Happy Birthday Mr. Bo Bo

Today is Mr. Bo Bo's 10th birthday. He was born in Oroville way back in 1999. His parents were Rolex Miller-Degmetich, an AKC black lab and Casey Musgrave, an AKC yellow lab. On paper his name is Bodrick Tillmannshofer, but we'd never dare call him that. I think it makes him mad. We just call him Bo. If you haven't guessed yet, it's my puppies birthday.

Bo is pretty special to us. We picked him up in August, 1999 at 7 weeks old (rather Carlos, Faith & Caleb did as I was at my CPR class). Shortly after we got him, we realized his left front leg "shook" when he stood still. We took him to see the vet at Bradshaw Veterinary Clinic and after a bit of money (it was still cheaper back then) and several x-rays it was determined that he had a separated growth plate, possibly from being stepped on from his mom at birth. The option was see if it bothers him or have surgery with a 50/50 chance of healing. We chose to wait, determined that $1500 for surgery we could buy many more AKC registered puppies!

Since Carlos was still heart-broken of having to put down his first dog a year earlier, he and Bo were not immediately bonded. It wasn't until at age 7 months, Carlos found Bo convulsing under a plant in our backyard and he rushed him to Bradshaw Vets did their bond form. Bo had gotten into the snail bait and ate most of the box. Just like a real emergency room, they were waiting for him when he arrived. They pumped his stomach and sedated him and for the next week fed him IV fluids and flushed his system. Carlos visited him every evening after work and when he returned home to us (not until we paid a whopping $600) Carlos and Bo became close friends (more like master and dog). Bo had to be babied quite a lot at first and Carlos took extra care of him.

When Bo was 1 1/2 yrs. we decided to get a female yellow AKC lab and breed him. Bo is a unique lab as he is considered 1. a field lab since his legs are longer and 2. a Dudley, because his nose and eye pigmentation is pink rather than the typical brown. We breed him with another yellow lab and guess what, we had 10 yellow puppies, all papered. They were born on Valentines Day, Feb. 14, 2001. They were ready to be picked up just in time for Easter that year. The next litter was born at our newer home, Jan. 6, 2002. We decided to keep one of the females that looked like Bo. Unfortunately she got her mothers yappiness and wasn't quite what we expected. We would eventually give her to a family that lived on acreage but 2 years ago she died of cancer. The female we had ran away shortly after the second litter was born. This left us again with just Bo.

That would have been ok, but we decided to try getting a couple of indoor cats. Poor Bo, he was doomed to be an outside dog with indoor cats staring at him from the sliding glass door. But we finally got wise and got rid of the cats and Bo finally made his way into the house, sleeping at first in his locked kennel at night and then eventually passed out on his dog bed next to us in our room.

Bo is an avid swimmer. There were many hot summer days that I would look out the back door and see him in the pool cooling off. If only he could learn to skim the pool to remove his hair.


Bo is our protector. Over the course of his life, Carlos has been a way a lot. Mostly for military and some for extended periods of time. Each time, I felt extremely safe knowing that my dog was laying on the ground next to me. With his long legs he can beat anyone to the fence (just ask Anthony). When we go camping he is always the first one to the door to get out unless Carlos is there, in which he relinquishes his protection to his Master. The only person he ever cowards down to is Carlos and just the tone of his voice can do that. However, he is extremely loyal to Carlos. He is Carlos' running partner (or will be again soon).

Now Bo has the most enjoyable life possible for a dog. No more track home yard. Even though he doesn't have the built in pool to jump in to, he just simply gets in his wading pool instead. His favorite past time is killing voles (they look like mice but they have little buck teeth). Just this past Saturday he killed 6 before the party even started. Even injured he killed 2 on Monday.

Getting to his injury....Bo is very injured right now. Even typing this tears me up. Mr. Bo Bo has a crucial ligament tear in his right knee (stifle). We saw his favorite vet, Dr. Gray on Tuesday. He was having GI problems to but they associate that with the pain. The knee was extremely swollen and xrays (I think they have raised their prices a lot in 10 years) showed no breaks but fluid and separation in the rt knee. Unfortunately the left knee shows degenerate joint disease too. Currently he is on 2 weeks of bedrest and immobility. I have in either on 1 of 2 beds in the house with the puppy gates around him at all time. When he gets up he won't put his right foot down. Just going out to go to the bathroom is a deal. The GI problems have subsided but that may be because he is on tramadol pain killers. After 2 weeks, he will have 2 more weeks of light activity. Walks on a leash, etc. No Vole chasing until after 4 weeks. And then if he injures it again ( the doctor said something more like "when") it will have to be decided if we are willing to spend the roughly $1200 for knee surgery for a dog who already has 1 bad front leg. I can't stand to see him hobbling around on 3 legs as is right now. Tonight was the first night Carlos ran without him since we have moved in here. Bo was laying on his bed watching his master put on his running shoes. Bo's tail was wagging and it was sad to see that he was trying to stand up to go. The real hard part was Carlos having to tell him he couldn't go with him. We are praying God heals our dog so he can go on enjoying his days running around in the country. When we found out he had the bad leg at 7 weeks we always said we would never let him suffer. We just never dreamed it would be a different leg he suffered on. So sooner than later we'll have to make a decision.

Bo is a great companion and if I believed in cloning I'd rush now to see if I could clone him. We are just praying he'll heal completely so that we can take him with us when we leave. For now we will just have to enjoy each day he looks at us with those puppy dog eyes and wags his tail as if to say "I'm here for you". And then when he's gone, we'll have fond memories to take with us.


Until then, Happy Birthday Mr. Bo Bo.