She requires AT LEAST one hour of straight sprinting a day. A walk does not cut it. If you're walking, you better plan on walking for at least two hours otherwise she will make you pay later in the form of whining relentlessly or destroying things (AKA: the car, no kidding, this month she was left in the car while we were in Trader Joes for TEN MINUTES and jumped over the seat and chewed...and successfully destroyed... AFTER she had already exercised).
And when she does sprint, she goes straight to the stinky mud puddles so that then she is completely filthy so you have to spend another half hour washing her so you might as well have just gone on a walk in the first place to kill two birds with one stone (your exercise, her exercise). BUT, if you do walk, be prepared: the next day will be HELL. Her energy will be THROUGH THE ROOF and she will need to run for at least TWO HOURS. Oh and if her energy is through the roof given the fact that she runs 1-2 hours a day AT LEAST? (And trust me, she really does run EVERY.DAY)... Well, if her energy is through the roof, she plays the "I'll run off and you can't get me" game. Just when we think she'll listen and we trust her, she'll prove that oops, CAN'T TRUST ME, HAHA! No one is exempt from this game! And, as a sidenote, my friend who also has a boxer said that her boxer has NEVER had the type of energy level or health problems that Bella has. Well, you don't say.
AND. This month, you guys, she scared the SHIT out of my neighbor's 9 year old son. I won't go into details here because it's still freaking the hell out of me so much. But let me just say: the behavior was completely unacceptable. Completely.
Oh and the poop thing. She has to go somewhere every day because she STILL poops 7-8 times a day. I cannot even IMAGINE a dog that would only poop twice a day. The whole input/output thing, you know. Eat twice, poop twice. Not this dog. She eats twice and goes poop four times for each feeding. It is RIDICULOUS. She doesn't even eat that much! So she can't be left at home because a) her energy and b) she just can't NOT poop.
And. GAH! Another health issue. At her annual shot appointment the vet said that she has developed a heart murmur. Concerning because she didn't have one before and boxers are prone to heart problems. So OF COURSE this dog would fall into this new category of health problems. The vet was particularly concerned because not only was this a developed murmur it was a 3 out of 6 on whatever heart murmur scale. GREAT. So the solution? pay $1500 for an eco-cardiogram. Ha.
DOES THE VET THINK THAT THERE IS EXPENDABLE INCOME FOR THIS DOG?!?
Am I just cruel and heartless because I am refusing at this point? I refused to do a GI scope for her tummy issues because at least now her poop is solid and GOOD, regardless that she is going 8 times a day. And I am refusing to do the eco-cardiogram.
We pay out $200-$250 a month, AT A MINIMUM, for her to go to daycare on the days that Tim and I both work. We pay out $150 a month for her VERY EXPENSIVE dog food that she doesn't even absorb much of and shits out.... at a rate of 8 times a day. I can't even imagine what it must be like to buy a $30 bag of dog food. Oh, and add in the meds we have to buy for her on a monthly basis due to her severe allergies...and her yearly exam at a cost of $200 a pop. Just that alone is almost $5K a year for her to be "healthy." Last year? Anyone want to guess how much she cost us last year in all of her health problems? Over $8K. Not kidding.
I mean, I KNEW that a dog would cost money. Totally fine with it. But to the tune of almost $15K over the course of 2 years? No, I was NOT expecting that... I mean, that's a good chunk of money that we could probably find a lot of good uses for... Maybe I am just cold-blooded but I am done. No more tests, no more GI tests, no more no more no more. She is stable right now and that's about all we can ask for. And, more so than that, she is happy and FULL of energy. I will continue to pay for food and daycare and allergy meds but beyond that, it's going to take a LOT of justification.
I know I'm totally bitching right now but I guess I just am frustrated. And it's not just the money. It's just that it's SO much of everything... SO much time and money and effort. While I'm obviously WILLING to do it, I also feel frustrated by it because I have lots of friends with dogs and it's just not like this for them. I love her and she's a great girl and she makes me laugh BUT. She is NOT healthy, she never has been healthy. And she honestly requires a lifestyle that is often hard for to give to her...both in terms of monetarily doing test upon test for her health (without resolution, I might add, as evidenced by our GINORMOUS expenditures and zero outcomes from last year) and in terms of what she requires energy-wise and what we can give based on what we need to do for our OWN lives and jobs and other responsibilities. She would be an ideal farm dog where she could have acres and acres to run all day.
So Bella is good. Relatively. She is healthy. Relatively. I love her, I really do, and feel like I've just been a whiny bitch in this post but you know, I don't want to pretend like "oh Bella is just GREAT, doing AWESOME" when in reality, it's not always so picture perfect. Perfect to us is dealing with her every day and taking every day that we do have with her... while she is here and healthy. Perfect to us is realizing that we have a far from healthy dog that requires a shit ton (literally) of work, money, and effort. And at the end of the day, we reach a compromise. We can't always give everything but if she's happy and we are able to balance that happiness while staying attuned to our own lives, it's ok, even if that means she doesn't always get exactly what she wants in terms of running and playing for two hours a day and we can't always fork out more money to run test after test only to be told repeatedly, "We don't really know what's wrong with this dog." (Sentence that pretty much sums up our experience with vets in terms of Bella). I think that's about where we are at.
On that note, pictures from the month of May:
Sleeping with her buddy Calvin.
The memorial day weather here in Seattle was AWFUL. Absolutely horrendous. Like 50 degrees and rainy. So Bella and I went to the park and played fetch for an hour or so... wherein I got soaked and she got some energy out running through mud puddles. And I went home, cleaned her up, took a hot shower, baked and seriously contemplated starting a fire. But then the fact that it was MAY persuaded me not to.
Playing more fetch.
In the morning of memorial day, bored and whining... PLEASE COME PLAY!
And more sad eyes... I WANT TO PLAAAAAY.
Happy as a clam coming home from her favorite place: Happy Hound. One of the places she goes to for daycare. They have TONS of acres and she gets to run her little heart out all day. 
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