Valentine's Day is a little extra special in our home every year. That is because Valentine's Day is also Bhreagh's birthday!
This year, Bhreagh turns eight years old. She definitely still has a lot of puppy in her, even after all these years. But, Bhreagh turning eight is a really big deal for us.
Our journey started with Bhreagh just over eight years ago, when we drove past our local shelter and spotted a volunteer taking a cute little puppy for a walk. We immediately stopped and went in to see who that cutie was. We took Bhreagh for a walk, which she stubbornly laid down in the grass to eat dandelions. We were hooked! We brought our pup Bentley by the shelter for a meet and greet to make sure they both got along and adopted our girl. But Bhreagh's story starts before we adopted her. We introduced Bhreagh to our family when she was 3 months old, she had already been adopted 3 times and returned to the shelter each time. This was because she was born with a heart murmur. Her murmur was rated as a 5/6. For any of you who don't know what that means, it means her murmur was significant and likely represented a serious heart defect.
Despite knowing the potential significance of Bhreagh's heart murmur, we decided to adopt her and give her a happy loving home, even if she might not be with us long.
At Bhreagh's first vet visit, we were told that her heart likely had a serious issue, that it sounded like she had a hole in an integral part of her heart, and that she wouldn't live to reach 2 (if we were lucky). The vet showed us what kind of bills we could expect for her definitely heart medications and treatments. He also advised us to "take her back and get a healthy dog".
Looking at the bubbly little puppy we adopted, we just couldn't take his advice and return her to the shelter. We already had another pup, Bentley, who is a healthy dog and felt that we could adopt any healthy dog at the shelter but, that didn't guarantee they would outlive our sweet girl.
Since that day, we savoured every moment we had with Bhreagh. We learned that she is wildly intelligent. Like, change the baby locks on the cupboards because she can unlock them, kind of intelligence. She loves to cuddle, like really loves it. She enjoys a pillow under her head. She would eat anything....anyyytthhhinggggg. Most importantly, she loves each of us, so very much.
After that first vet appointment, we have checked in on Bhreagh's heart status regularly. A few short months after her first check-up our regular vet (not the first one we visited) informed us that Bhreagh's heart murmur sounded like a 4/6 (1 rating better than originally). She did not tell us she wouldn't live for long and did not tell us to take any medical measures and she certainly didn't tell us to return her to the shelter.
A year later, during Bhreagh's yearly check-up our vet said her heart murmur sounded like a 3/6. From there, each year the murmur sounded better and better. Most recently, our vet says she can hear a murmur, doesn't rate it, doesn't tell us it is causing any problems, and isn't concerned about it.
We feel so lucky that the sweet dandelion eating puppy we fell in love with has spent eight beautiful years with our family (so far). She brings so much happiness into our home, even when she steals the cats food for the 10th time of the day.
Happy Birthday my sweet girl Bhreagh and Happy Valentine's Day!