Bulldogs and other things

I have 3 bulldogs.  They are all rescues.  First came Mugsy. 

He was adopted at about 4 years of age.  He was found on the streets of Detroit, had a bad skin condition, was about 20lbs under weight, and just all around neglected.   My husband loved him on sight and we adopted him. 

We had him for about a year, then I said "he is lonely, lets get another dog" and we adopted Layla.

She was also about 5 and she was my girl from day 1.  She slept in the bed with me, is the best girl in the world and I love her dearly. 

We were a happy house of 2 dogs, 4 ferrets, me and hubby. 

In Septemeber of 2009 I lost my job.  To put it mildly, I got depressed.  Hubby is on disablity, we were surviving but it was hard.   The rest of the country was in the same situation that I was so I wasn't feeling sorry for myself, but I was depressed.   After a few months, I decided I needed to do something to knock myself out of the this funk, so I started to help out more with The Detroit Bulldog Rescue, where we had adopted Layla from.  I had already set up their website for them (http://www.detroitbulldogrescue.org/) and one day they posted on facebook they needed someone to pick up a dog in a city that I was close to.  I drove out there, not know what to expect but thinking that almost all the dogs that come into rescue are older dogs, mellow dogs.....

NOPE! Not this time.

Meet Moo, the Demon child!  She looks sweet doesn't she?   6 months old, she has a heart conditon and the owner was getting rid of her.   On the ride back to my house, she knocked my car out of gear, while I was doing 70 mph, knocked the steering wheel out of my hands, while I was doing 70 mph, bit my face jumping at me, while I was doing 70 mph, bit my arm, while doing 70 mph, chewed on my hand, while doing 70 mph, All during a massive thunder storm.  

The next day, after her journey, I decided to take her for a walk since she was full of energy.  As we rounded the corner of my block, the dog across the street barked and she stopped dead in front of me, sadly I didn't realize this and I proceeded to trip over her and fall flat on my face, managing to sprain my hand and wrist horribly, breaking my glasses, scraping up my face, and knee.  She, of course, thought my being on the ground was just fantastic and proceeded to jump on my face with enthusiasm, kissing me all over.  Did I mention she weighed about 40lbs??   That walk cost me $150 at Urgent Care to make sure my wrist wasn't broken and I couldn't wear my wedding ring for 3 months till the swelling in my hand went down. 

Those lovely flowers you see her with there?  They didn't last 10 minutes in their planter, she ate them.  All of my flowers were killed by the demon child.  She ate a corner of my deck.  She eats anything plastic, including prescription bottles, juice bottles, milk containers, etc. etc.  I have come home from work to find she has destroyed my room....

So you say, why do you keep this demon child????

Because she is my baby girl.  She snuggles with every single night.  She is the first one to greet me at the door, the first one to see me off to work.  She follows me around all day when I am home.  I am her Mommy and I am so glad I was blessed to rescue her.    Her heart will give out one day, just like mine will, she is doing great otherwise.  No medications needed. 

Layla is now 9, she had/has cancer this past Christmas (2011).  We removed 3 tumors from her mammory glands.  The dr said it was "agressive" cancer and most likely will return in her lungs.  We are hoping for 2 more years with her.  For now, she gets to sleep with me, special bones that she loves and spoiled rotten.  

Moo is now 2, she has mellowed a bit, but not much.  She graduated from basic command school at Petco.  She is a very personable little girl, weighs about 55 pudgy pounds.  She still has the heart murmur but is doing fine.  One day she will develop congestive heart failure but not till she is older.

Mugsy is a our old sick guy.  He is also 9 years old, he has horrible allegies, his kidneys are going, he is now deaf, and his is incontient.  He wears a "wee-wrap" in our house at all times becuase otherwise he will just pee anywhere and at anytime.  The one nice thing about him being deaf now is that thunderstorms don't terrify him anymore.   He is good with hand signals, it's just getting his attention that is funny.  And of course, we still talk to him :-)

3 dogs are too much for my husband to handle some days.  Moo would like to be the Alpha dog, but that is Layla, so somedays there are squables over stuff, like treats, who gets in the door first, etc.  But most of the time its harmony.