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Adjusting to a 3 Legged Dog !

               The moment you go and collect your Dog after it’s amputation, is a very scary prospect, and one that hold’s onto your Heart Strings and refuses to leave them alone. The emotional issue’s aside, this is where the the total Panic begin’s to settle in.  The worry of how will you and your dog deal with the amputation, and the self doubt begin’s to rear it’s ugly head. 


                    All of these Platitudes aside anyone who tell’s you that they were not worried, on the drive to collect their 3 Legged Pet, is either completely bonker’s or totally deluded !! I myself was a complete emotional wreck and I was totally worried about stupid thing’s,  like how was she going to go to the toilet ??  How would she walk and not fall over, would she chew out the Stitches ………. this list was endless ! 


          No-one can explain what is the right way of feeling, or what you should do, or what should you worry the most about ?? No dog is the same, just like no person is the same, and there is no right or wrong thing,  or way to do, say or feel.  All you have which is more important ………….  than any vet or any other person that come’s into your life. 


What you have is something that no genius or expert, could beat or hope to teach you ???  


This is the fact that YOU know your DOG !!! Better than ANYONE !!

 


       This is a most powerful tool and one that has more importance when it come’s down to the welfare, and treatment of your beloved best friend. I can not stress enough the importance of the bond, that you have with your beloved Pet, and it’s this bond that will make you cope with whatever happen’s next. It’s this insider knowledge that will make you know, when your pet need’s you and what they need from you. 


       This is the power of Love and it’s this love that will make this trauma, into something that will be forever in your heart, and make you a stronger and wiser person by the end. You may not realise it yet, but you will soon. This nightmare that you are going through, will be your biggest learning experience, and the courage that your pet will show you, will forever change your thought’s on life.


               They will surprise, amaze and leave you totally dumb founded at the unbelievable acceptance of whatever life throw’s at them. Instead of hiding and wallowing in self pity, your pet will thrive and will show you how to live and more than that they will do it with laughter, joy and a zest for life that will leave you breathless. My Fizz went through so much in such a short space of time, and she passed way too soon, though if I’m honest if she had lived till she was 100, it would have still been too soon for me  🙂


          The day we brought my fatty home was a day filled with high’s and low’s and everything in between !! I didn’t know what to expect when we went to see her.  If I’m honest I was totally shocked that Fizz had walked so well, and we were allowed to take her  HOME  !!

 

This was Fizz a day after she came home !!

             I mean she had only had the surgery the day before and it was actually less than 24 hour’s post op and she was home !! 


        I’m sure that is some kind of record, but then Fizzle’s always liked doing thing’s in high speed and she loved showing off. I had hoped that I would be totally ready for her return, I thought I was ready, right up until the moment we pulled in front of our home.  Then total Panic set in ……… how could I get her out of her scrunched up space between my leg’s and the Dash Board of the Car ???  


 Then we had 3 steps down and then 1 step up ?!?!?          


        Now I try to believe that I’m quite a calm person, who can cope with most emergencies or situation’s. But all these fact’s meaning that I’m  SO  normally together …. and this mean’t I could hold my NERVES !!  So Why were my Nerves Failing ?  Why had they all suddenly fallen apart completely ?  Right then and there …… and just when I needed them so badly ???     


Cos how was I gonna get this 10 stone or maybe 8 and a half stone Rottweiler out of my Bloody Car !!! 


        This is when you need to just close your eye’s for a moment, take a few deep breath’s and just be STILL !! Because Screaming at this moment will un~nerve your TriPawd , and get your neighbours calling the police !!  Mind we had just had firemen cheering us on, so maybe we could get all the uniform’s in one day !!  Now ladies we all like a man in uniform don’t we !!!  😉and for the Gentlemen we have already had Emma our nurse, who wears a lovely green uniform just for you !! 


       So no screaming as it will upset your 3 legged Dog, and just settle down and calm yourself,  which is what I found myself being forced to do !!  Now the panic is totally normal, because when you brought your puppy they had 4 leg’s, and now they have 3 leg’s, so none of this is  NORMAL. There is no rule book’s or A guide for dealing, with the making of this life changing decision for your pet. This is something that is so mind blowing, that panic is understandable and justified.


    ***    I don’t know if when your pet loses a leg to an accident, then it’s sort of out of your hand’s and not something that you had actually elected to do to your pet. But when your pet has Cancer, the decision to remove the leg is your’s totally ……. I don’t know if this is somehow worse ??  I think this could be a good article, so if any of you have had a Pet injured in an accident and they then had a limb removed … or if like me and Fizz, her leg was removed because of Cancer, If you could message in your views on the subject and whether you feel there is a difference ??   ***


        But as usual I’m going off Topic  🙂 


       So getting back to the story, there I was sitting in a car being grinned at by this enormous 3 legged Rottweiler who had just noticed we were home and was giving me the LOOK !!!


                                         THIS LOOK !!!

          The look that tell’s me ” Mother I know your Panicked …… But I’m totally Fine and just open the Bloody Door !!! “


           It’s always embarrassing when your told off by your Pet’s or in my case My Children spend most of their lives telling me to Behave !! so I seem to get it from a variety of side’s. This time it was Fizzle’s who was telling me once again to Pull Myself Together !! So I asked Dai to hold onto Fizzly’s Lead and I opened my door, and got out. I got hold of the lead and by the time I had stood up to help guide Fizz, Carefully out of the Car ………. She had stood up and literally JUMPED out of the car UNAIDED !!!


          Told you she was a Show Off  🙂  so once again this dog left me feeling in Awe, and also slightly Sheepish as my complete Melt Down, which was totally uncalled for. I rushed to put the Cot bumper under her tummy as we still had the 3 step’s Down, and the 1 Step up before we would be safely inside. Dai came around to our side and he took the cot bumper and I took the lead as we turned toward’s our home.


        The three of us together, with neighbour’s watching on with baited breath …….. Fizz may have been the most ” Dangerously Large Dog in our lil haven of home’s ” but she was also the one that everyone would cuddle, and allow their babies of all ages play with, and generally be around  🙂   Fizz was also one of the Most  Loved  as well, so when she came home everyone was waiting or watching to see my brave girl come back safely home ……


        No~one came out of their home’s but all were watching from Door’s or Window’s and this made me slightly choked and made me eye’s begin welling once again. That this Rottweiler could be so loved by so many people. that they would make a point of watching out for our Gallant Return. As usual our Fizz did it in STYLE !! 

         She looked me in the eye and I asked  ” are you ready ?  ” The cheeky Grin told me all I needed to know, and with that I turned and said  ” Ok Slowly ” and with that we moved, hopping slowly and Bravely with a lot of Silent eye’s and Prayer’s from our Quiet Audience around us ! 


         We moved through our gate …… down the 3 steps like it was the most Ordinary thing in the world  🙂


  We paused by the front door and opened it wide ……….. then we jumped the last step into our new 3 legged world and the beginning of Fizz’s last and Final Battle and it’s one that she did, with the same attitude and Courage, that she had shown from the moment we brought her home as a puppy. She lived on her term’s and to say I was PROUD right at that moment is a complete and total understatement ………


      She had shown us what a truly incredible and magnificent dog that she was and in my heart……  She still is ……..


I Just Loves you !!





Author: zena

I have lived with all sorts of dog's, but the Love of my Life was a Rottweiler named Fizz, She developed Cancer when she was 6 and she survived an amputation and 3 round's of chemo and lived for over a year. She showed me the true meaning of life, and her Courage and Zest for life, is my Inspiration to carry her Story onward's and live life like she did. Never looking back, loving everyone and trying to be as brave as she was from the first moment we brought her into our lives until the heart breaking moment she moved on,she passed the same way she lived each day, which was On her own Terms. When She Was Ready and she did it with an incredible bravery and spirit and in the way we should all try to aspire to, and she did it all with an incredible smile and an ever increasing spirit. xoxox

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