Great love and smiles like these are worth protecting!
Cindi K. adopted Mika, a Bernese Mountain Dog, in October of 2008 when she was just 8 weeks old. Cindi and her husband, Steve, had two 14-year-old dogs at the time and weren’t planning on adding a third, but we all know how that story goes. As soon as they saw Mika, they fell in love.
Interesting tidbit: Cindi’s husband is the one who came up with Mika’s name. It means “intelligent raccoon” in Sioux, and fits the “little” girl perfectly with her Berner face and natural curious and fun-loving personality!
Mika settled right into her new home with Cindy and Steve. She love playing with stuffies and squeaky toys, and traveling across the country with her family.
The summer after Mika’s family took her in, their two older dogs passed away. While Mika enjoyed the company of the family cats just fine, Cindi and Steve decided to rescue another dog. They soon took in another Bernese Mountain Dog, Takoda, who had come out of a neglectful situation. Again, a Berner gained a Sioux name. Takoda means “friend to everyone,” and he certainly is!
Takoda and Mika – only six months apart and still full of energy – are best friends and love to play together.
Last fall, Cindi and Steve started to look into pet insurance, thinking it might be a good idea if they could find something affordable. Cindi went to several websites for quotes, waded through loads of information, and was most impressed with Healthy Paws Pet Insurance. They decided to enroll both Mika and Takoda with Healthy Paws in October of 2010. As it turns out, that was a great decision!
In February of 2011, Mika started having some issues with her stifle. She and Takoda play like big dogs in the snow and ice, and sometimes don’t know their own strength. She went into her vet after she had started limping a bit, and the vet suspects she may have OCD or early onset degenerative ACL disease and osteoarthritis.
Based on their vet’s recommendation, Mika’s family has started her on joint supplement therapy and physical therapy sessions. These are helping her maintain joint stability and avoid surgery in the future. She is doing really well with this treatment and by adhering to an appropriate regimen of exercise and diet.
Pet Name: Mika
Type of Pet: Bernese Mountain Dog
Cost of Vet Bills To-date: $941.80
Amount Healthy Paws reimbursed: $407.55 (reimbursed with 72 hours of claim filing, based on customer selected annual deductible and reimbursement level)
Mika and Takoda snuggling.
Cindi says, “We don’t know for sure how long Mika’s recovery is going to take but we seem to be well on our way there. It is a comfort to know that we have some financial help if anything gets worse, which we are taking all measures to insure against. We have been very pleased with how friendly and helpful the Healthy Paws folks have been and how easy they have made it for us to submit claims. I have already recommended Healthy Paws to a number of our friends who have dogs and cats. I can’t imagine getting better service or a better plan!”
