the farm and their own room in the huge barn. The room was heated and air conditioned, there was a queen sized bed just for the dogs, a small kitchen, tv, and radio (how does a dog decide if he wants to watch tv or listen to the radio?). And finally, there was the plane. It seems these people also owned a farm in upstate New York, and they split their time between the two, flying back and forth frequently. The dogs would fly back and forth with them. The plane was decked out with several plush dog beds that I would have slept on! My only question about leaving Mickey with them was whether they might want to adopt a veterinarian along with the dog!

That’s the story of how Mickey, the unwanted and even hated ex husband’s dog, became the pampered pet of the jet set. Who would ever have guessed that shattering a leg would have been the best thing that could happen to a dog! I kept in touch with Mickey’s adopters for several years before we lost touch. During that time he thrived on living in the lap of luxury with loads of love and attention, but like many rescued dogs I have met, they said he never seemed to take that good life for granted. I’m sure he’s long gone now, but I was so glad to be part of turning his life around.