He was handed in to Lizzie's Barn Sanctuary along with his grandmother - 8 year old Rosie - because their "mum" was moving into accommodation that would not allow dogs.
Hugo was born on Christmas Eve 2008, but weighs just 1.88 kgs and is the size of a 6/8 week jack russell pup. As with all dogs who arrive at the Barn, Fionna took them for a vet check. During the course of the check, her vet noted that Hugo had a very loud heart murmur. He admitted that he was not a heart specialist and recommended that Hugo be examined further for the cause of the heart murmur to be diagnosed and treated. Fionna decided that the best place to do this would be our usual vets - Highcroft Vets - as they have been fantastic with our other dogs - Flora and Bran - and have helped with other Barn dogs, as well as having a wonderful cardiologist on site.
And so, Fionna arrived last Thursday with Hugo in his carrier, Orca the Porker and Patch for a short visit. Hugo went along to visit the cardiologist who very quickly realised that further tests and examinations were going to be needed. The following day was his day off, but he offered to come in for the morning just so that Hugo could be scanned and x-rayed before Fionna needed to return to South Wales with him. A pulmonic stenosis - which could be treated with surgery - or an aortic stenosis - which could be treated with medication - were the most likely candidates for Hugo's noisy heart.
Hugo spent the rest of Thursday evening behaving much like every other jack russell puppy: yapping wildly, tripping up every person within stepping distance and winding up the much larger chocolate labrador pups! Thankfully, he slept soundly through the night.
Friday morning arrived and Hugo objected to not having breakfast before being whisked out of the door on an adventure into the unknown. We handed him into the care of Highcroft and left.
At 1 o'clock the phone call came that changed everything.
Oliver - the cardiologist - told us that Hugo has both a pulmonic stenosis AND an aortic stenosis. This means that valves on both sides of his heart have restricted openings for whatever reason. As well as this devastating news, we were told that Hugo has increased mitral valve regurgitation and hypertrophy - which means that the heart muscle has thickened and distorted the mitral valve, which in turn means that the valve cannot close properly and so some blood leaks back into the left atrium when the left ventricle contracts - and tricuspid valve dysplasia - which means that the valve has not come away from the right ventricle wall as it should have done during embryonic development and so the valve remains open allowing blood to leak back into the right atrium when the right ventricle contracts. All of these defects are congenital and have been present since birth, which explains why Hugo is such a tiny little boy. As the defects are so severe, neither surgery nor medication will make much difference at this point.
Sadly, Oliver also told us that he expects Hugo to live only for another 6 months :o(
At this point, my 10 year old daughter, Sophie, stepped up to the plate. In the time that Hugo had already been with us during Fionna's visit, he had made it quite clear that Sophie was his favourite person and Sophie had thoroughly enjoyed lavishing him with the love and cuddles he demanded. Fionna made it clear that Hugo was going to need to have 15 years worth of love and life crammed into the space of 6 months and would need somebody that would bond tightly enough with him that his health could be carefully monitored in case of any deterioration.
Sophie is a dog lover and seems to have a special affinity with dogs. Fionna is her idol. She has helped me to care for our dogs for years and has also helped me with our foster dogs that we've had over time, so she barely hesitated in offering to make Hugo her responsibility.
And so Hugo became Prince Roger Hugo Hendy of Chook Towers. A mighty title for a tiny dog full of might and fight.
From here on in, the responsibility of this blog will fall to Sophie and Prince Hugo (with some assistance if needed!) and they will share the memories that they make in Hugo's time with us. Also to be shared, will be the fundraising efforts that Sophie plans to put in place to help with the costs of Prince Hugo's care or for other dogs needing medical assistance during their stay at Lizzie's Barn.
To say that I am proud of my daughter would be a massive understatement, but Prince Hugo is a very special puppy and he needed a very special person to step up for him. Fortunately for him, my very special Sophie was on hand.
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