Hope was a pup with a strong character and she knows what she wants and what she doesn't want... she grew up to a very beautiful pup just as i hoped and like the siberians....

She was although such a little rascal and had a big mouth to the other adult dogs... afraid of nothing or no-one... she did as she pleased and nothing or no-one could stop her or make her think otherwise.... even at the dogschool for obedience it was all well but it was hard work to have her obey and even there she wasn't unnoticed...

At the age of 5.5 months it almost went dramatically wrong.... She was outside in the kennel with the other dogs with mom Danthé, aunty Danika, halfsister Crazy and grandfather Uriah... This last one is wery patient but when he had enough it is enough and then he can correct the little rascals by throwing them on the ground and make it clear it was enough... Hope behaved very well in the group and had a companion in Crazy... together those two played a lot... till one day she went to far and Uriah had enough of it... he corrected Hope which went almost totally wrong... and almost killed Hope !

I heard a loud scream from the kennel which wasn't very strange because when you look very mad at Hope she already screams it what we call a screamer... but this scream was different so i went over ther to check it out and Hope was obviously in pain and stood with a buckled back, i checked her up and couldn't find any ingury but she continued to have her back buckled up and continued screaming and was in panic when she saw Uriah.  I gave her some painkiller Metacam and hoped it would soon pass... which wasn't the case...  i tried to feed her because she is such a food addict and hoped she "forgot " about her pain... but then also she screamd out the pain... and then she started to swell up like a balloon... so whithout hesitation i drove her to the nearest hospital in Mol ... they thought her thorax was perforated (which is deadly in most cases)... they took an X-ray but they couldn't find any dammage... she stayed overnight and when she would survive the night she woul be clear... and the air she had in her body would disappear itself....

Her a video made on monday when she came back from the hospital, only half the proportions she later on achieved on wednesday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RH09ADsDDI

She survived the night and came back home on monday... but the air in her body diodn't disappear and only became bigger and bigger... till wednesday she was extreme ... so without hesitation again i brought her to the hopsital in merelbeke... there everybody was impressed by her proportion she already had and that she still was the happy puppy ... she was still drinking feeding and playing.... but only she was swollen like a balloon.

Again an X-ray was made and there they saw the air came in her chest through her trachea and spread through her whole body... and i mean whole body... ther was even air in her toes and tail ... the only place she wasn't inflated by air where her ears.....

Then they looked inside her with a little camera through the trachea and they found a little hole of 1 cm - 1.5 cm caused by a teeth of another dog.... (Uriah).  They proposed to have surgery on her because with bandages it wasn't sure that it would work.  So she had immediately surgery...  The vet Bart van Goethem, diplomate surgeon, told me it would take 1 h - 1.5 h, because the place was good to reach... But he came back only after 2 hours... the surgery seemd more complicated then first thought because they couldn't reach the hole...so they tried to turn the trachea a bit but eve nthen they couldn't reach the hole....  so they had to open up the trachea in front to reach the hole and close it up and then close the front again.  They also made 2 little holes in her thighs to let the air already out a bit...It was a very stressfull time in the hopsital but she recoerd very well from it and the next day she could already leave the hospital.... and she jumped around again like nothing had happened.... although she had just had a major surgery...

Thanks to Peggy Van Broeck and Dr Bart Van Goethem i received this pictures before and during operation :

and this is Hope a week after the operation back in normal condition... see the difference

At this video she was only 1 day home from the hospital and at seconde 45 you can see the cut in her throat and as you can see she is alive and kicking again !!!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvAQ0Gs24l4 

So Hope deserved her name very well : Hidden  like explained earlier and now because she was hiding a hole in her throat during 3 days !  and Hope ... yeah we were hoping she would survive but it was a close call