Pet Party and The Story of Jake

Debbie over at Debbiedoo's is having a Pet Party so I thought I'd join in and tell you about my blog namesake, Jake, and the love of our lives!

We had never really been a pet family per se, but knowing that my daughter was heading off to college, having a son who was living in Hawaii, and then having a husband who worked out of town, I knew I'd be one lonely lady in the months to come and was convinced that a cute little lap dog was just what I needed, and boy oh boy was I right!

After weeks and weeks of visiting the pound, my daughter spotted Jake in a cage with about 3 other dogs and we knew in an instant that he was the one we wanted. Now our pound has a "drawing" when you want a particular dog so you have to come back on another day and they draw names out of a hat to see who gets that animal. Luckily, on that fateful day, I was the only one who showed up wanting Jake. The other people on the list never showed up!

After owning Jake for a few years, we went to visit our daughter at Arizona State for Parent's Weekend and when we landed at the Burbank Airport to come home, my husband had a missed call from the vet's office where Jake was being boarded. We immediately called them back and they said Jake was having some issues and we needed to get there immediately. By the time we made the 2 hour drive home, Jake was already paralyzed in his back legs.

Long story short, we'll never know exactly what happened (if someone possibly stepped on him or if he did indeed rupture a disc), but our little Jakester has been paralyzed for over 2 years now. He had the costly spinal cord surgery but it didn't help at all, which was no surprise. We were told that there was only a 25% chance that he would walk again but we wanted to give him that chance, even if the odds were low. They're suggestion to us was to put him to sleep. To us, that option was out of the question and we've never looked back!

It seems like forever ago that Jake was able to get around but truthfully I hardly remember those days. We've now had him as a paralyzed dog longer than a healthy, walking dog, and you know what, we couldn't love him anymore than we do. He is unable to go potty on his own so we have to "express" his bladder throughout the day and it's like we have a newborn instead of a dog, but he's our Jake, our little Jakie, the Jakester, a big time Mommy's boy, and the owner of my heart! Who wouldn't love this sweet face...


By the way, we special ordered Jake some "wheels" and from day one he's never liked them. His whole personality changes when he's in his wheels, he acts depressed. Needless to say, he gets carried around all day, and couldn't be happier!