Sammy

The very first foster I ever had was a one-year-old female black Lab named Samara, aka Sammy. We got her about a week after I signed up to be an SCLRR volunteer, on July 11. She had been in a shelter and had a wicked case of kennel cough. When I met her she couldn't stop coughing.

Once she got over her coughing, she became the sweetest, gentlest, most affectionate girl ever, incredibly eager to please and wriggly and happy. The rescue expected her to be an "easy" foster -- I'd have her for about a week, throw her picture on the site, and applications would come flooding in.

Well, it didn't work out quite that way. In fact, Sammy is still being fostered by us.

What happened?

Well, a few days after I had her, I noticed that she slightly favored her right rear leg. Then one day, she went flying after a ball and came up on three legs. We ended up taking her for a consult with two doctors, who discovered that she had had a previous broken leg that had been repaired poorly and had healed badly. Her kneecap was an inch out of place, and her tibia was completely misaligned.

Her surgeon said that when he first opened her up, he wondered whether amputation would be the better option. He said he had never had to manipulate a bone that far. He inserted three pins and hoped for the best.

Sammy's rehab was full of setbacks. Her first set of pins didn't hold. She had to say in the hospital for a week and take massive calcium supplements to encourage bone growth. Finally she was allowed to begin rehab walks, but she always seemed reluctant to put weight on the leg. We kept hanging in there with her, hoping she would get better.

About three weeks ago, Sammy went back for another visit with her surgeon. At that point she was hardly using the leg at all. The x-ray revealed that her leg was loaded with arthritis. She was already taking pain meds, calcium supplements, adequan injections, glucosamine pills...and she still was not using the leg.

At that point, the decision was made that we wish we could have made six months ago, had we known what she would endure: We would have to amputate.

For months, we had been trying to save this dog's leg. Now, faced with her losing it anyway, we were more sad that she had to endure more hospitalization than that she was going to lose her leg. After all, she really wasn't using it anyway, and it was an appendage that must have been causing her considerable pain.

Her amputation surgery was Tuesday. When her foster went to pick her up Wednesday afternoon, she expected to see Sammy sad and hurting. Instead, Sammy was sitting happily in the reception area, waiting to be taken home. Her foster said she was obviously happier and more at peace than she has been in a long time.

It took her a couple of days, but on Friday she figured out how to jump on the couch unassisted, which made her and her foster very happy.

Sometimes dogs with three legs are hard to find homes for. We had a three-legged dog a few months ago named Daisey who stayed unadopted until we made a video of her playing with another dog. Once we did that, she was adopted within a week. I met Daisey, and she has the same wiggly, wriggly personality that Sammy does. I am totally confident that Sammy will find a wonderful home.

Here's the Daisey video.



And here's our sweet Sammy.