Chapter 4 Navy Seal Saves Lab

  Years ago, I was at one of my wife's office parties when her second-in-command asked me about my woods' name of "Two-Guns." I explained,"Two- Guns was my CB handle at my hunt club in Virginia." The woman was very quick, for she immediately replied, " If your name is Two-Guns, your wife's name is Bulletproof!" No truer words were ever spoken.
  Bulletproof is once again looking for a way to get Tessa, an older, yellow lab back on her feet. Her hips gave out about two years ago, and her paws turned in like fists. I didn't see any hope for Tessa, but Bulletproof ignored my pessimism and started taking her into Gainesville (Florida) for acupuncture treatements. She perservered with the treatments for nine months. Seal kept Tessa at his house. I had,
and still have, a necrosis - dead area- on my femur in the knee. I was on crutches, and Tessa was too heavy for Bulletproof to carry. Seal wasn't much better than me; his knees were busted up from parachuting with the old-school parachutes that you had no control over. Several times a day, he carried Tessa outside to pee and poop. You could hear his knees popping, and his face would turn red with pain, but of course he wouldn't say a word. Tessa never got depressed with the fact that she was helpless and couldn't move. She seemed to have an unquenchable drive. Whatever progress she made, she thrived on. But progress came months later. First, her paws relaxed and opened one after another. Then she began walking on her front feet. Her drive was so great that you could hold her up by her back legs, and she would walk with her two front feet. Finally, the back legs came back, and Seal could walk her outside by supporting her with a wide, cloth strap under her belly. This made life much easier for him and was something Bulletproof could do too.
Soon she was on her own and proudly tottering about. It wasn't pretty for her legs weren't straight and sometimes they weren't synchronized. She looked like she had been drinking but she got there. Sometimes, she missed  "there" by a few feet. Unphased, she simply reset and reached her destination.
  But now, after being independent for about a year, she is down again. Seal and his bad knees are being re-enlisted to carry her. Bulletproof is considering acupuncture again, but she is also looking into a vet who is having good results with stem cell therapy. The price, $1,800,  isn't that much different than a year of acupuncture treatments plus the cost of gas to get into Gainesville. If Tessa's stem-cell therapy is successful, Seal and I are going to go into that vet's office on our hands and knee! Bow-Wow!