I looked up 'Bob Barker Stamp' in the search bar, and ftw there's like, nothing there? Shame! D:<

Anyway, yes, I'm one of those big "Spay and Neuter" freaks. Not so much because of Bob Barker (although I do adore him), but because of all the unwanted litters of puppies and kittens I see come in through our doors at the shelter, and because of my own personal experience with my dog, Misty.

Okay, okay, story time! As sad as it is, this is my favorite story about my dog, so here we go:

We had never bothered to get my dog, Misty, spayed... we figured, well, she doesn't get out of the yard or anything, so we don't have to worry about her coming home with puppies... and not only that, but my ex-stepdad was planning to breed her, even though she were a mutt.

So when my mom got the divorce, and we took the dog, seeing as she was mine and we were afraid that my ex-stepdad would harm her. We later got a list of things he thought we owed him after leaving, and Misty was on there marked as being worth $1,000. Um, YEAH, our Chow mix (We don't even know what she's mixed with), who we got FOR FREE because of my MOM, is worth 1k... riiight.

But later that year, sometime in winter, I had gone away with my father for about a week during the vacation time. My brother was with his dad, and my mom had to work, so Misty was home alone a lot of the time. My mom said that Misty had stopped eating, but she thought it was because she was lonely without anyone home.

I got home, and... I could tell right away that Misty was sick. She looked horrible, was very lethargic and... she smelled like sewage.

The fact that my dog didn't even smell like my dog, was alone, enough to tell me something was wrong. Now, at this point, Misty would eat whenever I ate... I shared almost every meal with her, so I began eating in hopes that she'd share my food and I could get something into her stomach... but that didn't work... I tried all her favorites, and they were all rejected.

When she'd walk, it was a very slow, almost painful drag. And her tail... it was soaked. She'd try to wag it a couple of times when I'd enter the house, and water would go flying up on the walls. That liquid stank horribly, and it dripped on the floor, everywhere. Wherever she laid would be soaked, and I soon realized that it was from her licking her back-end.

I alerted my mom, whom was under the notion that "Oh, she gets sick like people do, and she'll get better", but after much more annoying hints from me, we finally got her to the vet (This was a day or two after I came home).

We found out that her uterus had become infected, and it was basically just a huge bag of puss, ready to explode inside of her.

The vet told us that we only had two options. We could either put her to sleep, or we could chance surgery. With my dog being 7 years old (Which is pretty old for a large dog), she'd only have a 50% chance of making it through the surgery. Not only that, but if her uterus ruptured, she could die on the table. And even if the surgery went well, she'd be on medications for quite a while to clear up whatever infection may have already gotten into her blood stream. There was no guarantee that she'd survive during, or after the surgery.

Although my mom was going for the cheaper option, my consistant crying swayed her to take the chance. I knew that if Misty wanted to die, she would've done it after I had gotten home. She wouldn't have held on for so long if she didn't want to live. She wasn't ready to go, and I knew it in my heart to be true.

I'm glad to say that the surgery went well, and my pups, Misty, is now 10 years old. :] After recovering from the surgery, she turned around 3 fold. I swear, she was even happier and healthier looking then she had been her whole life. We haven't had any problems since then (Except that she, for some reason, coughs and hacks after running around or getting excited... a side-effect to the surgery, I think). But all of the trouble and pain we put her through could've been completely avoided had we just gotten her spayed as a puppy. ]:

Oh yes... and the kicker to the story? The surgery that saved her life was $1,000. Yes, the thousand dollar dog we'd joke about after reading the court papers, did indeed, become our thousand dollar dog. <3

But yeah ]: If you're not a breeder, and you aren't going to breed your dogs, please spay and neuter. It saves lives, seriously.

Bob Barker (c) Himself X3


EDIT: Sorry guys; comments disabled. I'm tired of people using my stamp to try and fight with me to support their own form of steralizing an animal, rather then spaying/neutering. It's great we all have our own methods, but there's no point in arguing with me, because I'm not going to change my views. So for those who would've posted the comments I was looking forward to, I appologize.