February 2005:
A commercial dog breeder contacted me and said he had a Westie pup with a deformed leg and asked if I could take her into my rescue. I took her to my vet who examined her and took X-rays. Her left rear leg bent at the hip only, but she was able to use it and it didn’t seem to hinder or hurt her any. The vet had never seen anything like it and was at a loss as to what to do, but thought it would cause problems as she grew. He suggested amputating it.
I didn’t want to have the leg amputated, so I contacted a lady I knew who was involved in Westie rescue to see if she might know what was wrong with the pup that I was now calling Baby Girl, as she was a tiny little five-week old baby girl. She e-mailed some other Westie rescuers and they all recommended that I take her to a vet school where she would be examined by specialists with state-of-the-art facilities.
One of the Westie rescuers recommended that I contact WestieMed for financial assistance. I did and they were eager to help this precious little angel, so I arranged for her to go to a vet school six hours from here. The vets there said her leg had been broken and had healed and her quadriceps was just scar tissue. There was nothing that could be done for her, but the leg shouldn’t cause her any problems unless she scraped her toes or pads when she walked – in which case they suggested a bootie or sock, etc. to protect her foot.
Baby Girl is now fourteen weeks old now up for adoption.
Pat Kellim Small K9 Rescue Paragould (NE) Arkansas
Update: July 2005:
This precious little Baby Girl came into our lives the weekend before Easter in March of this year all the way from Arkansas to Lexington, Kentucky all in one day. Marge and Tom who you read about in this section were so nice and helped to transport this little one and we met them in Paducah. We named her Miss Mckenzie Starbucks as our first stop when we got home was Starbucks and we found out she LOVES all coffee!!!!!
Miss Mckenzie is a joy to have around. She has a ball with her Westie sister, Jasmine, who is six years old, and her Westie brother, Baxter, a rescue who is four and half years old. Jasmine and Mckenzie play for hours and when they get too wild Baxter acts as the referee. She loves to be outside and loves to go around the fence line looking for the black Labs next door or the mixed breed on the other side next door. She is very affectionate along with being quite a character. Everyone loves her personality. She is very confident and is not afraid of anyone or anything except maybe the firecrackers she heard last night!!!! She has become the Alpha of the house taking nylabones right out of Baxter and Jasmine’s mouths. She is very sneaky and a riot to watch. She is also very intelligent and keeps us all on our toes.
Her bad hind leg does not cause her ANY problems or slow her down at all. She keeps up with the other two and you would never tell she had a problem. She is always a happy pup and has just recently become a water dog. We bought an eleven-foot pool and put milk crates upside down in the water to make a platform. She loves the water and will jump off the platform and then dog paddle to us. It is amazing to see her. She has no fear and just LOVES the water.
We want to thank Pat at Small K-9 Rescue and Westie ed for giving her the chance to live a normal life. We are so glad they did not have to amputate her leg. Thank you again for letting us give Mckenzie her forever home and for sending this precious angel to us.
Rebecca A. Rogers