For the Love of Huggy

We have this puppy, not really a puppy. More like a sick old man dog. His name is Huggy Bear and he was our "practice" baby.   We didn't want to harm an actual baby, of course!
 We got him the week we got back from our honeymoon.  Yup! I knew exactly when to ask for a puppy. Huggy Bear was Adorable! He had these big brown eyes that just melted my heart. I loved him right away. As they put my new" baby" in my arms ( three hundred dollars later) he smiled. I know he did, I saw it. On JD's face? Ehh, not so much .When I told him how much I payed for him he was like,"What! are you crazy? He's a Mutt!" I said, " But Baby, he's not a mutt! He's a Shi tzu/terrier mix!" As if there's a difference.  This was before they had those designer pups, so he didn't find that very helpful.  All he saw was a dog that I paid three hundred dollars for.  But ,it's amazing how forgiving your husband can be when you've only been married for two weeks.  So, we had our baby.
This was 13 yrs ago. Huggy Bear, our" baby" , is now 13yrs old. In dog years, thats 91. He is beyond old.  He's "tail in the grave" old! And now he is blind and deaf! How do you call a dog that is blind and deaf ?  Well, you clap your hands Really hard, And yell Really, Really loud.
You'll see me in the front yard clapping and yelling, " HUGGY! HUGGGY!!!HUGGGY BEAR!!!!! COME HERE!"  I'm just glad i didn't name him something else.  Can you imagine? "BABY! BABBBY!!!! BABY  GET OVER HERE!"  Ya, that would get the neighbors talking.
So now my blind and deaf dog is trying to run to me, which is really just walking, (he thinks he's running), in the opposite direction, thinking that he's following my voice.  I'm like "forget it"  and  I go and pick him up.  It's Crazy Hilarious!
Well,  One day I see that he's having trouble breathing. and extremely bloated.  The Kids and I are scared and balling. We rushed him to the vet and it turned out that he was going through cardiac arrest. He was just really old and his body was just giving out.  The vet gave me some pills to help him with the bloating and said he maybe had a month.  But it didn't look good.  Well, we get him home, get him comfortable and I bath him getting his hair all nice,cut and looking all GQ.  I sat the kids down explained it all and we were ready to say our goodbyes. (I know very sad.)
A week later Averie runs in the house screaming, "Momma!!!  Huggy is stuck to Sophia Joy!!!!" "What!" I'm thinkin." that is impossible!  He's dying.  He can't do that!"  Sure enough, I go outside, and LOOKY WHAT I FOUND!  Huggy "Stuck" to Sophia.  "Momma?"  I hear Averies little voice. "Who would "glue" them together?"  I looked at her sweet face and said,  "Baby, I have no idea? But that is just plain mean!" 
They were stuck like that for at least 20 min.  Not even Joking.  Sophia would look at him and Huggy  would just look up into outerspace.  He couldn't see, so I don't know how on God's green earth he was able to find her.  She must have been yelling his name out really  loud to get him to follow her voice. But I sure as heck didn't hear it.
Nine weeks later , my Huggy, (12 at the time, 84 in dog years),  was now a proud Papa to a litter of Shi T Chi's.  You heard me right. Shi tzu/terrier/ Chihauhaus.  I like to skip the whole T and just leave the Shi Chi's part.  Which sounds like ChiChi's, but that's a whole lot better than ShitChi's coming out of 4 year olds mouth.
 So, Guess what this homeschooling Momma was teaching her children that year?  "Where do puppies come from!"  they asked  "Well, Hunny,Really old Dogs! "

 It's 2012 and we still have Huggy Bear. And 2 more litters later we are convinced that he is playing us and (poor Sophia) for a fool.  He still can't see worth diddly squat and his hearing is worse. But boy, does he ever live out is name Huggy Bear.  Now he has a chronic cough and because he's old he coughs, which makes him fart, which scares him and makes him jump. And because he jumped he starts to cough  again.  You know the rest.  It's  a really ugly cycle.
But, he's my baby. And there's nothing like a momma 's love for  her first puppy.

JeniiMarie

One thing we have learned. When the girls are in heat, there ain't no way in OmpaLumpa Land that he is getting a hair cut OR shower. ;0)