Three Legged Dog Club
Cassie's Club Members
 
Trip

Hiya Cassie,

My name is Trip. I'm so excited there's a club for dogs like us. I LOVE having three legs -- seriously, I get SO much attention for being special...

people are always stopping me in the park to tell me and my family how brave I am, and how beautiful...and I close my eyes and smile while they scratch my ears.

I was a stray in Memphis County, TN when I was a pup, and I got picked up by their Animal Control folks... and was rescued by the doggie angels at Boston Dog Rescue, who brought me up north to find a new home.

The vet there said I had an old fracture, poorly healed, in my left hind leg. It was causing me a lot of pain, so the docs decided it was best to amputate. I went into foster care after the surgery, healed quickly, gained some much-needed weight........stole my foster mom's heart and never left!

That was two years ago -- I'm about three now, and my hobbies include wrestling with my canine buddies, snuggling with my cat-sister, flushing critters out of the underbrush, and trying to bring sticks home from the park. I can run really fast, and I'm a good swimmer, too.

In short, life is good for this three-legged lab! I'm attaching two pictures, one from just after my surgery, when I was about one, and a recent one.

Kind regards and slobbery kisses to all,
Trip
(and family)
Saturday September 2, 2006

 
Stan

I am sending this on behalf of our three-legged friend Stan.

First off I want to thank everyone on your site for submitting their stories and putting my mind at ease about my families newest addition. His name is Stan and he was born with a very undeveloped right leg. He still can use it a little bit to hold a ball or better yet a treat, but he really like to wave it at people he's excited to see!

One thing is for sure, only being able to run and walk on 3 legs sure doesn't slow this guy down. It seems like he can run with the best of them, he not quite as fast as his brother Sammy, But he keeps close and Sammy has 4 legs and is a Whippet, Jack Russell mix; not many 4 legs dogs seem to be able to keep up with Sam, so I think Stan can really move. He can also pull like a freight train! When he plays tug of war he can practically pull you across the yard (and I weigh 180 lbs).

Stan came to us from the Carolina Animal Rescue and Adoption. They are great people, if you live in Raleigh look them up! One of the volunteers saw him along the side of the road in pretty bad shape, she couldn't pass him by, decided to break a few rules and brought him to the shelter without telling anyone. They happily took him in got him eating and found him a nice foster home. Meanwhile my sister had visited CARA and got a new puppy for Her family and told us about the nice dogs they had. We checked the web site and there we saw our boy Stan.

We called the next day and heard about how nice he was and how there hadn't been much interest from people in adopting him. One week later we drove the 8 hours Raleigh and brought him home to Pittsburgh!

Stan is an outstanding friend, he gets along great with his older brother Sam and there isn't anyone that meets him that doesn't get taken by his enthusiasm. With Stan three good legs are more than enough, he truly loves everyone he meets, and loves to have fun!

Stan is 6 months to 1 year old, they seem to think that he is a Lab-Golden mix, right now he is about 50 lbs. The vet said that he has good circulation in the short leg and that the bones in his leg, although it did not develop seems to be healty. for the most part the leg works fine, there is just not much muscle development in it. Two vets actually (one in North Carolina and ours here) said that they would'nt consider amputating the leg. They said as long as the bone stays healthy and has circulation there shouldn't be a problem. They said unless something changes he should be just fine.

Stan has never had a problem with getting the leg snagged and it is strong enough that he can pull it away from something holding it back. He will sometimes use the short leg to catch his balance or he will briefly use it going down stairs. But overall he has great balance and has no problems getting around. One thing I dind't expect is that he does better running than just walking around, running he greally gets moving and doesn't miss a beat, but getting around the house he has to make alot of short hops, he handles it well, but its not so graceful. But he is a beauty when he runs!

He does wave the leg! its hard to not smile when you see that! Its more of an up and down motion, but he makes little circles with it. If you are outside and he sees you he'll wave to you, or if he sees a friend, which to him is pretty much everyone, he'll start waving the leg. It is something else to see.

Funny thing too, Stan is a great swimmer he veers just a tiny bit when he swims, but I think the little leg helps out just enough to keep him straight, plus he has a big left paw with alot of webbing that seems to power through the water. I was afraid that he would have a hard time in the water, but when we got him, we took him to my sisters house and took him for a walk at the lake that they live by. We were in an area with no roads around so we let him off the leash, not 5 seconds later he ran and dove right into the lake, honestly he scared the hell out of me. He swam around for a couple minutes, and came right back to shore. Since then he has made a couple of visits to a friends pool and does really well in the water.

Thanks for the advice about the cement and asphalt, we will definitely pay attention to that. Luckily we live in a suburban area about 10 miles south of Pittsburgh. Around here thats pretty far out of the city, so most of his time will be on grass. We also live right by a 10+ acre grass field that a local company bought to keep as natural area. Luckily its dog friendly, so most of Stans running will be done there.

Thanks for the reply and the advice, if you have any more please email me! Its good to hear that I shouldn't have to worry much about him.
Thanks again for a great site!

The Riley's
Pittsburgh, PA
Monday September 11, 2006

 
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