Bremo's 10th Birthday

Bremo is the only one of our dogs that we have an actual birthdate for, the reason being that he was born here, 10 years ago today. We called him Fuzzy Bear when he was a pup because he had a mixture of long and short hair, which gave him a fuzzy and rather funny appearance.  That was probably the reason  he was the last chosen by potential adopters, so we kept him.  ("Bring me your tired, poor, and funny looking, yearning to run free...")

All the poor guy got for his birthday was a trip to the vet and some blood work.  I actually didn't even remember that today was his birthday until we were at the vet's office.  His thyroid was very low and his coat is dull, dry, and his skin is flakey as a result.  He's been on the thyroid supplement for 30 days now, which is too soon for a marked improvement in his coat, but hopefully the bloodwork we did today will show that we are moving in the right direction.  We also cleaned and medicated his ears, which were kind of gunky.

Birthdays aren't such celebratory events when you are older.  But we love him every day and he's a sweet, kind, gentle dog.  He's showing his age some, but really he's been remarkably healthy, with no real problems except the occasional ear infection for all these years.  At about 100 pounds, 10 years makes him a pretty old dog. 

Like most rotties he's always been very food-focused and food-motivated.  He collects the other dogs' empty food dishes and arranges them in a line or a semi-circle around where he is laying.  If they happen to become full again, they will all be his. 

Bremo isn't a pure rottie of course.  His mother Maggie looks like a rottie/lab mix.  Given Bremo's height, long legs, and brindle coloring, we've always guessed that perhaps his father was a brindle Great Dane, like Flirt, at least in part.  He's a wonderful dog, very much a home body, who has no real interest in the world beyond our fence.  This is his world and he's happy here. 

Bremo's vet appointment was at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon, timed so that I could bring home Maggie Mae and Dugan, the boxer, who went into the vet for surgery this morning.  They are both upstairs in crates in my office this evening.  Dugan seems fine already, he ate dinner and acts like he wants to go out to play.  Maggie Mae had much more extensive surgery and is sleeping it off yet tonight.  She was spayed and had that mammary tumor removed, two surgeries at once.  Both operations were pretty extensive apparently, because she was still partly in heat, and because the tumor was rather large.  It will probably be 10 days or more before we have the biopsy results.