Bogart

Above: Bogart, our new dog!

Most of the people who are reading this already know who Bogart is, but for those of you who may not, he is the dog that Chris and I are adopting. That's right, he's not ours just yet. As you can probably see in the picture he can do some fancy maneuvering with his back legs. Bogart is a year old, and he's had it rough since he was hit by a car when he was eight weeks old. The lady who had him put in the backyard and never worked with him or took him to the vet after the accident. He lived outside, and because no one ever worked with him, he never learned to walk correctly. So, never fear, he learned to get around, "Bogie style." Yup, Bogart can scoot almost as fast as other dogs can run! Fortunately though, someone at the amazing Florida Doggie Paws Rescue heard about Bogart, and they took him in. His foster family consisted of the super Laurie and eleven other foster dogs. Bogart had to have double knee surgery in May to correct a dislocation problem, but he's up and walking now, though very oddly, but his strange gait just seems to bring amusement and character to him and those around him.

Although Bogart has learned how to walk/hobble as good as other dogs run, he still hasn't learned to walk correctly. Luckily though, his vet thinks he can make a full recovery if we work with him enough. We'll have to do physical therapy with him twice a day, and give him plenty of massages and long walks to give him enough practice. We have plenty of time for that though, and with a dog like Bogart no one can complain about having to spend time with him.

Above: Who can say no to that?

Bogart was originally named "Crash" by the people at the rescue who first took him in. Although it kind of sounded cool and definitely applied since he falls down a lot, his foster mom thought it was a little mean to call him "Crash" so she changed his name to "Cash." Chris and I aren't big fans of either name, so keeping with tradition, we changed it one last time, and it definitely suits him. We named him Bogart after the famous American actor, Humphrey Bogart. When we first got "Crash," we noticed that his front end worked fine and seemed to know where it was going. His back end, however, was a completely different story. While people who have had young puppies will recognize his funny, bow legged gait as that of a puppy learning to walk, people who have never had a puppy seem to get the impression that his back half is drunk. He sways and staggers a little (we refer to this as "swaggering"), frequently crossing his back legs and falling down at which point he whips out the big guns and starts dragging himself across the ground, back legs and tail in tow. Due to his charming, yet drunken nature, we thought it only appropriate to name him Bogart - gentleman, charmer, and known lady's man. He even got a wag from a lady admirer on his afternoon walk today. He just crossed his legs and swaggered on.

When not charming the ladies, Bogart sleeps, chews on his bone, rips the ears off his stuffed monkey, and makes his new family crazy happy. We left him alone for eight hours today while we were at work, and where most people with a young dog would come home to a house full of stuffing, I came home to a house with a dog left exactly where I put him. He's just the right size for an apartment, and his nature and personality are so easy going that nothing seems to phase him. He's eager to please, and his worse fear is getting yelled at. We tell him once, and he never does it again. If all dogs were like Bogart, then Florida Doggie Paws would be out of business because no one would ever abandon their dog.

Friday we take him to meet with the vet who did his surgery so that we can learn how to take care of him properly, and then we sign the adoption papers and he's ours! In four days Bogart will officially be our dog, and we all seem pretty happy about that. Okay, well Bogart needs to go out for a swagger so I'll write more later, but as he once said, "This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." So, this one's for my new best friend and dog extraordinaire, Bogart, "Here's looking at you, kid."