Labrador Retriever

Have you ever seen those quizzes that tell you what kind of dog you would be? Well, TJ would be a Labrador Retriever. I know this without him ever even taking a quiz. I used to have a Lab, his name was Phantom. I had to put him down in 2004 after enjoying him for 14 wonderful years. Even TJ, who wasn't really a dog person when I met him, fell in love with him. He was an extremely friendly and well behaved dog. This is a picture of him taking a nap at "The Shack", our property down south. As you can see he is very gray at this point. So my point in this is that Phantom's first vet in Indianapolis was Dr. Swengel and when as a pup Phantom displayed the symptoms of bad hips he was the one I took him to. I explained all the things I was seeing but I told Dr. Swengel that he did not really show any pain. He explained to me that Labrador Retrievers are very apathetic and show very little pain as they just want to please. I really realized the truth in this as Phantom went through 2 surgeries to correct his hips and allow him to live a long and full life.

Today TJ did not feel as good as yesterday. When I spoke with him a little after noon he was on his way to have lunch with some friends. That made me happy as it always does. But then he told me that if he hadn't already committed he would not be going as he is very tired and his back is super sore. I told him it might do him good to get out and visit with friends, he said he was just going to eat and head back home to nap. Turned out it was a fairly nice size group of people so he hung out visiting for a couple of hours. TJ would never let those down that came out to see him. When I got home from work he was sleeping. When he did wake up he was only up for a couple of hours complaining about his back the whole time and then back to bed he went . I think it is a sure bet he didn't let his friends know how uncomfortable he was. Do you see the correlation that I am making here? Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I am actually amazed that he can turn everything off for a bit, if only for 2 hours, and enjoy time with his friends. Believe me, if I was in his shoes I would be whining to my girlfriends about how miserable I feel. Right now I can just hope he has a better day tomorrow.

Battle On TJ, Battle On