Thanks for the great comments guys! I just got home, Blue's been at the LSU lakes half the day, chasing ducks and getting very dirty! He had a blast though! Tomorrow is Annie's turn at the lakes, and Gracie went the other day.
Blue is 11 years old. When he was a puppy, he got stomped on and it crushed his face, skull, eye socket, ear canal, jaw, you name it. He is blind in his "bad eye" and deaf on that side as well. If you look closely, you can see that his head is sunken in as well.
Whoever brought him in that day when he was a puppy, to my vet, left him there and never came back. He was just dumped. So my vet fixed him up as best he could and had planned to have him PTS. He said 11 years later, he really can't remember why he never did it. But he didn't, thank goodness. Blue cannot open his mouth, as the bones were crushed into a million pieces and they fused his mouth shut. He's missing half his teeth on the side where his tongue hangs out, so he licks up his kibble and swallows whole. And he eats good too! Goes thru 5 cups of food a day, LOL.
When I went and worked for my vet for a few months last year, I had known my vet for many years. And when I started working there, I fell in love with Blue. He lived at the clinic in a kennel, and wasn't messed with much by the kennel guys or the techs. This is because he drools pretty badly, and being in a small kennel, he always smelled. His teeth were very icky and rotted, so his drool STUNK something awful. I fell in love with him and started taking him home on the weekends. The weekends turned into weeks at a time, and I eventually asked could I take him home to keep. The vet agreed, and said that it would be great for Blue to have a family, and that all of Blue's vet bills, HW prevent., meds, ect. in the future would be covered for life if I took him. So I did! Soon after, Blue had a full dental done on his mouth so his breath wouldn't smell so icky, and was microchipped by the vet too.
He's 11 years old and he's been living with us for a year. Blue went from living by himself in a cage for a decade to living with a crew of 11 little brothers and sisters, and getting to go all sorts of places!
Blue was there today getting his vaccinations and a nail trim, and we were talking (me, the vet, and the tech who's been there for like 15 years that I am friends with) about photo's we have of Blue now who goes on trail hikes, swimming in the lakes, mardi gras parades, 4-wheeler mud riding, romping in the country pastures of the levee's, and all kinds of stuff. The vet was saying today how thrilled he is that Blue is so happy, and Blue got tons of hugs and kisses from the vet and the tech today too!