Hi Catrina! Without even checking the story yet, I wanted to tell you of my own chocolate lab, purebred who is four years old. It is the first time we actually went to a breeder instead of the local pound, and at last count, he has cost us about 11,000.00 canadian dollars in vet bills. The inbreeding they do is incredible. He is so young and has had three operations on his hind legs. The last two being to put in metal brackets because his knee joints were already giving out. He has athritis in one of his front paws, again another genetic issue. He is a fun loving dog, the operations were successful, however, the shocking thing was sitting at the first visit to the animal hospital and seeing no less than three other choco labs there for the same problem!! Two of them from the same breeder. Mesmo is currently doing well, with still alot of bounce in his step, but it makes me question if I will ever look at purebreds again; particularily when there are so many dogs out there at the local pounds in need.