We almost didn't get her. Wait, we said. Don't just get the first shelter dog you see... not just because she is a happy, goofy, beautiful dog who stole your heart. Be practical, we thought. Sleep on it.
I went back the next day because, of course we wanted her, loved her already. I went right to her cage, ready to liberate her from the hot, stinky captivity. But she wasn't there. She was being held for someone else.
So I drove home, thinking about how Maricris--who'd never been much of a pet person--had fallen in love with this silly yellow dog. I drove back.
It turns out, the family never came. And so we had a dog, a dog who loved to run and jump and chase... everything. A dog who was a little nippy, sure, but who came when you called her. A dog with stinky feet and silky soft fur... a dog named--most improbably--"Shelly."
It seemed pretty obvious to us that she was a Mango, though. That was July 28, 2006.
Today, Mango is being fostered by Maricris's brother, a veterinary resident in Texas. And she is as happy and healthy as a young dog with hip dysplasia and a bulging disc can be. If she plays too hard, she is often in pain, which is sometimes debilitating. And maybe, just maybe a complicated back surgery will make it all better.
How do you decide? How do you make a decision for a being with no knowledge of her condition, no voice of her own? The surgery could leave her paralyzed. Doing nothing might end the same.
How on earth do you decide?
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