The story started at the 16th of April
2003, the day I was born, together with my 8 little brothers
and sisters. My official name is Farbourne 's Space Runner,
but my nickname is Skipper. After seven weeks I was taken
home by my new family. The family consisted of René
(the father), Anita (the mother) with their sons Brent (9
years old) and Dylan (6 years old). Furthermore also the two
cats Dipsy and Simba were living in the same house, whom surprisingly
I liked very much. My new family was extremely happy about
my arrival. I happened to be not the first Labrador at the
Biesheuvel's. Kimber was my pre-assessor. Unfortunately he
died a few weeks before my birth after an active and happy
life of almost 14 years. Because of his death, my family grieved
a lot and were very much looking forward to the happy times
with the coming of me, their new puppy.
The day they picked me up at the breeder, Anita actually
noticed at first that I was not really moving around in
the nest. All my brothers and sisters were playing, but
I just kept still. After my first ride home in the car to
Oudenhoorn, they placed me in the garden, where I stayed
for the rest of the time on the grass without any activities.
Whenever I was in the house I showed no really interest
to investigate the surroundings, but laid down on a little
blanket where I fell asleep. My family was a kind of surprised
on my behaviour.
My family received a manual from the breeder which included
an exercise schedule. With the age of 8 to 9 weeks I was
allowed to walk four times a day for 10 minutes. Every month
5 minutes were added to my walks. However, I refused to
walk. Short little walks were alright, but then I was exhausted
and preferred to sit or lay down. This was a very remarkable
showing for just such a young puppy.
My worried family called the breeder and she advised that
I was just a very lazy dog. Shortly before the summer holidays
started in August, the family noticed I suddenly lumped
a bit with my left foreleg. Not consistently, but especially
Anita was worried. We only took short walks and followed
all prescribed rules. My family even bought new carpets,
which they never owned or used before. In the beginning
my family thought of something harmless, but after the summer
holidays the lumping became worse and we paid a visit to
the veterinarian .
The scary thoughts of my family became true…. The
veterinarian discovered that both within my left as my right
elbow, elbow dysplan was found.
On my right side LPC (FPC)
and OCD was discovered. On
my left side LPC (FPC)
and kissing leasion was found. The family started to inform
the breeder.
After a lot of discussions and counselling with the veterinarian,
I was operated at both of my elbows on 13th November 2003.
This was really against the will of my family. The family
firstly negotiated to have the operation on the left elbow
then the next operation on the other side would take place
3 months later. However, according to the veterinarian the
operation had been successful and I was treated afterwards
with athrilone tablets and vitamin C to improve the curing
for the next 3 months. The veterinarian announced that a
possibility could occur to develop a chance on arthroses.
It became a very nasty period for me, with very limited
exercising and a lot of pain. I had to stay in my bench
for a long time to rest and recover as much as possible.
Luckily, the bench was situated into the family kitchen
and I was constantly entertained by everybody who came along.
Fortunately I am also a quiet and patient dog and accepted
my difficult situation. It took however many months before
I could take a little walk outside of half an hour. My revalidation
showed various ways. Sometimes, I was doing fine for weeks
and my family showed optimism and gladness and then suddenly
I lumped again, always on my left side. Because of this
I was also treated with physio care, including weekly massages
and exercises, which continued at home.
In between, a year passed by and from time till time I
still have my periods of lumping . My family is still very
insecure about my behaviour and capabilities of my acting.
You must know, I just love to swim, to play, to hunt cats
in our garden and to walk around our beautiful country side
and so on. But, this is still very hard for me as consequently
after such a walk I lump again for several days. What should
have been a very unconcerned and happy time of being a pup
and young dog, turned out to be a period of pain, sorrow
and disappointment. Also I am very afraid of having another
operation, not knowing of getting a complete recovery.
PS from Anita
He is such a gentle, kind and faithful dog. Wherever I
am, Skipper is next to me. He is by me everywhere I go and
looks on to me with his droopy eyes. I would not miss him
from the world !
But, so many things could have been the other way around…….
