A lot of couples set a timeframe for when they'll have children. Maybe a year after marriage, maybe when they hit some sort of goal like a promotion or new house. Kenny and I had no real goals like that for our actual human baby--but we definitely planned for our first furry one! When we got married, we lived in an apartment complex that did not allow pets. Our first priority after the wedding was finding a new place to live, one that did allow dogs. We were married in October, and by December we were in a new apartment. December 23rd we welcomed our new family member, Sawyer Bpo Bpo Byrge.
All the pets in our family are named after characters from the show LOST, so we had the name "Sawyer" picked out before we even bought him. The "Bpo Bpo" middle name is also from LOST, as one of the characters owns a shar-pei with that name.
Kenny found him online via the Indianapolis Star classifieds section. He showed me the picture of the litter and Sayer was the only chocolate one. I was immediately in love.
We had previously been considering a bulldog, but knew that they were prone to many health problems. I didn't know much about shar-pei, but before we went to see Sawyer's litter I turned to Google. All I could find was that they sometimes needed the wrinkles around their eyes tacked up, until they grew into them. Otherwise they could develop eye issues from the weight of their eyelids. Okay fine, we'll talk to the breeder and see if it was a problem with their dogs. They said no, and even from the photo above you can see that these puppies do not have excessive wrinkles.
It was less than a month later that we found out the true nature of the shar-pei. We came home from church to find Sawyer very lethargic. He barely moved, felt warm to touch, and was completely out of it. He wouldn't even eat a piece of cheese--a certain sign of something wrong in a dog! I again went to Google and found a message board devoted to shar-pei. This is where I first discovered Familial Shar-Pei Fever. In brief, it is a genetic disorder which causes a build-up of proteins in the organs. One symptom of the disease is sudden, unexplained, very high fevers.
It was Sunday, and our vet was not open. We didn't even have a thermometer. I rushed out to CVS and bought the fastest digital read thermometer I could find. Normal temperature range for a dog is about 101, and immediate medical attention should be sought at 105. Sawyer's temperature that morning was 104.6.
It was a very frightening feeling, holding this 8 pound bundle of wrinkles, thinking that he was in such danger. We gave him a baby aspirin and tried to keep him comfortable. The nearest emergency vet was one hour away in Indianapolis, and we did not want to risk aggravating the situation further with such a long drive. We monitored him closely and his fever came down over the course of the day.
Sawyer's life has been punctuated with many such fever episodes. Some are so mild we give him an aspirin and move on with barely a thought. Some have been serious enough that we were certain we would lose him (the highest his temp has ever gone was 106.6, one of the scariest moments of my life). He literally carries scars of these events, as one episode resulted in an infection in his legs that caused his skin to slough off. But he is our fighter, our tough guy (and a little bit of a momma's boy), and if we are very lucky we will have him for the average life expectancy of 8 years. If I could go back and know everything about shar-pei that I know now, I would still get Sawyer. Many shar-pei owners call them the "potato chip breed" because once you have one, you have to have another. I feel the same. And looking at this face, can you blame me?
