Scott Clare adopted 14-month-old Buck-O after his wife passed away. His new companion makes him laugh and smile every day, so when Buck-O was discovered to have a rare heart condition, there wasn’t any question in Scott’s mind of what he had to do.

Buck-O was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called tricuspid (heart) valve dysplasia. The irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias) caused by the defect result in high heart rates that would put Buck-O's life at risk.

"My choices were to spend a lot of money or hang on to him until he has a horrible death and I wasn't gonna do that," told RTV 6 News.

The only option was to take Buck-O in for a surgery that had never been done on a dog before. So Scott drove Buck-O 2,300 miles away from California to Cincinnati, Ohio and after a lengthy and costly surgery, Buck-O made it through. So far Buck-O is doing well and will be going in for weekly check-ups. But Scott knows it was worth while. “He’s just a crack-up, he’s a lot of fun,” Scott said.
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