A Dog’s Life: Franklin Waffles

Once you become a dog person, I think you stay that way for life. I grew up with dogs and knew early on I would always have dogs as pets. Many of you remember last year when we lost my beloved dog Bosco. He was truly my baby as I got him when I was 22 and he stayed by my side through all of life’s changes and tough moments that happened over the next 11 years. After I lost him, I knew we’d eventually get another dog and I had my heart set on rescuing or adopting a dog, perhaps even an older dog. I wanted to feel like I was giving a dog a home that really needed a good home. So I began scouring shelters and rescue groups obsessively. Then my husband started to panic (the exact moment he panicked was actually when I started sending him links to the Great Dane Rescue). I may have forgotten to mention, he’s actually allergic to dogs.

My Beloved Bosco

He was ok with Bosco for the most part, but some dogs like labs or blood hounds make his eyes swell shut and he has trouble breathing for days. A fact I often overlooked on my quest for a dog that needed a good home. My son also happens to be allergic to dogs. Finally my husband had a heart to heart with me, and I also had someone at the Humane Society notice how *exuberant* my (then) two year old was with the dogs and she had a heart to heart with me as well. She said most of the dogs there have some issues and probably wouldn’t appreciate all the wrestling and forceful kisses my daughter wanted to give. She recommended we look for a puppy, which of course, they had none because puppies go fast. That was not what I wanted to hear for a lot of reasons, so I kind of gave up. Secretly my husband continued looking on his own though, and he came across someone who had some Boston Terrier puppies and they couldn’t take care of them and needed to find homes. He sent me the link one day while he was at work and I was excited but skeptical. The listing was from Craigslist and you just never know what you’re really dealing with there. But after thinking it over, we decided to go for it.

Baby Frankie

So we exchanged info with the owner of the mama dog and sent the money for the first vet check up (which was pretty much all they wanted in exchange for the dog) and waited for him to be old enough to leave his mom. A week or two before he was supposed to be ready, we suddenly got messages saying he’s ready now. They need to get the puppies off their hands ASAP. It definitely had me concerned. We drove the two hours to meet them in some highway-side parking lot and after they were an hour late, finally they rolled in. After exchanging pleasantries, the woman fished out the puppy she had sent us pictures of out of a box and handed over this lethargic, sickly looking puppy with a swollen belly. I immediately knew something was wrong and started asking her questions. She said the puppies all had worms and it was no big deal. She was going to give us some wormer (which she gave me a small tupperware container of weird looking liquid). I set him down in the grass hoping he’d pee before the 2 hour drive home, but he couldn’t even stand up. I was fuming at this point, since clearly this puppy hadn’t been cared for. We got in the car and I called vet after vet, looking for someone who could fit us in on a Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, this poor pup with worms was vomiting and pooping on my lap and I had to keep the kids at bay since I really didn’t want them getting worms. In the midst of it all, we decided on Franklin Waffles as his name. Frankie for short.

We found a vet that would see him and took him directly there. She took one look and shook her head. First, he was probably only 5 weeks old and too young to leave his mom. Second, they hadn’t been feeding him enough. Third, his worms were so bad that he was on the verge of needing a blood transfusion. They gave him wormer and prescribed food that would help get his energy back. It took a couple of weeks and dealing with some seriously gross things, but he finally started coming around and acting like a normal puppy. Except for the vomiting. To this day, we have no idea what was going on, but the first few months he threw up at least 30 times a day. We tried different food, took him to different vets. Nothing worked. Finally I had him on a lot of probiotics and found food that was easy for him to digest and it cut down the vomiting a lot. He was at 1-2 times a day for a while and now, finally at one year old, he throws up only 1-2 times a week. It’s hard not to be angry at the people we got him from. They clearly had no business having puppies. Honestly though, as I think back to meeting them, it was obvious they may not have had the means to take care of those puppies even if they wanted to. I’m pretty sure he never got that first check up- especially since the vet form they gave us was for felines. I remember calling my dad after we got him and complaining about the terrible condition Frankie was in and he started laughing. I asked why he was laughing at that and he just said “You wanted a rescue dog so bad, and that’s exactly what you got”. It’s true. Frankie may not have come to us from a shelter, but he was still a dog that needed a good home and needed someone to care enough about him to nurse him back to health and clean up lots of throw up without complaining :). My husband and son can breath around him and Frankie happily wrestles with Annabelle and actually loves her forceful hugs and kisses. In the end Frankie was exactly who we needed too.

As I promised ages ago, I want to share some of the natural products we use for Frankie:

Food: Honest Kitchen (it’s expensive, especially if you have a big dog or multiple dogs, but it’s the highest quality dog food I’ve found and the easiest for Frankie to digest. We use subscribe and save and it makes it much cheaper.)

Probiotic: Honest Kitchen

Bones: We get high quality bones from a local holistic dog store. I’ve heard you can also get them at some farmers markets

Food and water bowls: We use a set like this one. Skip the plastic! Look for stainless steel instead.

Toys: I’m really careful not to buy plastic or synthetic rubber toys- especially since Bosco died of a rare blood cancer that’s been linked to working in a synthetic rubber plant in humans. Instead I look for toys made of natural materials. Here are some favorites: tug rope, rubber hoop, stuffed animal

Dog Wash: For now we’re using unscented Dr. Bronners, but if anyone has an all natural dog wash with oatmeal, please tell me! We’ve been on the hunt for that since he has some bad skin allergies.