Frick & Frack

For the New Year, I thought I would tell you a tale of... two mutts.

Who knew they would possibly save one of my client's life?

You see my client had lost her cat and had decided to not to replace her beloved feline. She and her husband were retired and really looking forward to traveling.

They had dreamed for decades about heading to Europe, Alaska, Costa Rica. The further away, the better. They wanted to stay for weeks at a time, really immersing themselves in the culture.

When she came back to pick up her kitty's ashes we said what we both thought would be our final good-bye.

Um... ya... until later that day.

My client went to spread her cat's ashes at a nearby beach when she heard whimpering from some bushes. There were two tiny puppies! They were skinny, filthy and starving!

Our course she rushed them to me.

And oh boy did they have a LOT of health problems, but oh boy were they cute!!! They were some kind of poodle, Jack Russell, Heinz 57 kind of puppy. All fluffy on the head and all wirey everywhere else with little short noses but long ears.

I started to go over our option but didn't even get humane society out of my mouth when she said she would take full responsibility and at the least foster the pups until they were adoptable.

For once, I actually thought this client meant it. I mean, I had been hearing for years about these elaborate vacations. They had brochures. They had travel insurance already purchased. They were serious. I fully expected to find those pups another forever home.

So my client went home with the two pups and about twelve different medications (and several cans of food). But every day was a new problem... with both of them.

Seriously it as if these two pups shared one body. If one sneezed, the other one sneezed. If one stopped eating, the other stopped eating. They walked in step. They played exactly the same. They came whenever the other was called.

So you can see how easy it was to name them Frick & Frack.

Then days turned into weeks.

These pups needed a LOT of care and attention but my client's first big trip to China was coming up. They had scant days before they had to decide to cancel the trip and eat the cost of the trip (the insurance covered a lot of contingencies but not super cute but fragile pups) or find the pups a new home.

My client's husband then started feeling a little ringing in his ears. He playfully blamed it on the pups constant yipping. But they saw it as a perfect opportunity to have him checked by the doctor. Maybe if he had an ear infection they would have a medical reason to cancel the trip and have it covered by the insurance.

Well thank goodness he went to the doctor. That ringing wasn't an infection, but a tumor on the bones in his ear!

Luckily it was caught early enough that they were able to do surgery to save not only his life but his hearing as well!

If it hadn't been for those pups and both of them wanting to stay home to care for them, my client may have ended up in a foreign country needing delicate, intricate microscopic cancer surgery! The doctors even said had it gone on much longer it could have broken through into this brain cavity!

So yes, Frick and Frack (who recovered as well as their owner did) possibly saved his life!

And even better yet, after the surgery and radiation therapy, my clients decided they still wanted to travel! But this time in an RV.

Now they and Frick & Frack cruise around the country getting to know our country's culture inside and out.

I get post cards from them several times a year. Each time with Frick and Frack sitting side by side next my client and her husband with a national monument as a backdrop.

They could not look any happier.

Life seldom turns out how you plan it (even decades in advance) but it feels like when you let animals into your heart, it turns out just fine! :-)