I decided that I got overwhelming response with my little girl Chandon that I thought I would take each pet and give their story.
I'm going to start with this handsome hunk of boy Keller...
My wife and I got Keller by way of Craigslist when we were living in Seattle. He is a purebred American Bulldog and he was born deaf...stone cold deaf. Which apparently is a pretty common trait in all white dogs. He was 20 weeks old when we got him and he was already a ripe 20#. He didn't seem that big until you picked him up!
The breeder didn't want to put him down because they couldn't sell him for being deaf. So here we come answering the call because that's just what we do! And he was free!!!
He started growing like a weed through his first year and settled in at 110# for a long time. However, during his 10years with us, he has been diagnosed with cancer twice, intense cancer removal surgeries that followed, blown out both his knees, caught a flesh eating virus on his face that infected his left ear. He also has had many other benign tumors remived and tested. He is severely allergic to grasses, preservatives, gluten and has spent nearly 1/2 his life on a different stronger antibiotics sometimes 3 at once. He also has to spend the rest of his life on 2 different pain management pills. Remember the part where I said he was free?! Lol
With all of that...he is just the happiest most loving boy you could ever know! He has no awareness of just how big his muscular 130# frame is.
This is a pic with my nephew and this was about 20# ago...lol
Isn't he just the cutest?!
Because he is deaf, we have had to teach him sign language that goes beyond the normal hand signals that can be used in conjunction with verbal commands. However, we do have to make sure he is looking at us to do it. Usually, this is not an issue. He is VERY in tune to our eyes and we stare deeply into them. We love this boy so much! We are so glad he found us and he has gotten to enjoy his life with that big goofy smile
