Love is a Four-Legged Word – Mommy Blogger

02/04/2018

My name is Christina Hnatiuk. I am a new mom of a 6 month old baby boy, Marshall. I am married to a wonderful man, we will have been together for 5 years, married for two. I work full time in Human Resources and part time as a Ukrainian dance instructor. I love to try new things, especially new restaurants and food. In my free time, which is hardly ever, I love to bake, specializing in cheesecakes. This is my first time writing a blog but I am looking forward to sharing my adventures in parenting with everyone!

When my husband and I bought our first house, before marriage and pre baby, we knew we wanted to get a dog. Both of us desperately wanted a puppy, and finally owning our own home made it a reality. So after about 4 months of searching different rescues and the SPCA, we fell in love with the perfect little puppy. She was like any other puppy, she ruined shoes, ate things she wasn’t supposed to, and of course had a few trips to the vet. But we were so in love none of that mattered. We had found the perfect puppy for us! Now I’d love this to be the story of how we rescued this dog and life was perfect, but that is far from the truth.

Our dog Zoe, who is now almost 5 years old, grew into a very relaxed, and timid “cuddle puppy”, as she is so fondly referred to. Even after our son was born in 2016, she was nothing but gentle and sweet, and we have had no concerns about them together. But in the last year, we have had some fairly serious medical issues with out pup. 

Last year around this time we noticed her limping around the house a bit. Nothing too serious and figured she was just sore or pulled a muscle. In fact, we probably wrote it off as nothing for far too long.  When we finally took her to the vet they put her on crate rest for 6 weeks hoping whatever it was would heal on its own. When it didn’t, we got x-rays and they revealed our perfect, sweet and wonderful pup, had torn her ACL.  We were shocked. She wasn’t a super active dog, and was only 3 years old.  After physio and, more tests and x-rays, it was decided she needed surgery. We always said not matter what we would do our best to keep our fur baby healthy and safe, no matter the cost. The surgery went well but revealed she had done far worse damage than we thought. So after months of rest and drugs, our pup was fixed and back on the mend. She finally seemed like herself again around August, 6 months after the initial diagnosis. So 6 months, over $2000, and many tears, there seemed like a light at the end of the tunnel.

I was just finishing up a contract with work and beginning to look for a new job when that light was diminished. My husband called me one day in the beginning of October and told me he was on his way to the vet with Zoe. After things were finally getting back to normal our little Zoe, who I should be clear is far from little, had torn her other ACL. My heart broke.  Another surgery, another $2000 and another 6-8 months of recovery were headed our way.

Now our very unlucky puppy, you would think, had been handed enough pain and suffering for a lifetime would be headed for one more serious vet trip. I had just started a new job, first day to be exact, and had come home to Zoe’s eye swollen shut. She had been at the kennel that weekend and we had noticed a bit of redness the night before but didn’t think anything of it. You would think I had learned my lesson in ignoring things that seem like nothing, but nope. Turns out she had 3 large cuts inside her eye lid that had gotten quite infected. Another emergency trip to the vet, another large vet bill, and another round of medication, for our poor pup.

Some people will think my husband and I are crazy to spend upwards of $6000 on “just a dog”, and some will 100% get it. The truth is I’d do it all again if it was necessary. You don’t rescue or adopt a dog to abandon them in their time of need. Sure our dog turned out to be a bit of a liability, but she’s our furry, loving and perfect liability. These injuries really tested us at some of our toughest times financially and emotionally. But it really pulled us together as a family and in our marriage; it made us stronger and helped us realize what was really important.

“You’ll never get the dog you want, you’ll always get the dog that you need.”- Cesar Milan