Our Dog Wears Diapers

Three years ago my daughter Harriet (not her real name) came to me and made a compassionate case on why she wanted a Yorkie puppy.  I heard her out and thought “hecks no child, mama ain’t got time fo dat!” What I said was “we already have a dog and Yorkie puppies are expensive, and I don’t have time to work with a puppy.” She was sad but she understood. “Will you at least look into it and think about it?” She asked. “Of course,” I promised. That is the precise moment when my plan of not getting a Yorkie went straight to sh!t.  I took a few days and then looked into it, as promised.  A puppy was out of the question but a rescue seemed like a nice thing to do and would make Harriet happy.  We have had rescue dogs before and it has been a rewarding experience for our family. I came across Underdog Rescue and one little dog caught my eye.  His name was Acorn and he was an eight-year-old Yorkie from an auction in Oklahoma, he was auction item number 256. Before the auction, he was in a puppy mill in Missouri, if the paperwork is correct. We set up a time to meet Acorn and went through the thorough adoption process and after that Acorn was ours. The name was something he was given by the rescue and he didn’t respond to it, so Harriet decided he would be Pixel.  The day we officially adopted Pixel, I noticed he had soft feet like a new puppy and I asked if they were sure he was 8 years old. They explained that he was in fact 8 and that his feet were soft because he had only been in a cage for his entire life. Pixel had been working on potty training while he lived with the foster family and I thought it would be easy enough to continue this work and have him trained in no time. I’ve had several dogs and have housebroken them all to perfection, so I thought this would be the same.  We quickly learned that despite his best efforts, Pixel was damaged and broken in a way that will never be fixed. He doesn't know how to play or act like a dog. He doesn't understand how to go for walks. He has no teeth. He knows to do his business outside but he is afraid of everything and has separation anxiety so he will tinkle when he is scared or feels abandoned. By many people's standards, he is a pathetic specimen of a dog. We tried belly bands but he is so tiny that it’s hard to keep them on him.  We ended up buying size 1 baby diapers and we put them around his middle like a fancy cummerbund. People have poked fun of this or said they would never keep a dog that has to wear a diaper. Pixel is a lesson for all of us for many reasons. First, this dog is broken through no fault of his own. Greedy people did this to him and the best thing we can do is accept his flaws because he is trying his best. Second, he is a lesson about commitment. What would I be teaching my children if we sent him back to the rescue or had him put down? Animals are a responsibility that should be taken seriously. Third, this dog is an example of the power of caring. Because Underdog Rescue cares, they rescued our precious baby and because we care, we keep him and show him love like he has never had. Pixel is a dog who shows love like no other that I’ve had.  He is so precious that I can’t bear to think about what I’m going to do when he crosses the rainbow bridge. I love him and I hope we have him in our lives for years to come. I'm sharing his story on this blog because he is a result of our consumerism. We demand more and more without considering the consequences. We need to make mindful purchases and ask questions. Puppy mills are not okay. A lot of the things we buy and therefore support are not okay. We need to do better. On a lighter note...What do we do with his diapers? We compost them. Did you know urine is excellent for compost? I’ll talk more about that in another post.

Update 4/16/19:  After checking on our compost after the long winter it appears that the diapers have not decomposed as we previously believed.  There must be a small amount of plastic in some area of the diapers that we can't see.  The diapers are mostly paper and we have been adding them to our bonfires when we have them.