Mulligan: The Do-Over Dog

In this episode, Dr. Cliff Redford shares the heartwarming story of Mulligan, a senior golden retriever who Alanna and Keith adopted after being returned to a shelter. The conversation explores the challenges and joys of adopting a senior dog, the importance of giving them a second chance, and the transformation Mulligan undergoes as he adjusts to his new life. 

Please follow Mulligan on Instagram at @thegoldensaint

First, if you haven't watched my film and live in Canada (or have one of those VPN things), you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/oMUx3yuyznc?si=oagpg7bGnpbuyXlJ

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com and on Twitter at @drcliff_vet
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:08)

Hey everyone, Dr. Cliff here. VetLife with Dr. Cliff is what you are listening to. Uh, it's going to be a fun episode. Really, really fun episode. It's going to end with this great interview with, uh, the, the newly parents of Mulligan, the do-over dog. Uh, it's basically an old golden retriever that was adopted from the Edmonton shelter, dog shelter, and, uh, everything sort of went viral.

Um, some of the great stories, this guy's living his best second life sort of thing. So I'm to be talking to him and the family. Um, so I promise you it's going to end in a very warm hearted and loving way. The reason I bring that up is, uh, I got some interesting stories to tell you about this week. Uh, the going, goings on over at Wellington vet hospital. Um, but, uh, and, and one of them is not, uh, one of them is not good in the sense of the pet owner was a big, uh,

Big jerkwad basically. yeah, what a, what a not pleasant. Gentlemen. ⁓ but before that we had this, ⁓ really interesting sort of funny case. I've talked before about how we're slowly getting into, ⁓ accepting more urgent care cases. ⁓ there is a need for sure. ⁓ in Markham, ⁓ and, ⁓ frankly, ⁓ my team and I are really good at it.

Uh, and I'm very lucky to have the team that I have and the numbers of, of team members that I have, uh, that were able to help these animals out. Um, and this, uh, this one funny story was a dog named Tux. Tux is about 20 months old, a sheep-a-doodle, if I remember correctly. And there's a knock on the clinic on the exam room door by one of my technicians and, uh, the technician comes in and says, Hey, Cliff, I've got Tux's,

owner on the phone and Tux says they give me the signalment. Signalment is the species, sex, ⁓ breed and age. So they got it. got Tux, a 20 month old male neutered sheepadoodle and he has swallowed an air tag. And my first thing was what's an air tag? I did not know.

I had no idea. And they said, it's one of those things you stick on like your bag or your luggage to help you find it. It's like a GPS thing. I was like, all right, how big is it? And they sort of say it's, you know, it's about the size of a, I don't know, a penny nickel, something like that. And, um, sorry, I'm getting distracted. My dog, uh, Bo has a, football that he's been playing with and he's ripped it apart and now he's got his snout stuffed in it.

⁓ he's like one of those, ⁓ bucket head dogs we've rescued in India. except now he got the, ⁓ the football office. Now, this is why he can't have good things. Can't have nice things, Bo. You keep wrecking everything. It's like, this is great. love it. anyways, so, ⁓ I said, all right, well, well, bring them in and, you know, we, we were thinking, Hey, is this going to still work? I mean, if he hasn't chewed it apart, it's probably going to still work. And, you know, we could actually see if we can.

confirm that it's in the dog because how sure are they? They were pretty sure. Apparently the father had a whole bunch of them in his office and ⁓ Tux jumped up onto the desk and grabbed a bunch and ran off with one in his mouth and then it was gone. ⁓ Anyway, so they geolocated it or they tracked it on their phone and sure enough, it was in the grandfather's car.

Meaning it was in the dog that was in the grandfather's car as he's driving over to the clinic. Okay. So it's definitely in the dog, right? And as we got there and we take a history and, you know, technician does an exam, ⁓ the granddaughter, the adult granddaughter, ⁓ barely adult granddaughter says, Hey, ⁓ what, maybe it's still in the car. I mean, that's possible. And, she's got her father on the phone. Who's at home. Who's using his phone to track it. That sort of thing.

And she basically said, grandpa, could you please like drive away, drive, drive to the other end of the parking lot. And, he was sure it wasn't in there. He's like, checked. It's not in there. Dog didn't vomit. I mean, I would've noticed if the dog vomit is pretty smelly. She said, please, can you go just, just do it? ⁓ I wasn't there, so I'm just kind of going by what I was told. Sure enough, as grandpa drove away, so did the air tag. So it was not in tugs tux.

As far as we can figure out, he had it in his mouth, maybe in his little cheek pouch and he was saving it for a rainy day. And, we didn't have to do anything. We didn't have to take X-rays. We didn't have to induce vomiting. Um, so fantastic news. We didn't bill them. We're just like, you know what? It was fine. It took us five minutes. Um, everything's fine, but there you go. Uh, so air tags, I learned what they are.

I learned that they are very likely ⁓ functioning when in the stomach of a dog, at least for period. ⁓ And ⁓ always check, always check before you induce vomiting ⁓ if you're unsure. And if you have an ability to check if it's something like an air tag. So yeah, pretty interesting case, pretty funny. The one that wasn't so funny was

Also kind of an emergency, kind of an urgent case, though we had a, like an appointment opening for him. I was doing surgery at the time. So my associate, Dr. Ron was seeing the dog and we should have known better because there was, we hadn't seen this dog very often, like only once every couple of years, they'd kind of bounced around vet clinics. They had been fired from their previous vet clinic for being, ⁓

rude, let's say for being aggressive for the owner for being sort of verbally abusive. and, ⁓ we'd even had a comment on our file when we had seen them a couple of years ago that dog is aggressive. That's fine. It's not the dog's fault. Dog is aggressive. Owner is aggressive, meaning verbally and owner refuses to receive education or refuses to.

⁓ be educated. So I think he just doesn't, doesn't want to hear anything you have to say. ⁓ everything he says is right, et cetera, et cetera. And his dog had a nasty wound on the tail or at least so he thought it ended up being a ruptured cyst. ⁓ but was going to need surgery to have that cyst removed. It was quite large. ⁓ so we prescribed antibiotics.

And they were going to give them an estimate for the surgery to occur a few days later. Once the antibiotics sort of kicked in, it would make the surgery a lot easier to do because the cysts would have shrunk somewhat. And what ended up happening was, first he, my technician, Meha went in to see him and he started to give her heck, give her trouble ⁓ about the upcoming estimate.

You know, are you guys going to try and rip me off and you guys are so expensive and you don't care about animals and why do you have such bad Google reviews? Well, Mayha kind of said, you know what, I'm not here to talk about Google reviews. ⁓ Here's the recommendations from the veterinarian. We're going to go over some medication soon and we'll send you an estimate. And he said, well, I want you to talk about the Google reviews. That's your job.

And she says, no, I'm not going to do that. And then he went on to talk about how this is what's wrong with your generation. ⁓ I think maybe she was getting a tiny bit emotional, like, you know, which is understandable. and, ⁓ and then he called her weak. Now I didn't know sort of any of this until well after the fact, but

⁓ Dr. Ron said, Hey, we got this aggressive dog. He's telling me we got this aggressive dog. We got this aggressive owner. I was like, look, give them the, give them the antibiotics. We can send them the estimate, but let's just get them out of here we'll deal with it. We'll deal with it later. So off he goes. And again, I'm in surgery and Hey, how did things go? I asked them and I said, you know, he was really rude upfront. yeah, it was just really difficult dealing with them. He was kind of rude to everybody. So I was like, you know what? We're done.

I'm going to fire this guy. So I sent him off an email and he'll probably, he wanted to go for a second opinion and you could say, he's never going to come back. But there's a, there's a formality required by us that we need to send, you know, an email or a phone call emails better because it's in writing and you can get a reply. Back in the old days, we used to do registered mail. You'd have to get them to sign for it. And maybe you still have to do that, but

It's basically, I basically said, know what, I'm the owner. ⁓ and, ⁓ as much as I love treating animals and his dog was quite well behaved today or that day. ⁓ other than they had trouble getting the E-caller on him. He was kind of going at the E-caller, but, ⁓ I said, you know, as much as we appreciate you bringing your dog to us and, we appreciate having the opportunity to help. I cannot permit and I do not allow.

clients or pet owners to speak poorly of or to my staff members. So as of now, you're no longer a client. am closing your file permanently and you are not permitted to come here with this particular pet or any other pets, be it for a wellness exam or even an emergency. ⁓ There are plenty of other clinics. I didn't say this, but there are plenty of other clinics that will

see emergencies, including multiple emergency hospitals. I said, you know, don't call us. If you call us, the team will politely direct you to email me. And if you continue to push the fact, I've asked them to just hang up on you. If you need to speak with me, if there's anything you want to say, you can email me and here's my email.

and he did, he emailed me and he emailed me and basically said, you suck and I never want to come to your clinic again anyways. And you are a Mickey mouse animal hospital and there's one like you on every corner of the street. okay. I've never, I've been called a lot of things. I've never been called a Mickey mouse veterinarian or my clinic be called a Mickey mouse animal hospital.

I guess that means like small time, maybe. don't know. ⁓ either way we were in agreement. I didn't want to see him. He didn't want to see me. So we are on a break permanently. ⁓ he then went on to say some, some, some other nasty things. What I found out is so he had included that email to the clinic, ⁓ which I wish he hadn't had done, but you know, he wants to, he wants to cause as much a drama as possible, but.

What I had found out, and this was in his file. So he had, let me say he had finished the email saying, since you're not going to, you're not going to take care of my pets anymore and you're no longer my veterinarian. I demand that you send me the medical records. And if you don't send it to me by Friday, which was about three days later, ⁓ you'll be hearing from my lawyer. Now I seriously thought about sort of not sending them and let them send me a letter from his lawyer or phone call from his lawyer.

I still don't have to, I don't have to get a lawyer. He's not going to take me to court. ⁓ and I could just let him rack up legal bills. ⁓ but the wise person in me, ⁓ the passive person in me, I would say the wise person in me, I just sent an email to the clinic saying, guys, can you double check that Dr. Ron's notes are in there, that the file is complete and then send it off to this gentleman.

and, ⁓ not knowing that they had received the email as well. So when I looked at the records and this was something that was confirmed by mayha and some other team members and boy, I wish this had of, ⁓ I wish I've had a known how bad it had gotten. ⁓ though he had already left the clinic and I mean, what am I going to do? If, if he had a talk like this while I was there, if I had to found out while he was still there and I had to confronted him, cause maybe I wasn't in surgery. ⁓ it, it.

It might not have gone that, ⁓ that well. ⁓ but he. Called some of my staff the B word and he specifically referred to may ha who's South Asian as, ⁓ that Brown woke. Bitch. ⁓ like who says, who says that? I mean, obviously like, so

Clearly, and we had this conversation about the team and we're all, when he kind of said that, although it's hurtful, it sort of made us uncomfortably laugh in the sense of, this guy is crazy as fuck. Sorry, dad, for my language. Like crazy as in not mental health crazy. So maybe I shouldn't use that word, but this guy has got, what is wrong with him that he thinks he can talk like that to regular people?

in a situation that doesn't involve, you know, we're not trying to steal from him or cause him harm. ⁓ He just thought we were costing too much money. I don't know. And it was just for the exam and the antibiotic. Give me a break. So he clearly has no comprehension or filter or social skills. That's what he has no social skills. ⁓ He is.

⁓ anti-social he is, he is, there's gotta be a more negative word than that. ⁓ he's an asshole. guy's an asshole. So I hope I didn't use his name. I don't think I used his name or his dog's name. ⁓ anyways, for the veterinarian students that are out there listening, and we do have this one veterinarian student who's also South Asian, who's with us. So we talked about it and I said, look, the big mistake we made and I made is not firing this guy sooner.

and you'll learn as veterinarians or other service, ⁓ providers, ⁓ or just general people, you'll just learn as general, as a general person, as you go on and get older and older, and hopefully you learn the lesson very, very quickly. I think I did pretty quickly. ⁓ that if, if you start to get sort of warning signs, Hey, this person's going to be a complete pain in the ass.

⁓ and as volatile and as insensitive and as difficult and, and, know, you could, you could really imagine them saying hurtful things or doing hurtful things, get them out of your life, get them out of your life as soon as you can. ⁓ so that's what we ended up doing and there you go. Everything went, everything went smoothly, I guess, after that, but it's been a very, very hectic week and a lot of, ⁓ cool emergencies and animals have done so well this week. My team has been so amazing.

And ⁓ especially, Mayha, shout out to you. I'm so proud of how you handled that situation. You just walked away from it, so it was good. All right, so everyone stay tuned for this wonderful interview of Mulligan and Mulligan's parents. And I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Thanks.

Alanna & Keith (16:27)

Good, how are you?

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:25)

How are you guys doing?

I am good. Hey, Mulligan. He's so handsome. He's like, don't, can dog, how well can, I'm asking you guys, I don't know the answer. How well can dogs see like TVs, like two dimensional? I don't know if they can.

Alanna & Keith (16:31)

you sad? Yes. Are you sad?

I don't know, but our St. Bernard that we had before him, she watched TV all the time. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:49)

Yeah, but I don't think that I wonder if they would recognize like, let's say Mulligan knew me knew me. Let's say I was his veterinarian and then he saw me and if I didn't speak, would he go like, hey, that looks like the dude that sticks a thermometer up, up my butt. Like, who knows? I got to figure it out. Anyways, nice to meet you guys. This is fantastic. I'll so I stumbled upon your story. A buddy of mine has a podcast that also does

Alanna & Keith (17:02)

Thank you.

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:17)

that also gets turned into a radio show on the chorus network. You guys are in Edmonton, right? So I think, shoot, I should know this if it's 10 10 or 6 40, I'm gonna find out. But I'm pretty sure it plays like Monday to Friday in the evenings from like eight to 10 PM ⁓ in Edmonton, but it's all across Canada. So I'm on his podcast slash radio show approximately once a week.

Alanna & Keith (17:22)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:45)

and his producer sent me your story. Yeah, it had gone viral on TikTok, I guess. I'm not on TikTok, but, and you know, we often talk about sciencey stuff, but I was like, no, I'm gonna pick this story, because she sends me a list. And I'm like, all right, I'll do this one and this one. I'm gonna pick this story, because it's such a feel good story. So it was kind of excellent.

Alanna & Keith (17:48)

no way! Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:11)

Why don't you guys introduce yourself and I think everyone would love to hear and everyone get your tissues ready about the story of you guys adopting Mulligan or the other way around.

Alanna & Keith (18:18)

You

Yeah, sure. So how did it start? So we lost our St. Bernard in February of this year and that basically destroyed Keith for sure. We were on vacation and so we didn't know if we wanted another dog again because she's a pretty special dog. ⁓

I grew up with Goldens and so I always wanted Goldens and I said, well, if we're going to get a dog, want a Golden again. And Keith felt really drawn to rescue. And so he was working with another local rescue here, just like donating food and stuff like that.

And so we started looking at all the rescues in Edmonton and I went to the Humane Society and this beautiful face popped up, Mulligan. And I looked at Keith and said, oh my gosh, like we need this dog. And he said, okay, let's like pump the brakes. We don't know if we're ready yet. If he's there tomorrow morning, we'll go meet him.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:25)

Ha

Alanna & Keith (19:30)

Yeah, I still had a lot of anxiety around bringing another dog into the house and still grieving Marlee not being there to say goodbye to her in person when she passed. So. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:44)

no, so while

you guys, when you said you were on vacation, he wasn't, Marlee wasn't with you. She, pardon me.

Alanna & Keith (19:47)

No, she was in Edmonton,

in Florida. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, that was really hard. And so, yeah, he didn't know what, if he was ready. And then I looked and I saw that Mulligan was 10 and we thought, my gosh, that's an old dog. don't think ever in our wildest dreams would we have decided to adopt.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:51)

, while I'm so sorry that's rough

Alanna & Keith (20:17)

a 10 year old dog but look at his face, you just fall in love instantly. And so the next day we woke up and he was off the website. So we assumed, oh he got adopted, that's great, at least he has a nice home. And then all of a sudden he popped up again and he was available. And so I had called the Humane Society and I guess the adoption had fallen through.

It's a very loud breather. ⁓ So the adoption had fallen through and I said, he's back. And he said, okay, if he's there tomorrow, we'll go meet him. And then he was gone again, of course, because who doesn't fall in love instantly when you see Mulligan's face.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:46)

We're talking about Mulligan, right? Keith. Okay. A little bit of both. That's fine.

Alanna & Keith (21:14)

And ⁓ he was gone for four or five days off the website. And one night, Keith took a chance to see, hopefully he's still at his new home, somebody's loving him. And...

He was gone. So I said, okay, I'm going to close all my Humane Society tabs. Like that ship has sailed. He's not meant to be ours. And I was closing my tabs and all of a sudden his sweet face was on my screen. So I called downstairs and I said, Keith, think he's like mulligan is back. And so Keith said, no, no way. Couldn't like you didn't. Yeah. And I don't know what prompted me either to look. I just, in my head, I just thought

just gonna gamble and take a look and just get some peace of mind for whatever reason. I'm not sure. And yeah, I looked and he wasn't there and this whole and folded. So I looked again. And there he was. And I just screamed back upstairs like, he's back. And immediately. Yeah, we knew we were going to meet him. There was no like sleep on it, although it was 8pm. So we went

to the Humane Society the next day, like half an hour before they opened. And went in and we said, we want to meet him. And within what, two minutes, somebody else was there asking about Mulligan. And I said, no, he's mine. Like we're taking him home. And so they set up like a meet and greet and stuff. so,

Dr. Cliff Redford (22:30)

Ha

Alanna & Keith (22:50)

He came out to meet us for the first time and I just, his beautiful face, he was just so calm and kind and just instantly came up to us and just rested his face in our laps. And literally from the time we've met him, he's been Velcro to me. Like he will not leave my side. When I leave the house, he cries, right? So, ⁓

So yeah, we instantly were like, yes, we're taking him home. ⁓ Took a while, but we got him in the car and he went right in the car. No problem. ⁓ he went right in the car. He was excited to leave. Yeah. I think the picture that was in our video that everyone saw is we said we really want a first picture with him and everyone has commented like he looks like he's smiling.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:32)

He knew what it meant.

Yeah, even now, even now.

Alanna & Keith (23:47)

in that picture and

he honestly ever I think after like day three he has not stopped smiling like this is just him he's so smiley and everybody who meets him falls instantly in love yeah

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:01)

Beautiful, beautiful.

Now, did

you did you name him Mulligan or was that the shelter?

Alanna & Keith (24:11)

So

no, the shelter didn't name him that either. His name is Mulligan. It's tattooed in his ear. It's tattooed in his ear. Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:19)

my goodness.

I've never seen anyone like I've seen dogs tattooed before. used to do a lot of work with rescue greyhounds so they have tattoos for various identifications but it's never a name I've never seen you know. There you go Mulligan I got a lot of tattoos as well I don't have my own name but I got my kids names so that's fair. ⁓ Well then you couldn't change it.

Alanna & Keith (24:37)

Thank

No. Well, we thought it was just like, what a perfect name for, ⁓ you know, the whole circumstance, know, Mulligan. I'm not a golfer, but my dad's a big golfer. Her dad's a big golfer and a Mulligan, I guess, is a do-over. And this is, we thought, how poetic. This is his do-over story.

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:03)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it is warm so many hearts, ⁓ which is great. We need more of this, right? Like social media can sometimes be a little bit toxic. ⁓ You know, instead of doom scrolling, it's gotta be a happy scrolling. So that's what this is. I absolutely love it. And I understand Mulligan's working very hard on losing some weight.

Alanna & Keith (25:14)

Yeah.

Yeah, so he came into the shelter. I mean, you're a veterinarian, you know, 110 pound golden retriever is not normal. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:31)

But what did his parents look like? That's what people always say. I'll be like, look, ⁓ buddy

is kind of heavy. No, no, he's only 90 pounds. He's a, you know, a small Labrador weighing 90 pounds. His dad was 95. His mom was 100. Well, maybe they were heavy too. It happens. ⁓

Alanna & Keith (25:43)

on.

Exactly.

So yeah, he loves his treats. But yeah, we're looking at losing I think he's at 103 now.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:03)

Hmm. good.

Alanna & Keith (26:04)

And so we'll try and him

down to 85, see what he looks like at 85. And so I have a full diet. I'm like calorie counting with a waist scale and he's doing hydrotherapy three times a week. And so yeah, getting those steps in. Yeah, he's loving the pool. He's loving sweat. Oh yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:18)

Awesome.

He loves it, I bet. Yeah, I

saw it too. Like he was doing fetch and he brought two toys instead of one. so he's an O.

Alanna & Keith (26:28)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that was him being

lazy though. He thought if I can bring two toys, I don't need to go back for a second trip to get the second one. So I'll just grab the other one along the way back and he's smart. Yeah, he's smart. Smart boy.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:38)

It's not lazy Keith, it's efficient. He's efficient,

but did he get two treats for doing that? That's the big question.

Alanna & Keith (26:49)

On swimming days, all his treats, his calories and treats are for swim time. So yeah, and he, I feel like he's just even shining brighter. he, people are commenting, he looks younger already. And we just hope that he's happy. And you know, when we went to adopt him, we said to each other,

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:54)

Excellent nice nice

Yeah.

Alanna & Keith (27:14)

this could be really hard because it could be another loss really soon. But we said, you know, he deserves a second chance for sure, because I think so many senior dogs sit in shelters and especially a dog like Mulligan who grew up on a farm for 10 years is what we know. And imagine going from a farm to a tiny little cage.

Dr. Cliff Redford (27:36)

Mm-hmm.

Alanna & Keith (27:43)

That's pretty scary. And so, you know, he deserves everything. And so we said, we're just going to give him what we can. And whatever we time, time we have with him is so much of a blessing to us and hopefully to him as well, because he is getting the life that he deserves in his golden years.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:05)

Yeah,

and you guys had posted that you can't even imagine your life without him now, so what a great ⁓ decision.

Alanna & Keith (28:11)

Yeah. Yeah. You know, everyone keeps

commenting that, you know, you know, thank goodness you saved this poor boy. You know, he's coming to a good home and, and I think that's true. But I keep saying to Alana that I think it's him that really saved us. And I know it might sound like cliche or, but it's really true because I had a lot of anxiety about another dog and this dog is just.

you know, warmed and filled their hearts with joy and, and um... Help the grief of Marley to raise that. You know, our dog was, Marley was 150 pounds. She was a big girl. And so she was a lot of noise in the house and, and that we don't have kids. So the silence in the house sometimes was a little unsettling. So he just, brings all sorts of joy and comfort into, you know, back into our home.

which has been a blessing.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:09)

And I think, you know, whether it's with the dog, whether it's with a spouse or partner, having somebody in the house or a dog in the house, even if they're, you know, in another room, but you know, they're there, there's like an energy, there's something you just know you're not alone. And even if they're not making noise, though, he's a heavy breather. ⁓ Even if they're not making noise that you can pick up, I truly feel it that there's a

Alanna & Keith (29:30)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:37)

There's like an energy, some sort of connection and you just don't feel alone when there's somebody or some other loving animal in the house with you. ⁓ So it's definitely therapeutic for all of us, think, ⁓ without a doubt. ⁓ And I mean, seven pounds weight loss, you've only had them for a couple months.

Alanna & Keith (29:59)

So

I think he lost some weight in the shelter because he wasn't eating. Even the first three days with us, he was very picky. Like he'd eat three little kibbles and walk away. And so I think he lost some weight from the trauma of it all. But since he's been with us, so he's been with us four weeks, he's lost just over three pounds.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:05)

Okay. no.

Okay.

Okay.

Alanna & Keith (30:27)

So

because I think, I mean, you know, as a veterinarian, we don't want to go too fast because that's detrimental. ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:34)

No,

mean a pound a week or a pound every two weeks is spectacular. I wish I could do that. That's amazing.

Alanna & Keith (30:38)

Yeah, so

we're by Christmas he'll be a svelte, younger feeling man.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:46)

85 pounds mulligan you're gonna look so good dude you already look good, but you'll be so much healthier for sure

Alanna & Keith (30:51)

Yeah,

it's funny because so many people do say he doesn't look overweight at all. I don't think he needs to lose weight, but he hides it well. He hides it when you look at him from the back. I said to my mom when we first adopted him, he looks like a sausage, like a big chubby sausage.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:04)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's,

it's, it's easy to misunderstand what their shape is supposed to be. Look, the reality is, is the vast majority of dogs by the time they're five years old are heavy. Same thing with cats, especially indoor cats. And I do encourage cats stay inside, but the vast majority of them, of dogs and cats are overweight. So we don't know what to compare it to. ⁓ But I

Alanna & Keith (31:26)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:39)

tell people and they'll ask me, ⁓ well, what's his weight? he, weighs, you know, in his case, he weighs 110 pounds. Is that a good weight? I wouldn't even have to look at them to know that's too heavy for a golden retriever. But, ⁓ I say, well, I don't look at the numbers because every dog's different and breeds are different whatnot, but I do what I call the hug test. And I basically, I basically hug them and I hug their ribs and you should be able to only, you should be able to feel the last few ribs quite easily. And then.

Alanna & Keith (31:49)

you

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:09)

with only minimal pressure, you can feel the other ribs through a little bit of body fat. ⁓ And sometimes they'll joke and they'll be like, yeah, I can feel my dog's ribs. He's got three of them. I'm like, no, no, those are rolls of fat. Those aren't ribs. ⁓ Like, you you guys are in shape. He's gonna be in shape. Like if you check, you can feel your ribs underneath some muscle and very little body fat. So it's the same with cats and dogs and.

Like weight control is so important. I'm sure your veterinarian has talked about this, you know, the risks of heart disease and arthritis and cancer and diabetes and all kinds of hormonal conditions. So, ⁓ if you can, if you can get him down to that proper weight on average, dogs live an extra 18 months just by staying a proper body weight. ⁓ and it's kind of the same for people. I mean, you know, if you look at people who live till they're a hundred, none of them are

heavy, they're little what I call bird men and bird women, you know, still driving at 95 and living on their own and full of spunk and they're tiny. Like body fat is rough on our bodies. ⁓ For sure. I, you know, I talked about on this podcast a few times about me battling my cholesterol and trying not to go on medication, which I've successfully been able to do. The biggest thing is losing weight. Losing weight has just dropped my cholesterol because it's better on my liver, but

Alanna & Keith (33:09)

Yes.

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (33:35)

So he's met the veterinarian. How did that go? His first visit.

Alanna & Keith (33:40)

So he, we said he came into the car at the Humane Society very easily, right? He was like, yeah, get me the heck out of here. Coming out is a totally different story. So the first time we went to the vet, well, we bought him some stairs because we didn't want him just jumping out of the tailgate, just on his joints, we know he's old. So we bought him some stairs, he went up them fine. And then to come out,

We coaxed him, but not happening. He basically backs all the way up as far as he can go into the vehicle and just like, you know, when they really like grip down and hunker down. So lots of treats are required to get out. ⁓ but once we got him in, he was fine because there's people there and he, he's, you know, a heartbreaker. loves people. So everywhere he goes.

people love him and he loves them. So it was fine once we were in the vet. He literally lets us and he let the vet pick in his ears, look through his paws, touch under his belly, do the thermometer thing. Like no issues at all. Getting blood, he didn't flinch. He needed a, what did he? X-ray. We did X-ray. yeah, shot.

Dr. Cliff Redford (34:56)

Yeah.

Alanna & Keith (35:08)

he got standby a wasp. ⁓ right he got second wasp and so he needed an intermuscular ⁓ exactly benadryl and she said he didn't even move. Yeah he's good. No

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:10)

⁓

Like better drill, yeah. ⁓

Wow. And those do hurt. mean, vaccines

rarely do dogs react because they get it under the skin versus in the muscle. muscle injections, I don't generally do in front of the owners because sometimes they cry and I warn the family, look, you might hear your dog cry for a brief second. This does sting. But he's a tough guy.

Alanna & Keith (35:43)

Yeah, no, she didn't do it in front of us. I had to coax him to the back. He wouldn't go with her because stranger danger of it. But ⁓ once he got back there, yeah, she said he just stood there and no problem. Yeah, he's a really interesting dog. I think that he's still obviously recovering from some trauma. He'll get into our car really well.

Dr. Cliff Redford (35:54)

like, all right, do what you got to do.

Alanna & Keith (36:05)

He doesn't really want to get out of our car no matter where we go. We go to the pet store. We go other places with him and other people's houses and he just letting him explore the world and he's very timid to get out. I think he's very unsure. He does get out with with some treats but then when we get back home he sees our house and he just he's in our house. He's in our door and he's right up onto our couch cuddled up in our couch. Yeah it's

Dr. Cliff Redford (36:33)

Wow. He

bonded to you guys and the house instantly. Yeah, yeah. And I think he bonded to you guys and then your ⁓ fragrance is in the house and in the car. So he's like, these are my new family members. This is my new pack. They're going to take care of me. I want to be where their scent is. ⁓ And now the house is his and not your guys. ⁓

Alanna & Keith (36:39)

Yeah.

That's right. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's incredible

how resilient dogs are. Like after 10 years being with a family, being left, surrendered and not knowing what's going on. And all of a sudden these new, well, he was adopted and then returned.

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:09)

Mm-hmm.

And didn't the article said he was returned because the owner found him to be stinky?

Alanna & Keith (37:21)

Yeah, that's what they say. much work. And too much work. No, we bathed him, but it's... smelled, well, we bathed him about a week later. a bath. He was, he needed it. But he was not, we didn't bath him because he was stinky. We bathed him because we could tell he needed a good bath and a good brush. He smelled golden. He smelled golden dust. He's golden.

Dr. Cliff Redford (37:24)

Is he stinky? ⁓

huh. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He smells like a dog. Yeah. Yeah.

And, look, I mean, ⁓ in case this person is listening, it's good that you gave them up. Like if people adopt a dog and then realize for whatever reason, you don't have to give the good reason this isn't going to work out, get them back to the shelter as soon as you can. ⁓ you know, that's what you got to do instead of just turning them into a backyard dog. ⁓ cause yeah, that wouldn't have been good for him. Absolutely.

Alanna & Keith (38:05)

Yeah.

Yeah, we're grateful

that they did give him up because he's where he's supposed to be.

Dr. Cliff Redford (38:14)

Beautiful,

beautiful. love it. This is why I do what I do. This is why I'm a veterinarian. ⁓ I talk a lot on my episodes about how I've been blessed to not get burned out and not get compassion fatigue. I've been doing this 27 and a half years. ⁓ And it's because I focus on these stories instead of the grumpy pet owner or the...

The sad cases, you you deal with the animal, the human animal bond and it just, it just strengthens it. And, and, ⁓ I'm so blessed to be able to do this and blessed to be able to talk to you guys and, and meet Mulligan, at least virtually anyways. he's off. He's like, I'm out of here now. This guy, this guy doesn't have treats. so what do you, mean, the future, you're just focusing on taking good care of them, get them to lose weight. he's becoming a bit of a social media star. So,

Alanna & Keith (38:58)

He's done.

He's very loved and we're so grateful for all the love. So yeah, focusing on number one priority is losing weight. Then the next priority is a little bit of training because he really likes squirrels, rabbits, cat. Those are fun to chase. So a little bit of recall probably because on the farm that probably wasn't that necessary. in the city it is. And then

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:29)

Hmm.

Alanna & Keith (39:39)

I don't know. We'll see. We might be taking him on a little road trip in October. Just get him to explore. We just feel like the more he does, the more he becomes comfortable and just giving him kind of the best life we can. And we hope that we get a few years. There's been so many people online saying, my golden lived to 14, my golden lived to 16. And so.

Dr. Cliff Redford (39:44)

Hmm.

Yeah.

I had, bought my clinic in a year 2000. I was just a young vet. And when I bought it, it was a single vet practice. So I was the only veterinarian. This woman, you know, the client stuck around and she introduced me to her golden retriever named oyster and oyster was 14. And she said, this might be the last time you meet oyster, you know, for these vaccines or whatever. And, know, we'd find a little lump and we tested and it wasn't cancerous and whatnot.

All right, this might be the last time. This might be the last time. Well, she kept saying that for three and a half years. Oyster lived almost 18 years and oyster was about a lean 65 pound female golden retriever. So it's not like she was a smaller version. Some of them can be sort of a healthy weight of 50 pounds, let's say. ⁓ So, you know, who knows? Who knows? But either way, you guys are blessed and Mulligan is super blessed to have found you guys.

Alanna & Keith (40:45)

Okay.

Dr. Cliff Redford (41:02)

So yes, he might have rescued you but Keith and Alana you guys have to recognize you took the step and and a lot of people wouldn't and ⁓ Hopefully this is inspiration for people not to ignore the older dogs out there as well ⁓ You know

Alanna & Keith (41:18)

I think I was going to say that too. think that would, that's part of our next steps too, is just maybe shedding some light on adoption and some local rescues, ⁓ giving back more ⁓ and ⁓ just letting people know that there are a lot of dogs out there that are looking for good homes that had a rough start in life. ⁓

And they're overlooked, like Alana said, especially the senior dogs. ⁓ But we've heard ⁓ from a lot of the Mulligan's followers that, you know, a lot of them have adopted senior dogs too. And they have just said it's been such a joy and a blessing in their life bringing a senior in. It's just like a different energy. And so just shedding light on that, that everyone goes for a puppy, right? And these dogs need love too. And they have special, they have special love to give. So.

Dr. Cliff Redford (42:02)

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, beautiful that that that couldn't be said any better than that. Let's end it on that. That was a perfect, perfect end note. Alana and Keith, thank you so, so much for for joining me. I'd hope to do this again, maybe in six months I can we can celebrate when he hits 85 pounds and I can learn about his about his trip. Reach out to me at any time. You guys got my cell number now. If you have questions in the middle of the night, I probably wouldn't notice it ringing in the middle of the night. But like

Worst comes to worst, it doesn't wake me up. If it wakes me up, that's fine, I'll answer it. If it doesn't, I'm a heavy sleeper. But seriously, I'm here for you guys if you have any questions whatsoever, if I can be of help, definitely. Excellent. Ken, yeah, yeah, how can people, what's the way people can follow Mulligan?

Alanna & Keith (42:52)

Appreciate it. And thanks so much for having me. Yeah.

So

we were only on Instagram, it's the golden saint. ⁓ And yeah, that's.

Dr. Cliff Redford (43:06)

Beautiful. Excellent.

Thank you very, much guys. I appreciate it.

Alanna & Keith (43:13)

Thank you.