Today (Friday May 12, 2006) I found the following heartwarming story and photos on THIS website:

Kadie loses a leg, but is missing nothing at all!

Kadie is very special to me. My husband and I are not able to have kids so when Kadie joined our family, she became our girl.

In January of 2004 I let Kadie to go outside to do her business. We live out in country and on a gravel road so we would often let her run free.

About five minutes later, I called her in. She went to her pillow and lay down. This was a bit unusual and I kneeled down to pet her.

First, I noticed a spot of blood on the pillow. Then I saw where it was coming from -- her leg was almost completely severed, barely dangling by a thread.

My initial reaction was the wrong one; I freaked out.

Quickly, though, I composed myself and dialed the vet.

He agreed to see her immediately and sped into town.

The vet was not optimistic. The leg was broken so badly that he wasn't sure he could save it. He was reluctant to put a cast on the leg because the bone had pierced the skin and this could cause complications. They kept Kadie over night. The next morning, the situation had improved. The vet was able to put a cast on and gave us antibiotics to stop any infection.

Ten days later, we took the cast off to find that the bone was not healing well. We tried calcium in the hopes that the bone would regenerate, without success. Over the next several months we changed the cast five times. Kadie, normally hyper and full of joy and life spent most of her day laying around and crying. It brought tears to our eyes, too. We had to hold her to get her to go to sleep.

It used to annoy us that Kadie would run around the house barking whenever we went out. Now, we desperately missed it. The last time we changed the cast, her toenails were bleeding and the pads of her foot were coming off. It was horrifying to watch and I finally came to terms with the fact that she was going to lose a leg. Sadly, the vet agreed.

A part of me was filled with the terrible picture of my poor cripple Kadie, limping around the house in pain and humiliation. But my fears turned out to be completely unfounded.

A day after the surgery, we brought home a joyful, healthy, jumping Kadie. She did have a few problems with pulled muscles in the front leg if she was too active, but even that didn't last long.

It's almost a year later and our lovely Kadie she is back to her normal self. As I write this she is terrorizing her friends, the kitties around, playing and barking at anything and every thing.

Through all of this, Kadie and I have become much closer. There's a loving bond that becomes so much stronger through a crisis like this. She is my baby and I would not trade her for the world.

- Kadie's Mom

Hi there. My name is Laurel and I am a volunteer with the Connecticut Humane Society. I work in the medical department and I also train the shelter dogs on their basic commands/manners. We get dogs from North Carolina once a month and a dog named Winker was on the truck a couple months back.

Winker had been shot in the leg and the leg had healed but caused her obvious discomfort. After weeks went by she was unable to put any weight on it whatsoever and the shelter vet decided it would be best to remove her front leg as bullet fragments were throughout the limb and there was no other solution. He felt she would be much more comfortable without the leg rather than living the rest of her life with a bum leg and lots of pain.

Winker had this surgery last Thursday, May 11th.

I am moving into a new house in two weeks and I will be fostering this dog and hopefully adopting her if all goes well with my other animals. So my story is a little different because I don't actually have this dog yet, but I would like to talk to people and see what to expect. She's coming along great. She is definitely a little wobbly but today I had her outside and she only fell once. Mainly she is depressed and I want to get her out of the shelter and into my home. Fortunately the house she will be living in is a one-level ranch so she doesn't have any stairs to deal with!

I would look forward to becoming a part of this club and learning from others who have experience with this handicap.

These pics were taken 36 hours after surgery so I know they're a little gory but they're all I have.

Laurel Cox
Wednesday May 17, 2006

UPDATE:

Hi there! It's nice to hear from you.
Winker has actually been renamed since I brought her home 2 months ago. It is suggested that with abuse cases you change their name and start a whole new life for them. I hope you don't mind, but I renamed her Cassidy - after your dog.

You are an inspiration to those of us providing homes to amputee animals and I could think of no one better to dedicate her name to!

I am working with an animal behaviorist to help her regain her self confidence. She has become very bonded to me and actually her fear of strangers has only increased since she has been with me. I'm not sure why, perhaps she just feels so safe with me that the outside world is no place she wants to be. However, she is wonderful with other animals.

If there are other dogs around, her confidence level escalates. If a passerby has a dog she is as friendly as can be; if they have no dog, she cowers behind my legs and shakes. I have every intention of adopting another amputee so she has a friend and I think it would do wonders for her. Working in a shelter, I see plenty of them that would fit in just fine with her. But my animal behaviorist thinks it is best if we try to work through her issues without the help of another dog, for now.

I am attaching some new pics of her. She is settling right in and trying oh so hard to make friends with my cats, but they will have none of it! She's so good with them - when they walk by she will sit very still except her tail will thump a million miles an hour because she's so excited to see them. She's just the gentlest and kindest soul I have ever known and there is no bigger reward in life than to provide her with a second chance.

Yes, her eyes are just gorgeous. She's just so unique.
Cassie is actually quite the star, now. She is being featured in a commercial for the Connecticut Humane Society for abuse and neglect awareness. In fact, Click Here to see her on their website right now.

Please do keep in touch.
Laurel Cox
Wednesday July 19, 2006