A Dog Named Beautiful

"I loved a dog with all my heart once."

That quote sums up this entire book.

I was 15 pages in and sobbing into my pup's fur about unconditional love.

I have never loved anything as much as I love my girl, Sophie.

We've been together almost 4 years now and I would give anything to keep her in my life forever.

Rob Kugler and his furbaby Bella set off on a 3-6 month road trip to soak up the time they had left together. It all happened right after Bella was diagnosed with cancer....in her lungs that spread to her leg. The best option to give her a little more time was to amputate her leg. That's right, Rob had a 3-legged pup with more gusto than any other dog he'd ever seen. I mean, sure he was out almost 2 grand, but it was worth it to spend some more time with his girl.

It's such a touching story about a man and his dog.

But for Rob, it was more than that. He was lost for a very long time but he found himself learning life lessons from Bella. He found himself through her. He spent countless days wondering if he was giving her the best life imaginable, especially with everyone asking him if her quality of life diminished after losing her leg. But honestly, it made her stronger. Which in turn made him stronger.

Everything in this book made me cry.

Everything in this book made me hug my dog.

Everything in this book was so relatable.

In January, we had a run in with our pup.

Sophie woke up and could barely stand. 

I carried her outside for her morning potty break and she got sick and just collapsed. 

I ran inside stressed, telling my husband to grab the keys. We needed a vet.

Mind you, we live in South Korea, with vets who barely spoke our language.

The first vet we could find said "Heart failure, emergency. Go to this vet for surgery, immediately." 

The next vet said, "Emergency surgery. Her uterus exploded."

They set to work on my baby while we sat in the waiting room, covered in poop and vomit, and just cried. Within the hour, we were told there was a 30% chance she would survive the surgery given her age (she's 10ish).

A week later, we got to take her home.

She made it.

Sure, we were out 2 grand, just like Rob...

But we knew our pup needed us and we jumped on the chance to help her.