Stoli's Story

I am a lazy dog. I have the ultimate life. It's all about tennis balls, the couch, the pond and licking people. I love my best friend Colleen, my girlfriend Tele and my fuzzy froggy toy.Yeah, yeah, and tennis balls too. They're my best friends of all. I love their green fur (kind of like froggy's). They bounce and float and get all squishy. I can carry up to three at a time in my mouth! Colleen can be kind of lame because she doesn't let me play with them in the house. So we play fetch with froggy instead.

I used to have another girlfriend, before Tele. Her name was Noodles. I thought we were going to spend our whole doggy lives together. She had been through a lot as a puppy, being abused and abandoned. I did a lot to help her adjust and learn to trust and love people again. Then her *&@%^#^$!!! gggrrrrrr (insert expletives) doggy daddy Rob had to go screw up our lives by absconding with her when he and Colleen broke up. Just goes to show you that most human beings are too self-absorbed to do the right thing for their pets. I hope Noodles's ok wherever she is. She'll always have a home with us.

This is one of my new best friends. His name is Tom. He's part of the cool bunch of neighbors we've had this winter upstairs. Tom brings me beef jerky on the weekends and plays with me when Colleen's off snowboarding without me. The whole bunch of people upstairs spoils me. Sue always brings me neat toys. Now I have a stash of chewed up colored plastic upstairs and down. I love hanging out upstairs because it's always so warm up there. Wish we had a wood stove... The only problem about hanging out upstairs is that they feed me so well, I always end up having a really bad case of gas. That's ok, though. Colleen doesn't mind. ... well, actually.... let's just not go there.

It's cool now that it's getting warmer out. With spring on the way, I get to play more. Don't get me wrong -- I dig snow (literally AND figuratively), but now that the snow is melting, I can finally find all those tennis balls that I haven't seen since October. And Colleen has tried (at least for the time being) to running. At least she calls it running. Personally, I think it's more like a trot. But now she brings me along and whew -- can I lap her or what! I think I am inspiring her to push herself a bit harder. If hip dysplastic me can run, she sure should be able to keep up!
As for Colleen though, really, she's not like most human beings. She saved my life. See, the people who raised me were EVIL. All they cared about was breeding dogs for money, not about the health and welfare of those dogs. Country Girl Kennels in Newport, Vermont is run by a corrupt, uncaring woman named Katherine Proctor. She sold me to Colleen without disclosing that I had serious hip dysplasia. When confronted by Colleen about my hip dysplasia diagnosis just two weeks later, she railed into Colleen saying that it was her fault for changing my food. Well, HELLO -- you don't develop a GENETIC DISEASE like hip dysplasia from having your diet changed. Country Girl Kennels refused to refund Colleen her money. Although Colleen began to pursue a small claims court case against Country Girl Kennels, nothing ever came of it. Colleen had to focus on getting me the help I need. You can do your part to spread the word about Country Girl Kennels though.Tell everyone you know about my story, especially people in the dog world -- vets, kennel clubs, other breeders.

For anyone who has purchased dogs from Country Girl Kennels (RFD2 Box 325k, Newport, VT 05855 tel:802-334-6360), please check to make sure you haven't been screwed over by this woman as well. If you have a Labrador from Country Girl Kennels, check your records to see the parents of your pup. If we're related, you dog is genetically disposed to hip dysplasia. My parents are: Country Girl Gabe's ODIN (dad, AKC #164672/09) and Country Girl's Augustinakota (mom, AKC #288319/01).

Luckily, rather than put me down (what most people probably would have done), Colleen chose to spend thousands of dollars to save me, having my hips rebuilt at Tufts New England Veterinary Medical Center, Foster Hospital for Small Animals (200 Westboro Rd., North Grafton, MA 01536 (508)839-5395. Through a very difficult three month ordeal, I had two rounds of hip surgery. I had a procedure called a TRIPLE PELVIC OSTEOTOMY (TPO) performed on each of my hips. Basically, they went in, broke my hips and bolted them back together where they should have been in the first place. Kind of intense, but it's an amazing thing. After 8 weeks of recovery and loving care (Colleen had to literally carry me outside so I could do my business), I am cured. It's like I never had any hip problems. Well, almost at least. I still run with a little sideways lean and my hind quarters still look kind of underdeveloped, but I can run and play and jump and climb with no worries and no pain! I am still prone to arthritis in my hips as I get older, but honestly, who in this Halley family isn't?

If you want to learn more about hip dysplasia and what can be done about it, check out these sites:

And for the dog literature lover in you, check out
The Bark
The Alternative Canine Magazine
Dog is my co-pilot

Thanks to

for cute doggy graphics