My Special Boy

On the 15th September 2007 Oscar was born, he was the runt of the litter and was even born dead and had to be resuscitated.

We had decided to get a puppy a few months earlier and after lots of research on what breed had decided on a Staffie, we even traveled all the way to Doncaster to meet his Mum when she was pregnant, so the first time I met him he was wriggling around with his litter mates! Sadly only 3 of them survived and when he was 4 weeks old we traveled back to Doncaster to pick our puppy, from the second I met him I knew that he was ours, he was half the size of his brothers but I had to have him.

We set the date for him to come home, 21st November 2007, we were on holiday the fortnight before and would get back on the 19th, so would drive down a few days later, I was so excited that we emailed from the middle of the Atlantic ocean to arrange to pick him up on the 19th! I roped in my Mum to drive me from Newcastle to Doncaster to pick him up after we got off a flight from Barbados, on the way home me and Oscar slept together cuddled up!

Oscar has changed my life, he opened my eyes to the plight of the staffie and the ignorance surrounding the breed. Going to training classes with Oscar inspired me to formally go back to learning and get qualified as a behaviourist after working for a number of years helping rescues and from that I set up Bright Paws. When I qualified as a canine massage therapist and had to travel to West Sussex for 5 weekends Oscar came with me, sat by my side in the car, attending the lessons with me (its hard work for him getting massaged all day lol), going to the pub on a night and snuggling up in the hotel to watch TV!

Oscar has always suffered from allergies since he was a tiny puppy, grass and pollen being the major cause which means we have such a challenge over the summer but control it as best we can using herbal and conventional medicine. Over the years it has been his ears that have been most affected, with dermatitis in his canals and secondary ear infections he has been on and off steroids for years and has undergone 2 operations. As a result he has little cauliflower ears which has a continued into his canals making it almost impossible to clean his ears properly. He had a bad infection recently and this lead to burst ear drums and today we have made the decision to go through with a full ear canal removal on the left side in an attempt to get his balance back (his head is on the side) and prevent further problems - we will see how he is after it and may have to do the second ear next year.

This will mean my little boy will be almost stone deaf, I am devastated but determined to do everythign I can for him, so we are learning doggy sign language together and learning to adapt, and of course Bud (his best mate in the whole world) has come into our lives to help too. So my special boy gives me another opportunity to learn, an opportunity I wish i didn't have but I do.

I am so grateful Oscar came into my life, so happy that i can be there for him and that we get to learn and adapt together. I plan to blog about our experiences over the coming months and years (hopefully not all posts will be this long). And I hope I can help other deaf dogs adapt in the years to come too.