Bugsy came to us in 1997 as a rescue. The DDBS did not yet have a formal rescue program and I got "stuck" with him. He was supposed to be with us temporarily while Ted, who had been speaking with Bugsy's owners, was away at the Bullmastiff Nationals. Ted never did take Bugsy. Bugsy's owners could not keep him because he "did not get along with the new baby." I feel that Bugsy's mom really did love him, but the dad did not. I found in the end, they told me us many lies about Bugsy. At first they tried to sell him to Ted, for breeding, and was told if he is coming into rescue, he has to be neutered. I later found that they did neuter him to "try to calm him down" and that he suffered from demodex mange and chronic inflamation of the scrotum.

Bugsy was ugly as all heck, long skinny muzzle, thin bones, fiddle feet, too undershot, droopy eyes, but a big boy and strong in body. He came to me with scabs under his neck from being tied to a tree (his owners told me they would tie him to the tree sometimes while they were at work), he was deathly afraid of the basement, he had ear mites and was grossly overweight. On top of everything else, he was fear aggressive. We found this out after we placed him in a home, who did love him very much, and he loved the little Japanese Chin's he lived with, but one day he snapped. He used to love to sneak in the bathroom and peak at his new mom showering, but one day he took her razor, when she went to retrieve it, he went after her. When she yelled at him, he got worse. Of course we took him back, and we too had many problems with him. Bugsy was never allowed around people when they came over, I would always lock him up in a crate, in the dog room, and double locked. He grew to love us very much and was very good with me, but I could not and would not trust him with people other than my family, and never with children, yet I could not bring myself to put him to sleep. Bugsy broke my heart, I felt he was the way he was because of abuse, and I could not punish him for what someone did to him.

Bugsy lived with us till the day he died, he had Lyme disease and two bad bouts of it. Each winter he would get older and slower, and I thought "this is the winter" but come spring he was a new puppy. He got along with all our dogs excpet Levon. When Levon was a pup they loved each other, but Levon came back to me as a young male, and Bugsy did not like sharing his "harem". Bugsy even got along with the cats, but if anyone raised their voice to him, something would snap, expect with me, he knew I was his alpha.

One day in April 2003 he started circling the deck, leaning against it. His activity looked neurolgical to me and I brought him to work one nite and asked our neurologist to look him over. She found nothing wrong with him except weak femoral pulses, an indication of possible blood clots. We did blood tests that showed no indication of clots. A month later Tom called me up at my mothers and told me to come get Bugsy, something was wrong. I came home and he could only walk a few steps without falling. He was very fustrated. We got him to the car, I took him to work and we found a large clot blocking 98% of his abdominal aorta, his main blood vessel that takes blood to his rear body.

Bugsy was 9 years old when I took him home that day, he spent the day on the deck with his buddies, ate all the good things he liked, raw meat, cheese, anything he wanted. That nite he and I napped on the kitchen floor. At about 9 pm Tom woke me up, and I helped Bugsy into a peaceful sleepy journey. He looked and gave me his paw then went to sleep. Despite of all his quirks, he was a good dog, and he is greatly missed by all of us.