I met Reggie the day that he arrived at Best Friends. He looked so sad back then. You looked at his face that had so much inflammation and scarring and just thought – wow – that can’t feel good.
Here is what is happening with Reggie right now. There is a new dog in Reggie’s run named River. Reggie gets along fine with both River and Hoppe. Well, the caregivers say that he tolerates them. There aren’t any conflicts it’s just that Reggie would rather be an only dog.
Quite unexpectedly, our Reggie has gotten a little chubby! The vets chalk the weight gain up to his metabolism slowing down as Reggie becomes more senior. Reggie’s diet has been switched to a weight management program and hopefully that will help him trim down.
He received two new derby hats from his fans but hasn’t been on many sleepovers or outings lately so hasn’t been able to wear them much yet (he doesn’t wear hats in his run as we’ve found over the years that a dog wearing clothing seems to be an invitation for the other dogs in the run to rip them off).
Reggie has a very thick coat and seems to really love the cooler weather brought on by fall. He isn’t necessarily more energetic because Reggie seems to be a mellow guy at heart.
Looking at him today it’s almost hard to believe that it’s the same dog, that’s how much Reggie has improved. It has been a pleasure to watch and know Reggie during these months. He is such a sweet dog with a great personality. Reggie will always have his medical condition – but it’s under control and we hope that it always will be. We especially hope that there will be a home in his future – in a less sunny environment than Southern Utah that will be willing to take Reggie home and love him forever. When that time comes, they will need to be prepared to treat possible flare ups of his medical condition throughout his life. We hope that those won’t happen but they might. Reggie is doing so well that it’s time for him to retire from the Guardian Angel website. His caregivers are having a hard time coming up with weekly progress journals for Reggie. They promise to update us all from time to time when anything major changes for Reggie.
The reason that I spent so much time with Reggie during his early months here is that National Geographic followed his story for an upcoming episode of DogTown. Reggie was a little camera shy so his story was sometimes difficult to film but I think that everyone will enjoy watching Reggie from day one. Of course our greatest hope is that someone will see Reggie on the show and adopt him. As happy as Reggie is here at Best Friends, we’d really love to see him in a home of his very own.
We will let you know when Reggie's episode of DogTown on the National Geographic Channel is going to air in the next few weeks so stay tuned!
