Hi my name is Casey, I am a staffi x lab who is 7 months old and I live in New Zealand. On 12 June 2006 I did something really silly!!

I escaped from my home and ran out in front of a car doing 100 kms an hour. I broke both my front legs and had 2 fractures and a break in my pelvis. Part of my top lip had to be removed and a few of my teeth were chipped. There were a few other scratches and bruises but they were nothing compared to the rest of my injuries.

A kind man rushed me to the vets (luckily it happened to be my vet) where they started to clean me up and called my humans. I was barely conscious and the vets thought I would need to be put down but as soon as my people turned up I felt happier and wagged my tail. It was the first sign of life the vets had seen since I arrived. They doubled their efforts and I wanted so desperately to live.
The vets stabilised me overnight and x-rayed me the following morning.
My humans were devastated but they decided I was worth saving so spend HUGE amounts of money to get me fixed. I love them to bits.

My front left leg had two surgeries, the first to place some pins and wire to hold my bones together and the second to put stronger wire in because I wanted to play and the wire wasn't strong enough.

I had a cast on my right front leg forever!!! Well it was about 9 weeks but felt like forever. The Friday before my cast was due to come off I climb down the stairs all by myself and hurt my left leg. Back to the vets again and another x-ray. The x-ray wasn't good as it showed the bones in my left leg were badly corroded beyond repair. There were two options available to my people. The first was removal of left leg and the second is not even worth considering ..... glad they felt the same.

I had about 3 weeks to build up the muscles in my right leg and then they taped up my bad leg to see how I would go and boy did I shock them. I'm really good on three legs!

Yesterday, 11 September 2006, I had my left front leg removed, and boy is it a relief. I've had a little wander around my yard and have my people so well trained that they bought me a big juicy bone to chew on.

I'm so glad they found Cassie's Three-legged Dog Club site before they had to make their decision.

Have attached some photos.

Casey
Tuesday September 12, 2006

UPDATE:

Hi Cynthia,
Just thought we would update you on our girl Casey, she is having a rough time at the moment, we had to take her back to the vet on Wednesday as she started bunnyhopping around instead of walking, and she looked so sore. They took an X-ray which showed her break in her pelvis has not healed properly. She now has to be confined with NO walking at all for 2 months, hopefully (and we are thinking positive) at the end of 2 months she will be all better, she will be almost 1 year old then. So wish her luck, she has been through so much she definitely deserves to get through this.

The following picture is of Casey before we knew her back end was not good.

Janine & Sandy
Saturday September 23, 2006

UPDATE:

Hi Cynthia,

We took Casey in for x-rays yesterday as her back end still wasn't quite right. The x-rays revealed the break in her pelvis has healed nicely and the pain/discomfort she is experiencing is from pinched nerves and sciatic nerve. The vets have changed her medication and told us we should see improvement within a week. We are allowed to take Casey for lots of 5 minute walks now and she is allowed freedom inside. She is extremely happy not to be stuck in a cage anymore. You should see her smiling, it's fantastic!!

Next week we are allowed to lengthen her walks to 10 mins slowly increasing each week. The vets want to review her progress in two weeks time so will forward another update then.

Would also like to add that the vets at Halifax Veterinary Centre have been absolutely fantastic to Casey and us. They realise we can no longer afford operations, consultations or nurse care during the day or night so they have very kindly not charged us for any of these things. We now only have to pay for any x-rays and medications. It is absolutely fantastic to be able to drop Casey in for a day stay so we can pop out to do the shopping or even go for a walk on the beach by ourselves. We became very home bound since Casey's accident as we didn't want to leave her to return and she had hurt herself. She has also developed separation anxiety, so bad in fact that we couldn't leave the room without her whining in distress. I haven't got enough praise for the vets and staff at Halifax. They are such an awesome bunch.

Please Click here to see lots of pictures of Casey.

Thanks heaps

Janine & Sandy
Friday October 27, 2006

Hey guys,
Really love your site. It was very helpful during Lulu's transition to three-legged status. Lulu and I met 12 years ago while I was at summer camp in Middletown, CA. The camp dog, GCA, had once again had an affair with an Australian Shepherd up the road leading to yet another litter of Rottweiler/Aussie mixes.
The pups were adorable, to say the least. Each had the Rott's trademark brown legs, but the rest of their bodies were a potpourri of blacks, grays, and browns. Some were even blessed with the Shepherd's trademark blue eyes, while others like Lulu had a touch of blue in one eye.

Lulu was the runt. The underdog. So I *had* to have her. My dad took one look at her when he came to pick me up at the end of summer and said, "Put her in the car." She was an instant hit back at home. While our family cats weren't too keen on having another animal in the house, they were soon licking her face at the end of a day of chasing each other around the house.

For nine years we lived in the bay area, close to my parents,
but in 2003 I decided to move to New York. Lulu drove cross country with my boyfriend at the time and saw her first of many snows on that trip. Everything was going well until August 2006 when she was diagnosed with bone cancer in her left hind leg. Within a week her leg was removed and biopsied to show that she had a type of cancer called osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma is one of the most common bone tumors in dogs and it is estimated that at least 6,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States.

It's been 3.5 weeks since surgery and she's perfecting her pimp walk. I'm surprised that at the age of 12 Lulu is able to walk with such grace with only three legs. We don't get very far (yet), but it's still an inspiration to see her hop along on our daily walks.

With her painful leg removed, Lulu's next hurdle is to go through chemo. She will get chemo one day, every 2 weeks for 6 sessions. While this is not a cure, it will delay the cancer's spread, doubling (and possibly tripling) her life span. Without chemo she'd only have 4 to 5 months, with she'll have a year, possibly more.

As you can imagine all this is expensive. So far I've spent over $5,000 on vet visits and the amputation. Her chemo will tack another $3,000 onto my credit card bills. In order to help put a dent in my debt I've had my awesome friend Eric Siry design a logo to put on T-Shirts and tote bags. The goal is to elminate my debt; the dream is to make more than I need in order to start a fund for other dogs diagnosed with osteosarcoma who cannot afford the expensive procedure and treatment.

If you'd like to donate to the fund and support tripods everywhere, please Click here. To see a video of Lulu in action and read about her progress, Click here to check out her blog.

Sonia Zjawinski
Sunday September 17, 2006