Milo

Five years ago on this date, we adopted this little weirdo.

We weren't searching for another dog at the time. We already had our shih tzu/lhasa apso mix Murphy at home, and we had never really discussed wanting to have two dogs. Matt apparently had other plans. He went to the Lancaster Humane League one day after work after he heard that they had gotten a large number of dogs in that had been rescued from a puppy mill. He immediately called me and started sending me pictures of this sad, pathetic dog with his nose in the corner. It was game over. I drove to the the Humane League, and suddenly, we were a two dog family.

Nose in the Corner at the Humane League

The Day We Adopted Him

Milo & Murphy - Bonded Since Day One

It took days weeks months years for Milo to come around. He had been kept in a cage for all of his 1-2(ish) years of life up to that point, used solely for breeding at a disgusting puppy mill. He had never gone up steps, he had never walked on a leash, and he sure as heck had never been house trained. He was (is?) one of the shyest, most skiddish dogs we have ever seen. And that's saying a LOT, because Murphy was a hot mess when we first adopted him. Matt and I always tend to gravitate towards the saddest dogs we can find. Our hearts just go out to them, and we feel this overwhelming desire to "fix" them. But Milo has come a LONG way in the last five years, and adopting him really was the best thing for Murphy. These two love each other and are basically attached to each other at all times.

Love.

Back in November, Milo got incredibly sick. When we took him to the vet, they did blood work and an X-ray and told us he had a tumor growing on his bladder. We are now fairly confident that it was just an infection that showed up looking like a tumor in the X-ray, but at the time he was really, really sick. Like, not eating, not drinking, can't move, screaming in pain sick. We were sure we were going to have to put him down. Thankfully, this all occurred Thanksgiving weekend. It was tough enough to find a vet who was open and could see him, but then we had to wait it out Saturday night and through the day on Sunday, sure that we were going to have to put him down first thing Monday morning. Friends, we MOURNED that dog. Matt and I were a crazy, crazy mess. We didn't sleep much Saturday night, just trying our best to keep Milo comfortable while saying our goodbyes. When we woke up Sunday morning, he miraculously seemed slightly better. Throughout the coming days, with the help of the antibiotics and anti-inflammatories he was on, he started to get better and back to his old self. Within a week or so, he was totally back to normal, as if the whole thing was just a bad dream. I can't even tell you how grateful we are that we didn't put him down back in November.

We love this little guy, and he's been the best addition to our little family. Happy five years, Milo! Here's to many, many more years with you!