Lizzie got a dog

My niece got a dog. A nice, quiet girl dog, from the pound. Spayed, about a year old. Possibly a German shepherd mix, but small.

Liz and her mom had gone to the pound intending to look at a bunch of dogs, but they fell in love with this one immediately and brought her home. They renamed her Lucy. (And then renamed her Shadow, because she sticks so close.)

Agreeing to a dog was an enormous act of generosity on the part of my brother, who is not a dog person. Liz has wanted a dog for years, but my brother had strong misgivings. He'd never lived with a dog before. He was not drawn to them. They like to travel, and having a dog could make that more difficult. He didn't want to deal with the dirt and the shedding and the walks and the problems that dogs can bring. But he said yes, and Lizzie got a dog.

Lucy/Shadow is timid and sweet. She has a kennel to sleep in, and she's well-behaved in the house. No messes. (Although Lizzie has been taking her for about sixteen or seventeen joyful walks a day, so maybe the dog just hasn't had time to make a mess indoors.)

Then, after a week or two, there was a problem--a health scare. Shadow was, as my brother put it so delicately over the phone, "bleeding from the butt."

"Sounds like she's in heat," I said.

No, he said. She's been spayed. It's something else. They're taking her to the vet.

They took her to the vet, who prescribed antibiotics. The bleeding continued. Lizzie messaged me that she was spending a lot of time on Facebook (taking those silly quizzes) because as long as she sat still, Shadow lay quietly at her side, and Lizzie wanted her to rest.

After a few more days, they took her back to the vet. The medication wasn't helping; Shadow continued to bleed. Though not, as it turns out, precisely from the butt.

I don't know if this was the same vet or a different, less clueless vet, but it turns out that Shadow is, indeed, in heat. The people who dropped her off at the pound had said she'd been spayed, but they apparently lied.

So now Shadow will be neutered. (And the animal shelter will pay the tab.) Lizzie is thrilled that her dog isn't sick. And my brother? I think he's coming around.

A happy ending for all. No, wait--a happy beginning. The start of a wonderful friendship, Lizzie and Shadow.