PUPPY POWER
Her dog may be smaller than average, but Shelby Mayo, 20, knows he’s not short on love!
Logging onto Instagram, I posted a picture of an adorable black and brown German Shepherd puppy. Can’t wait to take him home, I wrote as the caption.
‘He’s not even here yet, and he already has his own Instagram page!’ my dad Alan, 48, laughed when he saw what I was up to.
At 17, I was still in high school and living at home with Dad, my mum Christina, 48, and my sister Darcy, 20, in Phoenix, Arizona.
I’d grown up with dogs running around, but now, after all of them had passed on, the house was quiet.
‘We need a big protective dog around,’ Dad suggested.
Researching online, I found pictures of German Shepherds, and fell in love right away.
Dad was smitten, too.
In October 2017, we found a breeder, and a few months later, we were introduced to Ranger.
Going to visit him, he was so adorable, bounding up to me and Dad for cuddles.
‘He’s perfect,’ I smiled.
Still too young to be away from his mum, we had to wait a few weeks to bring him home.
So I took some snaps of him on my phone, and while we waited for his arrival, I set up his Instagram account.
A few weeks later, a nervous Ranger stepped out of his crate
and into our living room. ‘Welcome home,’ I smiled. Ranger settled in right away, and over the next few days, we were all covered in puppy slobber!
‘Ranger!’ I squealed, fending myself from his lolling tongue.
A few days later, I started to notice something wasn’t right.
‘He doesn’t have much energy for a puppy,’ I said to Darcy, watching Ranger flop on his bed.
He should have been bouncing off the walls, but lately, it seemed all he wanted to do was sleep.
One morning, ruffling him behind his ears, I felt something between my fingers – a lump on his head the size of a golf ball. ‘Oh God!’ I gasped.
Dad and I raced him to the vet, and after an exam, we were told that poor Ranger had parasites – the lump on his head was a swollen cyst. ‘My poor baby,’ I cried, scooping him into my arms. He was given medication, and over the next three months, the cyst came down. But during that time, we were constantly back and forth to the vet – Ranger was very poorly and it seemed he had every ailment going. And he was hardly growing. By now he was only 12 inches tall – while other German Shepherd puppies triple their size, Ranger was still like Bambi on ice, tip-toeing along on his tiny, unstable legs.
On Instagram, his followers offered all kinds of opinions.
It looks like he has dwarfism, one wrote, and several others agreed.
Not taking any chances, we took him back to the vet.
And, after several tests, we had an answer.
‘Ranger has pituitary dwarfism,’ the vet said.
The condition meant that my poor pup was lacking the hormone to make him grow.
He’d be a puppy forever, a furry Peter Pan. Online, though, Ranger was bigger than ever – a fully-fledged internet sensation!
People from all over the world were commenting on how adorable he was, and some even remarked how lucky we were to have a permanent puppy!
I suppose they were right – Ranger’s condition didn’t affect him in any other way, and he was perfectly healthy.
Last October, we bought another German Shepherd, Jessie, to keep him company.
Ranger is now two and is no bigger than a Jack Russell – his little sister towers over him.
Now, though, with over 135,000 followers on Instagram, he’s got all the
confidence in the world, despite his dinky size.
Too big for the house? No way.
Too big for his boots?
I’d say so!
Ranger will be a puppy forever