We got a new puppy on Sunday. And by puppy I mean a 50-pound Lab-Pointer mix. He's a rescue who'd been abused, neglected and already had to endure a pair of surgeries – one of which left him without two feet of intestine.

His former owners refused to pay the vet – when they finally deigned to take him in – and surrendered him on the spot. So he's with us now, and will probably require special care – and overpriced food – for the rest of his life.

Now, as Storey luck would have it, Krypto, our 11-year lab-chow mix, started limping around the house that same day. So we took him into the vet on Monday. An exam, X-rays and blood tests revealed advanced arthritis and what the vet thinks is something called Cushing's disease. It's apparently a fairly common disorder for labs, in particular, and includes, among other things, an excess of fatty tissue around his liver, displacing his stomach.