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THE PRINCESS DIARIES

SpNadopt11stroll Open letter to my "Breeder"

Dear Lady on the Farm where I was born,

Behind the closed barn doors, shut away from the eyes of humane reason, you created me. I was born, weened and offered for sale in the newspaper. You set me out on the front lawn, with my brothers and sister, in a playpen in the sunshine to make a picture of perfection.

Then came along a nice lady and her boy and girl. They called you looking for a special girl and they wanted me. You didn't tell them how I came to be or my background. You didn't tell them that from the moment I was weened you knew I was not well. You didn't tell them of the diarrhea that could not be stopped. You told them I was $750. They took me home.

It has been exactly 5 years since I left your farm. My family and I have fallen head-over-heals in love with eachother and can not stand to spend even one moment apart. But, we have been forced to. Your complete disregard to your breeding practices and the health problems your dogs were passing down has almost cost me my life, my precious, loving, happy life, on many occasions.

I have had constant GI problems since I left you, and they still persist to this day. I am haunted by diarrhea and vomiting and acid reflux. I have to watch everything I eat to make sure it does not upset my delicate system that is troubled by pancreatitis, gastritis and colitis. Recently, after living in sickness for many years, it was discovered that I have a liver shunt that is slowly posioning me. I have had cataract surgery, a detached retina and, finally, eye removal to ease the constant pain of glaucoma in a blind eye. I have been on and off of antibiotics to ease UTIs caused by constant crystals in my urine. My vet says my kidneys are full of sludge. I am tormented at times with allergies that cause me to chew my skin raw to find relief from the itching. I gasp for breath each night as I fight my collapsing trechea. I limp and yelp each time my patella luxates. I fight!

I fight each day with the the problems you have bred into me so that I can enjoy life. So that I can return the love that my family gives to me. So that I can be a dog.

Mommy says that I am the most gentle and loving dog she could have ever hoped for.......I wish I was well enough to give more.

Please stop breeding dogs.....you are only breaking hearts.

To anyone who wants to "buy" a dog....please, please, please do your research and make sure your breeder is reputable.....or better yet, adopt a pup from a shelter so that it may have a chance at life.....like me.

Princess Penelope Poopalatte, HRH

Mom Has Her Say.....

I'll admit it, 6 years ago when I set out to "buy" my first dog, I was incredibly naive. I bought a "Dog's Annual" book, chose a breed that I liked and then waited for one to come on sale in our local newspaper.

I can already hear many of you screaming "NO!!" with good reason. For those of you who aren't taken aback by what I did.....let me explain to you why it is so wrong.

The Bichon Frise that I "bought" from the "nice" lady on the farm is the most loveable, gentle and illness ridden dog you will ever meet. Yes, Princess is a lovely specimen of Bichon beauty on the out side but what lurks within.....oh, it will break your heart.

It all started the moment we took Princess home at 8 weeks of age. She was suffering from vomiting and diarrhea that would not stop for 5 years. Finally, after dozens of tests and countless hospital stays after vomiting blood, we discovered that the poor little pup had chronic pancreatits, gastritis, ulcers, Celiac disease and colitis. From top to bottom, her GI system is a mess and requires a very controlled and limited diet to keep it in check. And, we have recently learned that she has a Porto-systemic liver shunt that is inoperable and causes her body to be flooded with the toxins in food that the liver normally filters. This causes her neurological problems that will only worsen with time and has, what the vet calls, filled her kidneys with sludge. She just recently suffered her first seizure that will likely only be all too common in her future as her liver deteriorates. The internal medicine special said that it is more than likely that she inherited many, if not all, these issues for her parents.

At 26 months of age, Princess developed a very aggressive cataract that, even with 2 surgeries to treat it, would eventually claim her eye. The Opthamologist said the only way a dog so young could develop such a consuming cataract would be if it was passed down from BOTH mother and father.

Now, Princess has to have yet another surgery to repair a torn ACL and severely luxating patella that has caused her pain for years. It was discovered on an x-ray that Princess's femur and her tib-fib are both deformed in such a way that they curve in opposite directions so her leg resembles an S. A malformation likely inherited.

Princess also suffers from other malformations that cause her to have UTI infections, crystals in her urine and a tendency to develop cysts (one of which has developed on the eye lid above her only eye).

What is my point, you ask?? Please, please, please, research WHO you are getting your dog from. Make sure you tour their kennels and ask them for health certificates for the Mother, Father and puppy you are about to bring home. If they refuse, RUN AWAY, FAST! Do not buy a puppy blindly or on impulse.....make sure you do your homework. Or, better yet, adopt a homeless dog and give it a chance at life just as we have given a dog that would have otherwise been too ill to survive without the proper and extensive care we have given her.

I love Princess with every fibre of my being and she is truly a gift in my life BUT, every day I see her suffer with a new illness, new pain, new problem and I wonder if she is happy to be alive. I wonder if she would choose to keep going......

Princess's talk with Dog....

Dear Dog,

Why did you make me this way?? I don't think I understand why you created me, so sweet and loveable and snuggley and yet so sick. Why is it that I have to suffer problem after problem and illness after illness? Why did you give me such beautiful eyes only to take one away from me? Why did you give me such a healthy appetite only to make it impossible for me to eat most foods?? Why did you make me a Bichon, famous for our Blitzing, only to cripple me with a torn ACL and a luxating patella??? Why did you give me strong lungs and heart only to make me gasp for breath every night when my trachea collapses???? Why did you make me smart as a whip only to slowly take it away, day by day just a little more, as my body becomes poisoned due to a protosystemic liver shunt?????

Why did you give me life only to have me spend it in pain.......please tell me, because I don't understand.