We named her “Ninotchka,” which quickly became “Nina,” after the character Greta Garbo played in her first comedy role, in 1939. For those of you not familiar with old movies, the tagline for the movie was “Garbo laughs!” Known as a dramatic actress, aloof and reclusive, she was the reigning queen of romance in her day. But I digress. Our Nina is a Silken Windhound, a relatively new breed derived from Borzois and Whippets, with the look of a half-size Borzoi and the sweet temperament of a Whippet.
True to her name’s inspiration, Nina is beautiful and aloof. She is a bit shy, and may not be as demonstrative as, say, a Golden Retriever, but she does like to be stroked and petted, usually with her muzzle or a paw draped on our laps. In short, we fell in love with her.
But when Nina was only 4 years old, she was struck by a strange malady. Usually a food hound, she suddenly showed no interest in it, and had no energy. When the vet took a blood sample, he found she was alarmingly anemic. “I don’t know how she is even standing up,” he said. He sent us to a specialty animal clinic in the next city. Their diagnosis was IMHA, or Immune Moderated Hemolytic Anemia. Briefly it is auto-immune disease in which the body attacks its own red blood cells. Without treatment, death is certain. With treatment, there is a 50 percent chance of remission, but with a long period of costly drugs. The first necessity was blood transfusions, to try to outrun the disease while drugs were slowly taking effect. Five blood transfusions, aggressive drug treatment, and six weeks in the hospital later, Nina tottered out, eight pounds underweight, but with her red cell count up to normal and holding. We took her home with a battery of drugs to keep her stable, gradually tapering off over several weeks and follow-up visits to the clinic. She is now as frisky and active as ever, playing with our other two dogs, Sparky and Sophie.
This did not come without cost. About $11,000. Over the years, eleven dogs and two cats have shared our lives, with the sad but inevitable Rainbow Bridge crossings from natural causes. But never had we been faced with such a calamitous disease as this. Fortunately, by some inspiration, instinct, or just plain dumb luck, we had decided to buy pet health insurance for our dogs Nina, Sophie, and Sparky about a year before. It wasn’t cheap, but as it turned out, the policy paid about $7500, well worth the cost of the coverage.
Our pets are our children, dependent for their very lives upon us. We do our best to keep ourselves healthy, and have been lucky enough to have decent health insurance. If we can manage it, we will also keep our furry kids covered as well.
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