Having been around dog for most of my life you get a good sense of their wants, needs, enjoyments, ailments and irritants.

There’s no doubt I love dogs. Now, I’m not an exclusive dog person, with “grand-kittens” like these how could I not but be smitten be felines also?

My good friend Brody is just coming up on 9 years old. He’s a healthy, strong, active dog who has definite ideas about what activities need to be done and when the need to be done. I call him my Chief of Staff.

Sometime in the past few months Brody had some trauma to his upper canine tooth (the big ones) and we decided to have it removed before it had any infection or other complication.

A root canal was also an option, but that does weaken the tooth so after weighing all of our concerns we opted for the extraction.

Brody is terrified of the Vet. Our doctors and staff at Mandalay Animal Hospital are spectacular and they treat us and our boy with the greatest care. I think Brody has PTSD from his time as a stray when he was about 15 months old. He was found on the streets of Fort Collins and spent some time in the animal shelter…can’t be good memories from that experience.

On Monday we took him in for the surgery and he was there most of the day. He came out very groggy from the anesthesia and pain meds, but with a couple days of rest and care he’s doing really, really well.

It’s about time I made my point about what I DIDN’T know about dogs. There teeth are amazing! We kept his extracted tooth and the root to tooth ratio is astonishing. The evolution of dogs from wolves may have softened their personalities but there bodies still strongly display the one and only weapon (for survival) that they have, their teeth.

After seeing my Brody’s canine tooth, all of his canine tooth, I marvel at the natural world even more.