Dear Cassie,
My name is Simon and I am a Jack Russell Terrier.
My story begins on Oct. 19th 2005, my birthday.
I was adopted on January 7th, 2006 by my mom's Susan and Robin.
We first lived in a pet friendly apartment
and Moms soon figured out that a Terrier needs a lot more space than we had.

So they bought me my own dog park.
Not really, of course; we now live in a great house in Old Towne Orange, Ca. and my backyard is as big as any dog park.

Trees,grass, toys all the good stuff.
We do everything together and I am right in the middle of it all,
need I say I am a Jack Russell again.

So we live in our little house and have made a nice little routine for ourselves.
They have had to learn and so have I.
I especially love to go, and go and go well you get it.
I am happiest when we are all together and they always fit me in somehow.
It is New Years day 2007 and we decided to go on a bike ride
which we had done many times before.
Mom's put me in my safety harness, hooked me to the inside of the bicycle basket and away we go......
I sit on my pillow with my treats next to me and my water and the wind slightly blowing my ears.
We are together and I am Happy.
We were riding along and my mom yelled, NO!!!!

My other mom stopped so fast and then it was all crazy the rest of the day.....

We wish we new what Simon was thinking when he jumped.

What did he see?
A squirrel, a leaf blowing?
Did he think I was too far ahead?
Of course, we will never know that answer.
He did jump, and his safety harness did catch him,
but it caught him too close to the tire, and it broke his leg.
The world stopped.
We were riding with a friend that day, Kim.
She sped home, got her car and picked Susan up from the park.
They went straight to the Emergency Vet Ward.
My brother Jason came and picked me and the bikes up.
Then we raced to the Vet also.
He had some minor cuts,
his leg was broken and the doctor said he was doing fine and the break was a good one but a fixable one. A huge sigh of relief, well the best we could get out at that time anyway.

The doctor told us to go to work tomorrow and she would call after the surgery.

The phone rang and it was not what we wanted to hear.
There was unseen damage that the x-ray did not pick up
and the leg could not be saved.

WHAT?!

The doctor recommended amputation,
his age, breed, all of the above he would be fine.
But would we be ok?
We did not want to not have Simon in our lives, no matter what we had to do.
We told the Doctor to proceed.

This is the part Cassie that my Moms hope will help others,
your other friends stories helped them, now they hope they can help someone else.
I was standing two hours after my surgery,
two days later I was jumping on the couch and the beds,
I was all over the place.

The scariest part for my moms was I slept a lot and my energy level was gone - a Jack Russell with no energy; they thought they had ruined me forever.

As time passed and I stopped taking the perscribed medicine, moraphine, I was my old self.
I run just as fast as I did before, eat just as much....
everything, nothing has changed.
I just have three legs now and corners are little tougher
but it has only been a little over a month
and in a couple more months, no one will even notice.

Thank you Cassie for being there for my Moms at such a hard time.
Thank You,

Susan, Robin and Simon.
Sunday February 18, 2007

I love this!
I got the fab Dory from a local rescue group one year ago.
She lost her leg from being shot, (it's Texas, after all.)
and the owners couldn't get anyone to try to fix it,
and they kept saying, "Doc, no one will want pups from a three-legged dog!"

Some life to look forward to, eh?

The word was, she was tied up behind their house when they left on vacation.
These are not that kind of dogs, and the leg was UNTREATED!
Can you believe it?
So the neighbors heard the racket,
and just took her to the big emergency clinic.
A kid from there took her, but she turned out to be a handful,
and she had mange and infected ears on top of everything else.
The rescue group got her, finished her rehab for the leg and posted her on Petfinders.

I was told they had nearly 1,000 emails and 50 serious applications,
but somehow she came to me.
She has 3 terrier sisters, footstools to all the furniture, and me wrapped around her paw.

Today we went to the jogging paths in Austin,
it's her first trip in the stroller I re-arranged for her, and she had a great time. She sat up looking forward like she was driving.

Here's a pic from today.
We had a little day to celebrate the one year "Gotcha!"
Thanks, and I hope we get into the club.

Stephanie Abbott
Sunday February 18, 2007