Taking care of the dogs

Was a time dogs did not come in the house. Well, country dogs lived outside. I don’t know about city dogs.

Back then, dogs walked the perimeter of the cleared area around the house. Some went ranging into the woods, but not many. In warm and hot months you almost always knew where the dogs were – in the shade of a tree, or in a shallow hole scraped out in the dirt in the shade of a tree. In winter, dogs slept together, sometimes in the shelter of bushes, sometimes underneath the house. Back then, almost all country houses were pier and beam, which meant the house was off the ground anywhere from a foot to three feet, depending on the slope of the land. Lots of room for dogs to burrow up in.

One thing from dogs never staying in the house, people often were not aware when a dog became sick. You would find out when the dog became lackadaisical or it threw up or didn’t show up at the back porch at feeding time. When a dog got sick, you would keep an eye on it, and if things got really bad, if the dog was in bad pain, you would shoot it and bury it somewhere away from the house.

Another thing about dogs staying outside, you didn’t have fleas in the house, nor did the house sometimes smell like dirty dog.

Then America got richer and richer, more veterinarians began taking on dogs as patients, and dogs started developing problems owners never heard of before. Dog breeding became a multi-billion-dollar business. People wanted specific kinds of dogs. And, where there is a demand, there is a market. Pet care stores became the norm, where people would spend more billions of dollars buying things they didn’t know their dogs or cats needed.

Now we have dogs that get sick, veterinarians who charge thousands of dollars for procedures and cures, and people willing to pay those thousands of dollars.

My wife and I have two dogs. One was diagnosed with Addison’s disease in 2009. For eleven years, we have spent I don’t know how much keeping Charlie alive. At one time, Charlie’s daily cost in medicine alone was about $10 a day. Whatever kind of math you do, $300 a month is a good chunk of change. But we had the money and were willing to spend it to keep Charlie alive. Now, his medicine cost is about $4 a day. Compounded drugs are a lot less expensive than name-brand pharmacy drugs.

I’m not sure what the upshot of all this is. Do I think dogs should be put outside again? No. Not unless that’s where you want your dog or dogs to stay.

Veterinarian visits and monthly trips to a groomer, well, we pay what we’re willing to pay.