Follow-up: Bella

In this post, I yanked on all your puppy heart strings and became “that blogger” that decided to feature their beloved 4-legged (in this case, that’s a bad joke) furry friend. Only thing is that a) I’m so not that person and b) it was for a reason.

Bella, our english bulldog, is almost a year old now. During the summer months, Bella was the highlight of the boys’ day. They would spend so much time chasing her in circles, playing tug-o-war and fetch. She was not only a treadmill, but their best friend.

Then, one evening, I let her inside and noted she was limping. Not like “oh. poor thing hurt her foot”, but in a more concerning fashion that seemed to say “ok. someone HAD to of pulled something”. She moaned and whimpered that night.

Eventually, this led us to her Doggy Doctor and one craptastic diagnosis: our brand new puppy had hip dysplasia - in both back hips.

Solution: double surgery.

We eventually bit the bullet, and opted for surgery. Only thing? Bella got a respiratory infection - one that actually almost killed her before surgery was even an option. She spent the better (..or worse) part of 2 weeks admitted to the Doggy Hospital.

A formerly active puppy that was unable to breathe, unable to walk and was not at home. Poor thing.

She eventually had her surgery. It was brutal. The stitches, seen in the post above, were gross and hard to deal with. After about a week, she got an infection, which was drained (yuck) and treated.

At first, we really thought she was doing ok. We had been told she would likely not put any weight on that side at first (we were only able to do one leg at a time due to both the previous infection and the extent of the damage), but to our pleasant surprise, she’d use it to hobble.

Then, she stopped.

It was hard on her - no running, can’t jump and the boys could barely touch her. She was in pain and had been for awhile. In short - she became depressed and started regressing on her progress. Eventually, she stopped using the leg all together.

However, out of nowhere, she got better. Her spirits lifted and she re-gained use.

Now? Well, I “gained” her in the divorce. Seeing as I live in an apartment, I’m not sure if that’s an asset or not, but none the less, she’s mine.

One, big, slobbery, shedding bulldog. One that can run though, and kinda jump and if she’d stop eating everything, I’m sure the boys would love her.