Dani

Dani is our blind 'miniature' dachschund. I put the miniature in quotes 'cuz she's anything but. She weighed in a healthy 16 pounds at the vet this afternoon and she is so close to a 'normal' full size dachschund that continuing the charade of calling her a miniature must end. Today. Chloe IS a miniature as evidenced by the fact that I can carry her under the crook of my arm and she fits just perfectly - all 7.5 pounds of her 12 inch petiteness. Dani, not so much. She is a 'giant' dog that thinks she isn't. And when she's at the vet, she's a 'giant' dog who wants to be as close to me as humanly possible. She wants to tuck her chin up under mine and 'nestle' closely lest the 'bad people' touch her in any way. The vet said 'she can't get any closer to you'. No, but she tried.

Dani went to the vet today because she has developed a 'cough'. Finding a shredded popsicle stick in the family room this morning convinced me that Dani had ingested part of it and was trying to 'hack' it out. Turns out, she has some kind of lung infection. What kind, they're not sure of - but the tests to find out (hopefully) what it is specifcally just set us back $600. Yikes. We have antibiotics and they added a $150 blood test for a fungal infection - I'm convinced that's what she'll have 'cuz it's way more expensive to treat and takes longer to 'cure' her. Great.

Dani has cost us a small fortune in her almost 5 years. Eye surgeries, follow-ups, etc. We did everything possible to save her eyesight and drained our savings to pay for a surgery that was hopefully going to help. It didn't. She is totally blind - she's our 'special needs' puppy. She is the sweetest dog on the planet - and we all love her. But she is/has been one expensive dog. Oh well. She's a part of the family so we'll do what we have to do. We've (thankfully) built our savings back up - so we're good.

Dani's keen sense of smell lets her ferret out the 'creatures' in our yard. Dani finds them and coaxes them into revealing themselves - then Chloe 'chases' them around the yard until they can hide again. Last night's 'find' was a fairly decent sized toad - who looked none too happy to have been 'found'. Chloe and Dani make a good team - Chloe's the eyes for the team and Dani's the 'sniffer'.

When I took Dani to the vet sans Chloe, Chloe literally howled in her kennel as we walked out the door. I'm not sure if she was upset 'cuz she thought Dani was going on a walk without her (which is impossible since Chloe leads the way and Dani follows - without Chloe, Dani walks into literally everything in her path) or was just completely freaked out that Dani is leaving without me. Either way, Chloe was freaked and very worried when I returned home without Dani (while they did chest xrays, etc. and I picked up B. from school) and very relieved when Dani returned.

Our special needs puppy is just that - special. She's the first dog I've ever loved...I'm a cat person and never imagined I could love a dog. But I do. She's like my 'baby' - they both are - and whatever they need, we'll do. Hopefully, the $15 in antibiotics will do the trick. If not, I'll have to start selling off my Cow Parade cows on eBay to pay for her treatment. And it'd be totally worth doing that. And easier to dust the dining room!