My baby turned into double digits.

I remember the first time I saw him through the front door window of his foster home. Actually, I heard the thunder of numerous paws charging toward the door first. He was in the middle of the pack. Smiling as he always does. Waiting for me to take him into my arms and never let him go. My boyfriend (now husband – who knew?) promised he’d find me the perfect dog. It seemed to take forever. Looking at countless headshots on rescue sites, the local shelters, the national adoption websites and visiting the Humane Society, Austin Pets Alive, the Austin Animal Center (which is quite an awesome place), we finally found BEAU. He was worth the wait.

The foster didn’t want to give him up. I almost felt bad. Almost. The foster was an army vet who had PTSD. He thought Beau had it too. Beau has some pretty eventful dreams. They also thought he suffered from separation anxiety. He had apparently been adopted and returned a few times. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. He’s just huge and I got him when he was 2 ½ and still had a lot of puppy life to live. Someone kept him in a crate which he managed to break out of and broke his ankle in the process. He’s got some scars. I think they give him character. 

Want to know how to cure a dog of separation anxiety? Never leave them. This has worked just fine for us.

The deal was sealed when my niece, Allison, brought her fur baby Tucker for a meet-n-greet. She was there minutes after receiving my call that Tucker needed to check out the new boy. To say that the meet-n-greet went well would be an understatement. (We have established that I did indeed adopt Beau!). These two boys immediately started hugging it out and running. Did I mention that Beau is ginormous? At one point two large cannon balls smashed into the foster house, a post fell over then the gutters came rushing down. We left quickly shortly after.

I was living alone at the time and wanted a big fierce looking protector. I, okay I’ll give a little credit to Rob, found the sweetest, biggest, most loving baby. Beau never leaves my side to this day. I didn’t realize that he follows me everywhere until it was pointed out. He always knows where I am.

After we officially signed the adoption papers, we got Beau vet checked, even though Austin Pets Alive is such a wonderful and thorough organization. My vet, at the time, checked for heartworms even though Beau had gotten a clean bill of health from APA. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the look in the vet’s eyes. Beau didn’t just have heartworms, he had a very bad case. WTF! No way, I thought. How am I going to keep this puppy in a crate and quiet during the treatment period?

Rob found a trainer to help crate-train Beau. (Now you might understand why I married the guy!) We boarded Beau for two weeks to help make the training easier on me, and him. I had the worst separation anxiety. How could we be apart for two weeks? How were we going to survive, literally, the treatment and recovery? I knew we were going to persevere. After all, Beau is my kid! He has my genes!  We’re tough.

We made it through the training and I made the appointment for Beau to get the first heartworm treatment injections. Fighting tears and trying to remain strong for my boy, I waited patiently while they shaved the area of the injection site. They then decided that due to his size (80 lbs.) that he would require two injections. Wow, that seemed like a lot of bad stuff to put into my boy. While waiting for the tech to prepare the second syringe, my gut told me to take action. 

“Can you run the test again?” Words came out of my mouth for no apparent reason. My vet didn’t say he just had heartworms, which is scary, but that he had a BAD case. I tend to speak my mind and sometimes my mouth has a mind of its own. Rob didn’t say a word. He knows to just go with whatever I get us in the middle of.

To make this very long story shorter, the new test showed BEAU DID NOT HAVE HEARTWORMS!!!!

The moral of this story – listen to your heart. You have nothing to lose by trying or asking. The worst anyone can say is, no.

To this day, I have no idea why I asked. I thought the tech would be mad, I thought Rob would tell me to accept the cards we were apparently dealt. But, as usual, I did what I felt was right. So today Beau turns 10. We’ve been through a lifetime together. Rob never questions, at least not out loud, Beau’s acupuncture sessions, his personal trainer, food delivery service, sleeping on the couch and the bed. Beau is, after all, my son.