Argo and his surgery

Our dog Argo had elbow surgery back in March. He had some crunchy bone chips in both his elbows that made it painful to walk, run and play. As owners we were faced with the situation no pet owner wants to be in....do we spend the money to fix him  or do we put him down?  Tough call.  Healthy young dog, but will he still be able to hunt. Argo was purchased because he was from hunting lines, to be a hunting companion, not just a dog that lays at ones feet in front of the fire.  So the decision is made. Let's give him a chance and see what vets say about his condition. Gradually and in small steps...until of course the final leap.  I contacted many doctors and inquired about the surgical procedures and gained bits and pieces of knowledge from each. It was almost like putting a puzzle together. Many unknowns and parts of the 'puzzle' would not be revealed until other pieces were played and laid out.  Meanwhile a vet is found, an appointment is made and a medical credit card is secured. First, exploratory tests are done. Prognosis is, Argo, is a good candidate for the surgery, bad part is the surgery needs to be done on both his elbows. Ok lets do both elbows at once and save some money. Argo has the surgery... he came through with flying colors and is gradually  gaining strength in his bad leg where the muscles were atrophied and they, the muscles, we found out will take twice as long to regain muscle tone and strength as it did to lose it. Another unknown puzzle piece. While we had the surgery done, sometimes we still questioned the expense, the time for Argo to recuperate and the long term questions of will he hold up to long days of hard hunting?

Then we had to re-evaluate our definition of 'long days of hard hunting', perhaps years ago it really was the correct definition. Nowadays as the hunting is done with gentlemen approaching 60 and working at a desk 50 weeks out of the year... Argo has a pretty good chance of holding up better than the rest of the party.  Another consideration came into view during tax time. The money we spent on Argo and all his training up to date was a surprising amount. Then the realization if we hadn't done the surgery, we would have to spend the price of the surgery -plus- to get a new pup up to the training level that Argo is now. In closing for us,  to have the surgery was the correct one. We did the right thing for Argo, and for us. It feels good. The downside is he will never be bred to pass along his wonderful temperament, hunting ability and beautiful coat and conformation. I showed Argo in the show ring and he was well on his way to getting a Championship title...but we won't pass on whatever caused him to have his bad elbows and to have others perhaps go through the agonizing pros and cons we had to. Argo is still our Champion and a great hunting companion and yes he is also the dog that lays at our feet in front of the fire.  Learning from Argo and his condition opened my eyes a bit more to understanding how folks can spend do much money on 'just a dog', when if fact we were faced with that moment in time we too have said many times... it's just a dog, put him down. If Argo had a bad prognosis and his quality of life and he would have been in pain long term... yes the outcome would be different... but with the paradigm shift in thinking, there are more layers to a dog/owner relationship  and it is now no longer for us... it's just a dog thought process.  Decisions are personal, situations are all different however if Argo and his story has caused even one person to think a little outside the box of 'it's just a dog'. Having Argo has made a bigger difference than just be another dog.