Trixie

All's well that ends well

Trixie came to ACE with a young boy who said she'd had an accident.  She couldn't put weight on her left fore leg and it looked and felt broken - this was confirmed on x-ray.  As fracture repair is currently beyond the capabilities of ACE the two options available to Trixie was either amputation or euthanasia.  

The boy clearly loved the dog very much and the dog completely doted on the owner.  Our main concern was the response of the public to the dog, when it has three legs.  A lot of children will laugh at such an animal and also torment it.  This was our main concern for amputation - not the surgery, but the repercussions afterwards.  However, after much discussion with the owner we decided to go ahead with the surgery.  The surgery was successful and so we awaited the return of the owner ...

To our dismay when he turned up he did not look best pleased and showed little enthusiasm for taking Trixie home.  We agreed to keep her for a few more days, thinking maybe he just needed more time.  Three days later and still no sign of the boy - 'great' we thought, we've put a dog through major surgery all for her to be abandoned with us.  It is difficult enough to re-home healthy four legged dogs, almost impossible to re-home a three legged one.

It was only a few days later, whilst talking to someone who lives on the boys street, that we found out the full story.  The boy has learning difficulties and absolutely adores animals.  He takes them in, all sorts of waifs and strays from the street and feeds them and cares for them, much to the anger of his uncles.  His uncles not only beat the boy, but also beat his animals as a form of punishment to the boy.  It turns out the reason Trixie broke her leg in the first place was the uncles attempt to kill her.  This is why the boy didn't want to take her home - he was scared of what his Uncle's would do to the dog, and also to him. 

We managed to find the boy and said we would keep Trixie until a home was found for her and he could visit her as many times as he liked.  This he was delighted with and came regularly to see her.  Trixie has now been re-homed by an ACE volunteer and is being kept in line with a household of no less than seven cats!!