The Bear

My name is Bear, Chrissy's brother.  We don't look a lot alike cuz I am a Pomeranian with a beautiful long red coat.  I'm not dingy  like Chrissy! 

I am adopted too and my story was a sad one.  I was three years old when I came to live with my forever family.  My mom was involved in dog rescue and got a call from one of her friends telling her  that I was in the shelter.  I was very very sick and if someone had not helped me, I was going to die. 

You see, I was mauled by a larger dog than me.  My old family didn't provide any medical care for me after it happened and I was in lots of pain for a couple of days before they decided they didn't want to save me.  They took me to the shelter and told them to "put me down."  But I don't understand why.  This was already my second family and somewhere, sometime, someone loved me enough to teach me all kinds of cool tricks and how to play ball and tug of war with a teddy bear.  I shake paws and everything.  So I am a bit growly at times, but its only cuz I am a big scaredy boy.I don't know why I wasn't important enough to save.  I hurt a lot and was very sad when they left me there.

But, then, I was so lucky.  The veterinarian at the shelter saw me and wanted to try to help.  I was in very bad shape you know.  I had a lot of missing tissue from my back and many many puncture wounds on various parts of my body.  She didn't know if she could save me but she wanted to try.  The wounds were already infected and trying to close so shee took me into surgery (she was very nice) and put drainage tubes in many of my wounds so that they would not seal up with the infection still there.  Then,  she gave me lots of stitches and medicine.  My mom's friend was there and the vet knew that if I stayed there I would most likely die, if not from my injuries, then from infection from being with so many other stray animals and stuff.  Well, my mom's friend got me outta there and took me to their rescue vet,  Dr. Paclik.  Even though I felt very bad, I liked him and his staff so much and they liked me too.  I had to stay there for a week or more before my mom was allowed to pick me up and take me home with her.  She was only going to be my foster mom while I got healthy again.   After all, she and my dad already had that little Chrissy girl, a big dog and two other little dogs too.  They promised they would find me a wonderful home.  

But, I had to go back and forth to the vet a lot.  My wounds took a  long time to heal.  And guess what, I knew I had my mom's heart from the beginning but my Dad fell for me too.  I like to play ball with him and pretend I am a tough guy like he is!  I like to go on car rides with him and visit all his friends.  One day he told my mom, he would like it if I stayed forever.  My mom was in shock since he was a hard one to win over for a little dog. I am good, huh?  She is such a sucker, she called her rescue group and told them that I was no longer available; I had my own forever home!

My wounds have all healed now but there are a lot of bad scars under my fur.  I am a very tough boy and sometimes I am snappy too when someone scares me, um, but they don't know it's because I am scared.  I make it look like I am way fierce and manly.  My family understands me though; they don't push me too far and because of that I am getting better about doing a lot of things that I wouldn't do before.  And I am also the apple of my human sister's eye.  She is my very best friend when she is home from college.  I sleep on her bed and everything!  Because she takes so much time with me I am learning that I can trust my new family even though it is a slow process.  My mom says that since I have been here I have made great strides in my behavior.  Oh don't get me wrong, I have always been very friendly but I can be very upset too, like when anyone tries to brush me or picks me up when I am not ready and stuff.  Mom thinks that maybe I wasn't treated quite right with my other families and that I need lots of time to trust them to never hurt me.

I also like it when my human brothers come to visit.  They throw thing for me to fetch (my teddy bear is one of my favorites for that) and they love me too.  I wait for them to visit and wish they would move back home just for me!

Here is a picture of me before (I didn't want to show you all my wounds, cuz they are gross, so I'm just showing  you a "front" view picture of how I looked when I came home.) and now.

Bear came to be loved by us on his first day in his forever home during  November, 2002 at 3 years old.

My sweet sweet Bear passed away on October 25, 2014 at 15 years old. 

RIP my sweet sweet boy.  Always missed.