We adopted Marco on May 3rd so I'm playing "catch-up" on his story and am pretty much recording things as they have happened the past four weeks while they're still fresh on my mind.........soon his story will be live and up close and personal.......

Marco was due for a heartworm pill the week we brought him home so I scheduled an appointment with our vet for a wellness check. He was very shy but brave in the waiting room. I had three different people ask me what kind of dog he was while we were waiting because he's just so beautiful. Of course breeds and pedigrees don't matter to me as long as I have a loyal companion but I have to say he is definitely an ice-breaker with strangers. My vet came in for the examination and as she was feeling him asked me if he had been tested for heartworms. I have to admit that my heart about stopped right then. I told her that the rescue group had advised he was heartworm negative and it was just now time for a pill. She said okay, I'm just concerned because he's so skinny. His test did come back negative, "thank you God."

Next she asked me if I knew anything about his medical history which I had to say no to since he's a rescue. That's when she advised me that he has a heart murmur. For the second time in about 15 minutes my own heart had a scare. She went on to say that it wasn't a bad murmur and wouldn't affect him negatively other than they would always need to be aware of it if he was to undergo anesthesia for any reason. I am in the process of researching the facts and welcome input from any of you reading this.

A couple of days later I decided to give Marco a bath since he's so white and gets dirty easy. We have a big garden tub in our master bathroom and Rob lifted him into it for me. I sat on the step of the tub and used the spray nozzle to bathe him. What a sweet guy, I guess it felt really good to him because he just stood there and didn't move the entire time. I already knew from all of the petting and loving that he was very skinny but I have to admit I about burst into tears when I saw him wet. He was the skinniest, most emanciated dog I had ever seen. I could feel every single rib and his spine was sticking up at least a 1/2". He looks so healthy with all of his fur that I just didn't realize how starved he had been. Now I understood why my vet had been so concerned about heartworms.

He was so excited after his bath that he did the "rabbit run" around our entire house and up and down the stairs several times.....too cute........