Hi,
We feel our three legged puppy should be called 'Lucky'.
We got him at 1 week old, he was taken from his mother,
as she was in the process of eating the pups!

Our little chap had a very underdeveloped front leg and when we first saw him the leg was difficult to see at all.
Our local rescue center called us as, we had asked to let us know if any small pups became available.
Well, Rocky was very small at 1 week, we called him 'Tripod' to start with, until we saw how his character developed.
Rocky is now 6 weeks old and hopping around quite well,
still falls over a lot and finding it puzzling when trying to chew on a toy and so on, but he is building up a number of workarounds for the missing paw.

The little puppy is now getting on for 3Kg and going to be a large dog, mostly German Shepherd but with some Japanese DNA in there as well, he has the purple markings on the tongue.
We can't wait until we can take him out for walks along the seafront.
At the moment, he is dealing with the 30C+ heat; the next 2 months are going to be difficult. We hope he likes water, as we have a pool and when he is allowed, we will swim with him, to make him drownproof.

Cheers,
Colin & Joan Bradley and our little star, Rocky.
Fuengirola, Spain
Monday June 20, 2011

Asia is a retired racing greyhound.
She broke her right hock at the age of 15 months while in "schooling"
(training that begins before actual racing).
Her track owners were not very well off and couldn't afford expensive surgery to repair Asia's leg, but also didn't want to put her down.
So a track vet did the best he could to set Asia's leg
and once it was "healed," she was retired into adoption.
When she came to my adoption group three months later, she was not using the leg at all and the toes had atrophied and the tendons were very tight from lack of use.
The adoption group spent over $7,000 on several surgeries for her
and eventually she regained some use of the leg,
although the foot was permanently misshapen and she limped badly
When I adopted her, she was using the leg about 80% of the time
and didn't seem to be in any pain.
She was a regular 2 year old greyhound, full of herself and full of mischief! She has been with us for six years now and in the last year she has been using the leg less and less. One day I counted her steps and she was using it only once out of every 12-15 steps.
Then, a few weeks ago (June 6, 2011) the Achille's tendon partially ruptured while she was playing with my other dog, Simon.
The vet prescribed rest and anti-inflammatory medication.
Asia was pretty good about resting it.
Essentially, she was using only three legs except when pottying or getting up from her bed. Unfortunately, the tendon eventually completely separated from the calcaneous (heel bone) and an orthopedic vet specialist felt that the tendon was too badly damaged to repair. On June 20th, Asia had her leg amputated.
She has made a remarkable recovery, or at least it seems that way, to me. She can do just about everything she did before, with the exception
that she needs some assistance getting into the car.
I think the fact that she had previous injuries to the leg and was using only three part-time anyway, made the transition to a tripod (we call her a 3P for 3 paws) easier than it might have been for a regular 4P who suddenly lost a leg. Asia has always had a tremendous spirit and has graciously handled a total of five surgeries, including the amputation, with hardly a complaint. She doesn't seem to be in any pain and she is almost back to taking walks of the same length as before her amputation, which completely blows my mind.
Asia is 8 years old so, for a greyhound, that means she is technically a senior now, but I don't think anyone has mentioned that to her, yet.
Even though she has had a lot of trouble with her leg,
I am grateful for the first surgeries that spared it for a few years,
because that means six fewer years of wear and tear on her back and joints, so I feel she is kind of ahead of the curve now and I feel she will live out the remainder of her life pain free and free to be a regular dog.
I love that dogs don't understand the concept of being handicapped.
I wish humans could adjust to losses like this so easily.

Allison Carey
Tuesday July 12, 2011