Love at first sight: Dr. Noelle Miles' father, Paul, had already fallen for Lorelis before the Chihuahua flunked her first
health exam.
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Last year my father answered that he was in the market for a new friend—a small canine friend. This surprised me because he
had never expressed any interest in owning a dog. An even bigger surprise was when he announced that he'd found the perfect
Chihuahua on the Internet. Ah, the Internet—the source of all that is good and true!
I cautioned my father that he should research the breeder carefully, request to see the dam and sire, and let me examine the
puppy before he signed any binding contracts. To my horror, he told me he'd already paid $550 to a cunning woman who had e-mailed
him pictures and claimed she couldn't guarantee him a puppy unless he coughed up some cash first. That Saturday, we drove
out to the woman's house.
Eye-opening exam—for me, not Dad
As soon as we entered, I realized we were in the belly of the beast—an honest-to-goodness puppy mill. A wide variety of breeds
was present, all with their own personal flea circuses. The woman directed us to the basement where the Chihuahuas lived,
and my father pointed out the puppy he'd selected, a small black-and-white female he'd named Lorelis.
I'd come equipped with my otoscope and my pediatric stethoscope, intent on making sure this tiny, mouselike creature was free
of defects. I found an overbite, a veritable armada of fleas, open fontanelles you could drive a Mack truck through, and a
grade 2/6 heart murmur. I examined the other female pup in the pen, and while she did have open fontanelles and fleas, she
had no heart murmur and no overbite.
I felt I had provided my father with some very useful information and was certain he would make the obvious choice. However,
my father locked his gaze on that puppy he had already named, and he chose the pup with the heart murmur.
The bottom line
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I was stunned. Then I was a bit angry. Why would my father choose a dog with a congenital defect that could shorten its life?
My scientific mind could not grasp his reasoning. And if he was so irrational about this important choice, what would he be
like as a client? Homecoming, spay, and more than a few jitters
There was no dissuading Dad, so we brought the puppy home. First we treated her for fleas, and then we took a stool sample.
The sample yielded wall-to-wall Coccidia, so I corrected her Albon deficiency. My recently retired father, who previously had too much time on his hands, was now
engrossed in midnight excursions to the backyard and morning puppy food preparation. He had a new buddy who sat on his lap
and watched TV with him. He paraded her around the neighborhood and beamed when she received compliments. My stern and sometimes
curmudgeonly father had truly fallen in love.
A family that spays together stays together: Dr. Noelle Miles was just a little nervous when she spayed her dad's beloved
Chihuahua.
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When Lorelis reached 4 months, my father set up a date to have her spayed. Of course, I spay dogs every day in practice, but
this dog was my father's brand-new focus in life—and she had a heart murmur. I was just a little nervous. My father sat in our waiting room while I performed the surgery. Knowing that the tiny three-pound body beneath the drape
was my father's cherished treasure, I made sure to put an extra ligature on each pedicle. By the end of the spay my adrenals
were totally depleted, but I proudly walked out to our waiting room and gave my dad a thumbs-up.
My father called me every day for an entire week to keep me posted on Lorelis' progress. I was happy to hear that she was
doing well.
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