5 Golden Rings: Goodbye Bruno-Dog

It's been almost a month since my last post. That's because April has been a doozy for the Rings. But looking at the big picture, we made it out OK. If only Bruno had made it with us...

Poor guy! He had been sick with pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, his usual allergies, and eventually COPD since November. As bad as we wanted him well and with us forever, we knew it was time to end his suffering. What a difficult decision to make!

For me, for Kirk, for my kids, and for everyone who loved Bruno, I thought I would tell his story. He's been there for me through MANY phases of my adult life, and he was a true, loyal best friend!

Sometime around the time I met Kirk back in 2002, I decided I wanted a pug. I became pretty obsessed with the idea actually. Especially after I graduated from Southern Miss in 2003 and moved back home with my parents. Well, in January of 2004, just a few short months after Kirk moved to Starkville to start his PhD program, which turned our relationship into a long distance one (4 hours to be exact), Bruno landed in my life... literally. My dad found him sitting in the middle of our 20 acre field just staring at our house. He was sick, covered in fleas, and was only walking on 3 legs. That was the first day of the rest of his life. I took him in, had him vetted, and nursed him back to health. Over the next year, Bruno was treated for heartworms 3 times. Heartworms are treated with arsenic, and the treatment is rough. I drove about 50 minutes to a vet in Lucedale because he was so cheap, and every drive home I would cry the whole way because I didn't think Bruno would survive.

Oh wait... rewind to the day before his first heartworm treatment. I was sitting in the house when my brother pulled up with someone following him. It was a man and his toddler daughter. My brother had found Bruno's previous owner. And he was coming to get him. I had been caring for Bruno for about a month and LOVED him as my own. Turns out, Bruno's real name was Mocha, and the family had many pugs that they bred. Four of their pugs had escaped their fence together about 2 months before that day. That means Bruno had been roaming the woods and country roads for about a month alone. The man and little girl took Bruno from me, and I retreated into the house sobbing for my pug I had found and then lost with the snap of a finger. Moments later, the man comes driving back down the driveway. He got out, handed me Bruno, and said, "I just talked to my wife, and we decided you are taking great care of him, we've moved on, you can have him." I wanted to hug and kiss that man right there in our driveway. Instead I hugged and kissed Bruno and started his heartworm treatments that next morning.

After the 3rd treatment, Bruno was finally well, and he loved me through the 3 years of living so far from Kirk. He loved us through Hurricane Katrina. And I loved him through vet visit after vet visit. He was always sick with something, but always kept truckin on! He would travel to Starkville and Vicksburg with me to visit Kirk, and people loved him everywhere we went.

He disappeared once for a couple of days. I don't know where he went, but he just found his way home. I found out years later, that he had gotten run over by one of my brother's friends' trailer in our driveway. Apparently, he ran off to heal in the woods and came back when he was better. He was one TOUGH dog!

Kirk and I got married in 2007, and Bruno moved with me to Starkville, MS. That's when he turned into our dog. He attached himself to Kirk like he had been there all along. I was jealous when Bruno started sleeping on the floor on Kirk's side of the bed, but I was glad they got along so well. We lived in Starkville for a year, and Bruno got to know our vet there very well. I would go to pick him up, and Bruno wouldn't be in a kennel like the other dogs there. They knew and loved Bruno so much, they would let him hang out behind the receptionist's desk until we came to pick him up. We had him neutered, he battled chronic bronchitis, and he battled UTI's. Turns out the medication for the bronchitis affected his bladder and prostate. It was a neverending circle of SICK. But he was tough, he loved us, and we loved him through it.

We went home to the coast to spend Easter with my family that year. Bruno got frightened by a gunshot while we were there and took off into the woods... again. He was gone for 2 nights. Kirk and I had to return to Starkville for work Monday morning without Bruno. I cried the entire 4 hour drive, and continued to cry myself to sleep that night. We thought he was gone forever. But have I mentioned, that dog was TOUGH. He came running up to my parents' house the next day after 3 nights in the woods. He had gotten his harness apparently caught on something and was stuck possibly in a shallow creek behind my parents house. When he returned... no harness. We assume he spent the 3 nights he was missing fighting to get out of that harness and free himself. And boy did we have some health issues to deal with after that Easter vacation! The wet harness had rubbed huge sores on his chest up under each front leg. We had to do skin treatments 4 times a day for about a month to finally get him well, and it took several months for him to get all of his hair back.

In the Summer of 2008, we moved to Wichita. As we were loading our U-Haul we noticed Bruno was starting to have some bladder issues. He needed one more visit to our vet before we moved. I brought him in that day, and they did an ultrasound and discovered a mass on his bladder. The prognosis was not good, but we didn't have time (or money) to delve deeper into his problems. So the vet gave us meds to treat the UTI and made us promise to see a vet as soon as we got to Wichita. Bruno made the 2 day trip to KS riding in the U-Haul with Kirk... a very bouncy drive with a UTI. TOUGH dog!

When we got to a vet here in Wichita, there was no indication of any bladder trouble, so the vet said we wouldn't do further tests until symptoms presented themselves. Meanwhile, we started looking for a pug puppy so that we could replace Bruno before he was gone. Enter Lucy, our wild pug puppy, who brought Bruno's spunk back. Bruno lived for almost 5 years here in KS with Lucy by his side at all times! We had the occassional bronchitis or allergy flare up, but Kansas climate treated him well. It was a happy, healthy time for him.

We had some pretty big trials in our first few years living here. Bruno (and Lucy) was there for us through some very rough years of infertility. He loved us through it, just like he has always done for us. He cuddled up next to my baby bump on the couch when I was pregnant with Kaleb, and he was there when we brought Kaleb home from the hospital. He has let Kaleb climb all over him, pull his ears, yank his tail, and throw his toys all over him, and Bruno just loved Kaleb for all of it!

Over the past year, we have watched Bruno age tremendously, but the past 6 months were the hardest on him. We wondered if he would be here to welcome Emery and Oliver home from the hospital... and he did. I'm really sad that we don't have any pictures of him with them, but we will remember that he was there when we became a family of 5.

I know Kaleb will probably not remember Bruno after awhile. He was really sad when we told him Bruno wouldn't be coming home, and he tells us often that he misses him, but his tears were over long before ours were. He's happy that "Muno" is in heaven and doesn't have to cough any more. We're happy too, but gosh do we miss him!

Here are just a few of the MANY pictures and memories we have of him, our Bruno, otherwise known as Muno, Bruno-Dog, Mocha, Buddy, The Little Emperor, and Big Guy.

This was taken in Kirk's old apartment during one of our trips to Starkville to visit him. We discovered Bruno's howl that night... what I would give to hear him howl again. He hasn't done it for years because it hurt his throat too bad.

Our first Christmas in Wichita, our first Christmas with Lucy.

Our first Christmas in our first house.

Bruno strongly despised snow... but he was so pretty running around in it.

That blue recliner was Bruno's, that's where he was most content, even more so if Kirk was sitting with him!

The day we brought Kaleb home from the hospital. Kirk was introducing them and telling him to love and protect Kaleb for us. He took his job seriously.