Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life, Toady!
This was a day of firsts for Toad.
-First car ride ever
-First walk
-First time on stairs
-First bath
-First time playing in a yard with another dog and a ball
-First time in a home
-First time on a dog bed
-First time with attention, love, and petting.
So far Toad has brought all of us more laughter than we ever would have thought possible. He is hilarious! The more we learn about him and get to know him, the more we love him.
2 volunteers spent a 45 minute car ride with Toad in the backseat. Now, most of you have never had the experience of the smell of Toad. He smells like nothing any of us have ever smelled. It hits you from about 10 feet away like a punch to the stomach. How Danielle managed to take care of him at all but especially while pregnant is incredible. So the car ride is already rather unpleasant from the smell. However, Toad is happy as can be. Happy to be out of the pound like a kid on Christmas. Happy Bulldogs slobber. A lot. Really happy bulldogs can flood homes with their slobber. Toad was a really, REALLY happy bulldog. Since his ears itch so much he shakes his head often. So along with the smell came a literal shower or drool and infected pus/ear tissue flung all over every few minutes. Thankfully these volunteers have a great sense of humor and saw the hilarity of a car ride with this poor guy. Toad loves car rides though. He happily stared out the window. He spread happiness because every passing car that happened to glance over seemed to pass by with a smile!
SLOBBER FACE!
We expected a little hesitation and fear when bathing him. Not the case. From the moment the water washed over him and we started to rub him down with shampoo he was in heaven. He moaned, groaned, rubbed against our legs, and enjoyed every single minute of what has to be his first time being clean in a very long time (seriously, the smell on this guy...wow!). He didn't seem to understand the whole water-soap concept but the petting and the cool water and the sudden lack of dirt and ick on him made him a very happy little Toady.
With good firsts came some scary firsts too....stairs were overwhelming at first though with a little coaxing and food he'll meander his way around them now, the house was a strange place and he spent a while wandering around and pacing (until he met the dog bed...then he was in love), he's not a huge fan of the leash quite yet either but working on it.
Toad found a few new "best things ever" in life...the dog bed is right up on the top of his list, other dogs (he wants so badly to play!), tennis balls (he plays a bulldog version to fetch!), and getting loved on. He LOVES to have belly rubs. His little back legs start flying all over and he grunts and snorts. Here he is with his new best friend Tink.
Toad had a big first day! A very good one though and we are sure loving having him so far too.
Tomorrow however is the biggest and most important day of Toad's life. Tomorrow he has surgery to remove the scar tissue and deal with the infection in his ears. We aren't really sure what to expect to be honest. Until some of the tissue is remove there is no real way to tell how deep the infection is, how serious, or how much hearing he has (if any at all).
Please send Toad some good thoughts tomorrow. We're hoping for really good news and a big step in the right direction towards health and a pain-free, itch-free life for him.
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