Heartworms stink!

LBR alum Cooper just started treatment for his yucky heartworms. Doesn't he look miserable?

Do you know how they treat heartworms? Momma said she had no idea until she started with rescue. Luckily I never had to be treated, but Cinderella did and she told me it was awful. They have a great big giant needle that they stick right into your hip, and then they basically inject poison into you. They do it once, let you rest for a day or so, and then do it again! After that, you feel really yucky and miserable while the poison starts to work on your wormies. It kills the wormies and starts breaking them up into pieces that you cough up. So you can have a really nasty-sounding cough! Plus during the time the wormies are breaking up, you have to be really careful not to make your heart beat too fast. That can make the wormie pieces clump together into a clot, and that means you might have a heart attack or a stroke! Brrr. You basically have to stay on crate rest for weeks -- and that's torture to a dog like a boxer!

Can you believe that humans still make dogs go through all that when they could just give us one little pill a month to stop it? I hope all your humans give you heartworm preventative every single month. It's too important to skip!

I'm participating in the Dog Days of Summer photo challenge! Today's theme is "With friends," so I'm sharing one of my favorite pictures from last year's Wags & Waves event. Look at my biiiiig new furiend!

TODAY's EVENTS:
DRAW YOUR PEEPS: INDIGO
SMACKDOWN: FRIENDS FUREVER
SQUIRREL HURDLES: BAILEY & KATY
SNACK SACK RACE: LULU 

finally, LBR is hosting its first-ever Legacy Summer Athletic Competition on Facebook! We have a bunch of pawsome boxer-y events that we're holding every day of the human Olympics, from wrestling to swimming to gymnastics. And through it all, we're trying to raise money to help with little Napoli's vet bills, plus help other LBR dogs. We set goal amounts at brindle ($5,000), white ($10,000), and fawn ($15,000). We've already raised almost enough for a white medal, but WE WANT THE FAWN!!!

You can donate via ChipIn link OR to LBR's main website! Today's event is Gymnastics - Balance Beam, so be sure to check out LBR's Facebook page to see all the grreat entries!