Hey there! I saw your website and wanted to add my story along with the others...

I met Husker two years ago at an adoption clinic at the local pet store. She was timid, a little uncomfortable and awkward on a leash and frankly, I was looking for a cat and had no interest in adopting a dog that day.

However, when I sat down to pet her as a simple gesture that one naturally does to a cute animal, she came and sat in my lap immediately.

I knew right then that I was going to be bringing a dog home that day, instead of a cat.

She came with the name Husker.
We tried to name her something different, but after a few days the name just stuck. It's an odd name for a female dog, but she's kind of the color of a corn husk, so we figured it suited her well.

As the last two years have gone by, Husker has won the hearts of many. She has the best personality. Not only is she a cuddle bug, she just does funny things that make us laugh hysterically.
In the summer she chases flies all over the backyard.
In winter she shakes when there is thunder outside.
She spins in circles when she's excited to eat.
She's basically the best friend you've always wanted but never could find.

About a month ago, she ran away. She just dug a hole and was gone. Luckily a neighbor found her and put her back in the yard, leaving us a note on the door that she had gotten out. When we came home we realized that she was hurt, badly.

After the vet visit we learned that she dislocated her elbow and cut her radial nerve. She has no feeling in the lower part of her leg. Her choices were to drag it around for the rest of her life with a protective pad on it, or to amputate.

We've agonized over the decision for the last two weeks.
Finally yesterday we made the choice to amputate.
She went to the vet tonight, and goes in for surgery tomorrow morning. They are going to be removing her whole leg.
I'm scared to see her with three legs. I feel extremely guilty. If I could have my arm amputated instead I would do it in a heartbeat. However, these are the curve balls that life throws at us.

After reading this website, I feel more secure in my choice to amputate her leg. I just hope that she continues to live a happy and healthy lifestyle as she once did on all fours.
I hope to send an update on the outcome soon.

Lindsay Feldmann
Stockton, CA
Thursday August 31, 2006

UPDATE!!

Hey there! I feel bad for not writing sooner.
It's been a hectic couple of weeks with my job...
but I just wanted to let you know that Husker is doing
SOOOOOO incredibly well! She still spins when it's time to get fed
(of course only to the left these days!) and is doing everything and more she did before the surgery. She is such a wonder dog!
And I'm really surprised to see how fast she has recovered, as well as myself. I don't even remember her with four legs now!
What a difference too! When she was dragging around that leg
her little personality was so sad. She had no expression,
she wouldn't get excited... she just looked miserable.
Now she's running around, playing, jumping, spinning, the whole nine yards. I even found her on top of my bed the other day when I came home!
Mind you my bed is about 3 feet in the air! She's a nut!
I'm so happy I made the decision.
She doesn't even look like she misses the leg.
I think she knows I did what I had to do, and she's thankful for it.
If anything, it just makes her even more special in my life.
Thanks again for posting your website! I visit it often.
I'm even considering adopting a dog with three legs
in the next six months or so, just so she has a buddy to hop around with!
(Her brother is an antisocial little twit! hahaha...
he's just a bitter old beagle!) You don't know how your website
has changed my outlook on such devastating situations.
There is a positive in everything!

Have a great Saturday! Take care!

Lindsay Feldmann
Saturday September 16, 2006

I got my dog Maybelle in the winter of 2002.
The details were never clear to me, but somehow,
when she was just a month or so old, she broke her leg.

My vet did a lot of work for the local humane society, and so he had Maybelle in his office. I guess he was going to have one of his vets get some needed practice setting the leg, but the fracture proved to be too severe.

Instead, they had practice doing an amputation.
Anyway, I entered the story when I volunteered to take her home after the surgery and care for her until the incision healed. I never gave her back.

She is 4 now, and has grown into a beautiful, well-tempered, affectionate dog with an almost regal bearing. She also is very active.
Her favorite thing to do is fetch a tennis ball,
something she will literally do all afternoon if you let her.
She blogs HERE

I took her to the "dog beach" they have in Prospect Park, but Maybelle has always been a timid dog about things at first.
She always eventually warms up to whatever it is, but at the beach there were just too many dogs. For instance, I had a ball for us to play with, but the other, beach-acclimated dogs kept fetching it.
Maybelle was O.K. walking in the water, but did not do any swimming.

...Keep up the good work. Your Web site is impressive; it's like a national monument to dogs. I'm sure it's helped people, too. I was walking Maybelle once out here and this guy stops me and he tells me that his dog has cancer and the vet says they need to amputate the dog's leg.

He was fretting about it and he just happened to see me and so we talked about it. He seemed so relieved to meet someone who had firsthand experience. I pointed him to your Web site and wished him luck.

John Woods
Friday September 1, 2006