God of healing, please comfort and strengthen Chance during his illness.
Ease his fear and pain,
and guide the vet and all caring for him,
that he may recover fully.
Comfort us, too, God, that we may better care for Chance
and make decisions that are best for him.
-From www.daybydaypetsupport.com
Adam and I got Chance the week before we were married. We had gone to look at dogs before, but had never left with one. We almost did once when we were at the ASPCA in Savannah. We saw two dogs who were absolutely adorable, but we knew we only wanted one dog. You see, the shelter had named them Ziva and DiNozzo, and in spite of what the show says, we knew that they should be together.
A couple days after we went to the ASPCA, I convinced Adam to go look at this cute golden retriever who I'd seen on PetFinder who was at a local rescue shelter. When we got there, that dog had already been adopted. We saw two dogs that we liked, one was a skinny, nervous girl and the other was a tiny puff ball. We both immediately fell in love with the tiny puff ball, our Chance. He was a little 4 pound ball of white fluff, and he was walking through water when Adam picked him up and gave him to me. He was such a sweetheart.
The owner of the shelter asked if we wanted the dog and we both looked at each other and said yes. At the time of saying yes, we did not think that we'd be going home with a dog. We thought that there would be some sort of waiting period. We were very wrong. As soon as we said yes, she scooped up Chance, gave him a bath, and got all his papers in order. We quickly realized that we were going home with a new puppy and that we had absolutely nothing at the house.
As soon as we got in the car, I called my mom to let her know that we got a dog and to ask her if he could stay at his house over the next week. As I said earlier, this was the week before Adam and I got married. This also happened to be the first time that my mom had ever had someone come clean her house. She agreed to let Chance stay with her despite the hectic week it was set to be
We immediately knew that we had to go to PetSmart since we had nothing for the dog, not even a leash or collar. While we were at PetSmart, we realized that we hadn't named him yet. We wanted to make him a tag in case he got lost, so we just put O'Donnell and our phone number. We were batting around ideas for names and all we could think of was Lucky.
Allow me to explain. Chance was one of nine puppies in his mom's litter. They were all at a kill shelter. The shelter called the owner of the rescue shelter and told her that she needed to come get these puppies or they would be put down. The rescue shelter owner already had a full van but stopped by and took Chance with her and let the place know that she'd be back first thing in the morning to pick up the rest. When she got back the next morning, the shelter had already put down all of Chance's brothers and sisters.
I can't remember if I called my friend Cate or texted her, but she is credited with naming Chance. I told her that we got a dog and I told her his back story. I let her know that we were thinking of naming him Lucky, except that we didn't really like the name. She immediately suggested Chance and when I told Adam, we both knew that this was his name.
We lived on the second floor of an apartment complex, and Chance was so small that we had to carry him up and down the stairs to go outside. He quickly learned to sit at the top of the stairs when he wanted to go outside. He was always a smart puppy. He also almost got us evicted from our apartment because of noise complaints from his barking. He did not like being in his crate. He wanted to be out and roaming the apartment
He was also the reason that we had to give up a bit of our security deposit. Chance liked to chew on the carpet right where it met with flooring. We put duct tape down between the kitchen and hallway and between the bathroom and hallway. Not to mention his affinity for chewing up paper products (toilet paper, tissue boxes, etc). But he was the best little puppy, so sweet and cuddly.
He made the long drive and move with us to Oklahoma and loved having a fenced-in backyard that he could run around in and chase squirrels. He would go outside and just sit and let the wind blow through his fur.
Chance is definitely a family dog. He loves taking family walks and gets as close to us as possible. He is as cuddly as he is a great protector. When Adam is gone, Chance lays at the top of the stairs and watches over us. I doubt he would ever do anything if someone did come in, aside from giving the intruder lots of kisses, but it's nice to see him act like he might.
He is so sweet to everyone he meets and he is well loved. He has the softest fur and for a white dog, often appears as though he's just had a bath. He's so pretty that people often confuse him for a girl. It doesn't help that he doesn't lift his leg when he goes potty.
This leads us to recent events. A couple weeks ago, we noticed a small bump on Chance's lip but thought nothing of it. A couple days later, it got a little bigger so we decided to get it checked out. The vet aspirated it and got a little blood out that to test. A few days passed and then we got the call, Chance had a mast cell tumor and it needed to be removed.
We scheduled him for surgery and took him in to the vet's office. Unfortunately, the vet said that she didn't feel comfortable performing the surgery. When they sedated him and looked, they saw that it was
larger than they initially thought.
We were referred to a board certified vet for a consult and possibly surgery. The vet clinic does surgery, reconstruction, and oncology. Chance had his surgery yesterday and they tried to save as much of his lip as they could. He will have a permanent snarl, but it couldn't happen to a nicer dog. I doubt people will mistake him for a girl now, but they will always think he is the sweetest, softest dog.
He is a part of our family. He was our first child (though slightly illegitimate). We would do anything for our family and that was why we took him to one of the best vets to get treated. We won't know the results for a week or so, but we have faith that he will be our sweet puppy for many years to come. He brings so much joy to our lives and I'm glad I got to share a little of his story with you.
A couple days after we went to the ASPCA, I convinced Adam to go look at this cute golden retriever who I'd seen on PetFinder who was at a local rescue shelter. When we got there, that dog had already been adopted. We saw two dogs that we liked, one was a skinny, nervous girl and the other was a tiny puff ball. We both immediately fell in love with the tiny puff ball, our Chance. He was a little 4 pound ball of white fluff, and he was walking through water when Adam picked him up and gave him to me. He was such a sweetheart.
The owner of the shelter asked if we wanted the dog and we both looked at each other and said yes. At the time of saying yes, we did not think that we'd be going home with a dog. We thought that there would be some sort of waiting period. We were very wrong. As soon as we said yes, she scooped up Chance, gave him a bath, and got all his papers in order. We quickly realized that we were going home with a new puppy and that we had absolutely nothing at the house.
As soon as we got in the car, I called my mom to let her know that we got a dog and to ask her if he could stay at his house over the next week. As I said earlier, this was the week before Adam and I got married. This also happened to be the first time that my mom had ever had someone come clean her house. She agreed to let Chance stay with her despite the hectic week it was set to be
Allow me to explain. Chance was one of nine puppies in his mom's litter. They were all at a kill shelter. The shelter called the owner of the rescue shelter and told her that she needed to come get these puppies or they would be put down. The rescue shelter owner already had a full van but stopped by and took Chance with her and let the place know that she'd be back first thing in the morning to pick up the rest. When she got back the next morning, the shelter had already put down all of Chance's brothers and sisters.
I can't remember if I called my friend Cate or texted her, but she is credited with naming Chance. I told her that we got a dog and I told her his back story. I let her know that we were thinking of naming him Lucky, except that we didn't really like the name. She immediately suggested Chance and when I told Adam, we both knew that this was his name.
We lived on the second floor of an apartment complex, and Chance was so small that we had to carry him up and down the stairs to go outside. He quickly learned to sit at the top of the stairs when he wanted to go outside. He was always a smart puppy. He also almost got us evicted from our apartment because of noise complaints from his barking. He did not like being in his crate. He wanted to be out and roaming the apartment
He was also the reason that we had to give up a bit of our security deposit. Chance liked to chew on the carpet right where it met with flooring. We put duct tape down between the kitchen and hallway and between the bathroom and hallway. Not to mention his affinity for chewing up paper products (toilet paper, tissue boxes, etc). But he was the best little puppy, so sweet and cuddly.
Chance is definitely a family dog. He loves taking family walks and gets as close to us as possible. He is as cuddly as he is a great protector. When Adam is gone, Chance lays at the top of the stairs and watches over us. I doubt he would ever do anything if someone did come in, aside from giving the intruder lots of kisses, but it's nice to see him act like he might.
He is so sweet to everyone he meets and he is well loved. He has the softest fur and for a white dog, often appears as though he's just had a bath. He's so pretty that people often confuse him for a girl. It doesn't help that he doesn't lift his leg when he goes potty.
This leads us to recent events. A couple weeks ago, we noticed a small bump on Chance's lip but thought nothing of it. A couple days later, it got a little bigger so we decided to get it checked out. The vet aspirated it and got a little blood out that to test. A few days passed and then we got the call, Chance had a mast cell tumor and it needed to be removed.
We were referred to a board certified vet for a consult and possibly surgery. The vet clinic does surgery, reconstruction, and oncology. Chance had his surgery yesterday and they tried to save as much of his lip as they could. He will have a permanent snarl, but it couldn't happen to a nicer dog. I doubt people will mistake him for a girl now, but they will always think he is the sweetest, softest dog.
He is a part of our family. He was our first child (though slightly illegitimate). We would do anything for our family and that was why we took him to one of the best vets to get treated. We won't know the results for a week or so, but we have faith that he will be our sweet puppy for many years to come. He brings so much joy to our lives and I'm glad I got to share a little of his story with you.
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