About a month ago, on a Thursday evening, I got a phone call from my BF. " Bad news about Max. He is limping in the back yard." I asked him to check his paws, in case, sth stuck into his paws. But Max's paws look normal. We didn't know what caused his limping. The evening before,  three of us were playing at an empty parking lot. At that time, he was fine. We discussed the whole night (actually I got home from work at around 4:00am). We both believe an X-ray will be a better solution. We called the vet at 7:00am and took Max to the hospital in 30 mins. The doctor told us that he need to keep Max at the hospital for at least 5 hours for X-Ray. They need to drug him first. Let him fall asleep and all his muscle relax and pull both legs sideways so that they can get better review in X-ray. This is our first time to let Max alone in stranger's hand for so long. We feel so bad for him. Before we made our way to home, we did some shopping for Max, toys and treat etc.
When we arrived at home, everything felt so different. There was no Max wagging his tail at the door. The whole house was so quite without Max. It suddently doesn't feel as a home anymore. It's just a house. We laid down at bed hands in hands, thinking about all the good stuff Max brought to us. We promised to each other that no matter what happened to him, we are going to take care of him. Although I was extremely tired and without sleep, I could not go to sleep. I am sincerely worried about this litter creature. He is part of our family. When he is in trouble, we are in trouble. At exactly 12 clock, we called the hospital, they told us Max was not ready yet. Around 2:00 pm, the doctor finally called back and told us the bad news. From X-Ray review, there are some bone problems around his hips and both hips. The degree is medium to severe. Future surgery is likely needed. We rushed to the car and drove to the hospital. There is only one thought in my mind, I want to bring Max home. In the office, the doctor showed us the X-ray. Max is born with hip dysplasia, which is a known hereditary problem of big dogs, especially GSD. Both of his hips are abnormal. And it looks much worse than visible signs of Max's movement. Even the doctor could no believe it. He thought Max must have a higher tolerance against pain. We are instructed to not to over-exercise him. This is really hard.( Max loves to play and he even tried to play when he was limping.) He should not put on more weight, since it could be more burden on his hips. He has been put on certain pills. Our hospital bill for that day is around $300.  The doctor does not suggest surgery right now. He only asks us to observe Max. If he is doing fine with pills, there might be no surgery.  But we know Max is going to need it one day. For one-side hip, the cost is around $3000. I can feel the doc did not want to scare us about the financial burden. He said we don't need to do both hips, one side is all right.
The good news is Max is doing fine with pills. Some of them he just eats right off your hand, so we don't have to hide them in the hot dogs. He has not show one single sign of limping.
We guessed his previous owner dumped him because of his medical condition and probably dumped him in the middle of no where. We found this out because when we were out, if we were around our car or truck,  and throw toys very far to him to fetch, he will be running back to us really hard, like we are going to leave him there.
I know I said in my previous article about shelter animals. I still don't believe that all of them ended up over there because they are sick or bad-tempered. Unfortunately, Max is medically changllenged pet and needs special care, we never regret adopting him. We are thinking  about adopting a playmate or girl friend for him, so he won't be so lonely when we go to work. Let me end my writing in this following words, from somewhere I read.
" The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."