Man's best friend......

I have had a request to post a more recent picture of my dear dog Bert......which then got me thinking about my four legged friend and companion.

Bert is 4 years old. Hubby and I got him from the SPCA when he was 9 weeks old. He stole our hearts right from the get go. There he was cowering in the corner of his cage....hubby called him over...he had one ear the stood straight up and the other that flopped over...to us he was just so adorable. The previous owners had abandon the whole litter and were left in a terrible state...so our dear Bert was a SPCA rescue. We wanted him, we knew we could make a good home for him.

Bert when we brought him home

Bert grew really fast. The vet told us Bert is a Retriever, Labrador Mix. My hubby says he is part Retriever and Kangaroo. We get a funny stare when he says that....but Bert has always had such a spring in his step....he bounces. It's so funny to watch.

This is Bert at 4 months. He could just see in the back door.....I swear he was saying "Hey dad let me in, it's cold out here"

Bert as I said grew fast. But he didn't out grow the puppy stage as quickly. I remember one time we had shoes at the front door....I am not sure where we were but when we returned Bert had taken every shoe from the front doorway and put them outside. We lost a few shoes during that phase. Bert I swear had a shoe fetish. I can remember that once he got over the chewing the shoes, he would take one of my shoes and one of my husbands shoes and put them into his bed with him. We would wake up seeing Bert in his kennel and with one of our shoes just on the kennel door way.

Bert has always had a good temperament. Does what a dog is suppose to, the only time he barks is if someone is coming down the drive or to the door. He growls when he thinks he hears something outside....and more times than not he's been right on the mark. He has never been to a dog park. With 5 acres there is really no need to take him to a dog park. The down side to that is he doesn't get many opportunities to socialize with other dogs. Well, my in laws breed Yorkies so he has them to chase around the property. Mind you some days I swear it is the Yorkies chasing him.

We take him to the beach and on our road trips. He's great fun when I go for my walks and he really enjoys socializing. Hubby has trained him well. Bert comes when called, heals and follows direction. We rarely have to put him on leash...when we do, we do it more so for when we come to others who have a dog and we don't know how their dog will respond to Bert. Bert is the farthest thing from being aggressive, but because of his size I know people are intimidated by him.

Bert on guard......

About 18 months ago we noticed that dear Bert's nose was red and raw. We took him to the vet and she put him on medication. This never worked. We took him back, this time his eyes were also not looking good so back to the vet we went. She wanted to do some biopsies. We agreed. Bert had the biopsies done. Have you ever tried to get a dog the size of Bert into your vehicle while he is still dopey from the drugs and wearing one of those cone heads. Not easy thing to do. Poor Bert had to live with this cone on his head for 10 days. Poor Bert was nnocking into everything and scaring himself half to death.

The day came and Bert was to get his stitches out and we were to get the results of the biopsies. Turns out that our dear Bert has Discoid Lupus. He is very sensitive to weather changes and the vet told us that he needs to stay out of the sun and when it is cold to stay indoors. Well my goodness, Bert is not an indoor dog. Of course he is in on days when the weather is poor and during the nights...but generally he is outdoors. When it snows there is nothing more Bert likes to do but bury his nose in the snow!

Bert and his buddy Cooper(Golden Labrador)

So other than his Lupus Bert is good and staying pretty healthy and keeping us happy.