I have a dog. His name is Pete. Pete is about 5 or 6 years old and comes from the streets of Fort Worth. He’s a rescue, and he’s been a Burnett since September 2015.
Since September 2015, we’ve taken him to the vet 4 times. Pete has Ferris Bueller’ed us two of those times. The first time, Pete had been acting strangely – not eating his food, moping around a lot, sluggish on walks. I took him to the vet because we were planning to go on vacation just days from when he started his fake sickness.
Dr. Shook examined Pete and besides some gunk in his ear, all tests came back clear. No illness, no broken bones, no need to worry—he was fine.
The second time was last week. Pete and I went on a walk/jog Friday morning. He ate his breakfast, drank his water and was hanging out while I got ready for work. As I’m this-close to heading out the door, I look over and notice wetness right where Pete had been sitting. Sure enough, it’s pee. That’s right, urine. In the bedroom. On the wood floor. Right at the time I had to leave. I clean it up and put him in the backyard. As he gallops through the house to the back door, he leaves a trail of pee dots. I clean that up. I then go outside to check on Pete. More pee. On the deck. Right where he was sitting. He didn’t even attempt to get up and go to the grass like he usually does. As he walks around, he’s still going. It’s like a figure-8 of dog urine.
This is not normal. I certainly can’t leave him in the house all day like that. And there’s no way he’d survive in the backyard all by himself. I plastic-wrap the back seat of my car and drop him off at the vet. He’s there for 8 hours, plenty of time to completely empty his bladder anywhere he chooses.
It’s 4 pm when the vet calls: “Mrs. Burnett, Pete is ready to be picked up. We’ll discuss when you get here.”
Again, it’s me and Dr. Shook. Same place, different time. “Well, we ran tests for infections, and everything came back normal. He was here all day, and he was able to hold it until we let him out. I felt his bladder, and there was no reaction,” he said. Pete got us again. He was fine. Every day since then has been normal.
This dog keeps us on our toes. He’s usually up to something, but when he’s not, he’s super loveable, super sweet and just wants to be near us always. He’s a good dog, and he deserves a good life. So it’s really important to us as dog parents to give him that, even if it means quarterly visits to the vet.