This is CODY - a 56lb Beagle, Walker hound, boxer mix. I wanted to write this blog to tell you his story. He is our love bug, our Mr. Sensitive :-) He is, in a way, a rescue......

When Chris and I started living together two and a half years ago, we started thinking about getting a dog. We were desperate actually. We stopped in at the Mississauga shelter and found a playful and adorable Pointer mix. He would definitely need some training and some leadership. After we filled out the application, the staff felt our apartment would be too small for a dog of this energy level. We left feeling quite sad and let down. We were "saving" a dog from a shelter, had this amazing leash free green space right behind our building and lots of love and time to give. Sigh*

As we drove away Chris mentioned we could stop in Brampton at the PJ's Pets store in the mall. Ignorant and depressed, we entered the store oooh and awwwing at all the precious faces behind the glass. I spotted this little wee brown puppy with floppy ears and a stub tail. Chris instantly said, Oh my god, I want to see him. The young girl brought us into their "interview" room and out came this bounding yet sweet bundle of velvet. He was absolutely gorgeous. His sister had just been purchased and he was the last of the litter. The girl informed us that all the dogs are vet checked and given their starter vaccinations. This sounded good, no? And they even gave us the name of the breeder... although it consisted of a lady's name and not a kennel. Anyway, we could figure that out if we wanted to. We finally looked at each other and said, "It's done, we'll have him." $1,200 later, complete with a few supplies to start us off, we had our new puppy! We giggled as we left the parking lot as he wriggled around in Chris's arms. On the way home, he coughed a couple of times. How cute! Little did we know, this would be the beginning of endless vet visits and bills! Cody was infected with a stomach worm and had a bad case of kennel cough. Learning how contageous it can be, all the puppies in Pj's must be sick! I rang them and informed them that our new puppy was now a $2,000 baby and that the rest of the dogs in their store hsould be checked immediately. I was furious! Cody was so sick. Here is a picture of him... sad in his kennel. He didn't come out for hours at a time...

We could not locate the breeder nor did the store show us any compassion for our sick boy. He finally recovered after a month and a half - during that time Cody experienced the following miseries:
1. Hacking, weezing cough
2. Runny.. then dry green crusty nose
3. Ravinous eating (the parasite was stealing his food!)
4. Vomiting, diarreha and more diarreha
5. Lathargy, dull and sleepy eyes
6. Exhaustion

Were we regretting our decision? In the beginning we fought a lot about the cost. We were also angry at the store. It was indeed a sad state of affairs.

Once he was better though, what a dog he was becoming! A very intelligent, spirited and loving puppy! He loved his romps on the green space, play ball, and lounging with Mom and Dad on the couch.

After seeing a lengthy documentary on such pet stores and how all the animals come from The Hunts Corporation, I felt terrible spending money to support them. Moving forward in my life, we vow to not support any purchasing of pets through stores but only from reputable breeders. Or rescuing, like so many of you have done and continue to do.

So here is Cody now :) Our cuddle monkey, our reagle man :) Thank you for reading his story!