Georgia changed me.

I work in an environment where we encounter chaos, trauma, and tackle the hardship of caring for those who can’t relay where it hurts or share with us the events that led up to them coming into our hospital. There are always cases that come in that break our heart, gives us hope, teaches us to be compassionate to those in hard times and brings out inner strength to continue to push through the tough times.

I had received several calls that day with non urgent matters and very few true emergencies. I had no idea when I ran outside to help pull this dog out of the Jeep and onto a gurney I would have instantly fell in love and have so much desire to help her. She was a 39 pound Black Lab, very puppy. She was just hit by a car, just by looking at her there was a few lacerations and puncture sites on her back leg and from what the god samaritan described she’d at least have a broken leg.

After bringing her in and doing all the paperwork we contacted Animal Services per guidelines. We let them know a Good Samaritan has brought this puppy in and unable to locate an Owner due to no leads and no microchip! I let them know a staff member would like to foster and take financial ownership to make sure she stayed out of the shelter and try to prevent a euthanasia due to shelter not having the funds to spare for treatment. Within an hour they came and took her to the shelter where she stayed the night. She had trouble walking so one of my technicians carried her out, the look on her face brought me to tears! I couldn’t image this sweet baby just sitting alone there all night.

The next morning I was on hold with Animal Services trying to reach the director so arrangements could be made for a foster. As I hung up the owner called and after discussing options, I asked him for ownership so that I may treat her and train her to adjust to her new lifestyle. Within a few minutes she was mine and I took on the responsibility of providing her a good life.

The first step to providing that life I had to make the decision of consulting a specialist on if her leg was something that they could actually fix. The break was so bad it shattered the bone in the upper part of her leg. She had bone fragments just floating in her thigh. After talking to the vet, we decided to amputate her leg. By the next day she was a ball of energy!!! It is amazing the bounce back animals have. She is striving and so happy to experience life!

For those who are stuck on the decision let me say this, it is a transition. There is no doubt but they are miraculous. They don’t care about how they look or what other animals think! They just live in the now, and right now they want to live life.