Oogy_ The Dog Only a Family Could Love - Larry Levin [42]
True to Diane’s word, six months after we had welcomed Oogy into our home, we received notification from Ardmore that it was time for his first scheduled checkup. I made an appointment, and no sooner had I walked in the door with Oogy than Karen, the technician sitting at the front desk in the reception area, took a look at him and, after a sharp intake of breath, blurted out, “That’s a Dogo!”
“What’s a Dogo?” I asked.
Karen started to laugh. “I’m not sure,” she said.
Not yet a year old and still growing, Oogy already weighed seventy pounds. He stood a little over two feet high at the shoulder and was about four feet from nose to tail. When he stretched out, the way he would to greet someone by placing his front paws on their shoulders, he was over five feet long. He had already far surpassed what we had been told his adult weight would be. The significance of this was that Oogy had to have been younger than the four months we were told he was when we adopted him. His estimated age at the time had been based upon his weight — thirty pounds — compared with what his weight was supposed to be when he was fully grown — fifty-five pounds. The fact that he was still growing, and that he was already twenty pounds heavier than the estimate given by Dr. Bianco for his weight as a grown dog, meant that he had to have been younger when we met him. Oogy may have been no more than two months old when used as bait.
When I look back at it now, I realize that Oogy’s size should perhaps have tipped us off that he was not a pit bull; but it is hard to be objective and make a determination about a dog’s breed based on a visual assessment of his size and weight when you have been told by someone who should know that the pup in your arms is a specific breed — especially when the actual breed is something that you, a dog lover, know nothing about. And, just as with a child, when you see a dog every day, the extent of his growth is so incremental that you can’t fully grasp or appreciate the process or the end result. Besides, Oogy looked like a pit bull — or, more accurately, a pit bull on steroids.
At this first checkup, Dr. Bianco examined and ran standard tests on Oogy and pronounced him to be in perfect health. Oogy also had his toenails clipped (Dogos’ toenails grow unusually quickly). The first few times the staff clipped Oogy’s nails, they muzzled him; then Diane realized that if one technician stroked him while the other worked on him, there would be no problems. Dr. Bianco gave me drops for the itching in the gash that had been Oogy’s left ear, which he pawed at constantly; it was repeatedly subject to yeast infections. Dr. Bianco recommended certain vitamin supplements, which Oogy has had every day since. Dr. Bianco also suggested an over-the-counter wetting solution for Oogy’s left eye. Distorted by scar tissue, the eye could not fully close when Oogy slept, and as a result, it could not self-lubricate. Ever since then, Oogy and I have used the same eye lubricant, as I, too, have “dry eye” syndrome. Dr. Bianco then asked that we arrange to come back so that he could put a microchip in Oogy’s neck. That way, if Oogy ever ran away and was picked up, he could be returned to us. Finally, Dr. Bianco told me to get rid of the retractable leash. Just the week before, he had had two clients whose dogs ran into the street before the locking mechanisms could be engaged, and both had been hit by cars. A dog as big and powerful as Oogy could easily present a similar problem, and he might even be able to break the restraint.
On the way home, I bought a different kind of leash.