It's time for a feel good story. Nipper the Wonder Dog....a bit lengthy.

muncybob · August 2019

There have been some posts here that have brought me to tears(such as recent family member deaths and illnesses) and others that have made me angry(shootings, etc). We too have dealt with recent losses. Seems to be more than normal lately so I thought I would change things up a bit.

Some time ago I mentioned that my 10 yr old Aussie Doggie also received some bad news regarding cancer. Of course she wasn't affected by this diagnosis as much as we were and it left us with decisions to make. We decided to aggressively treat her which initially involved 2 trips to the University of Pennsylvania(3.5 hrs away) for an operation to remove the tumor which was located at the bottom of her right front leg just above the joint near the paw. The good news was that the cancer had not got into the bone but the tumor was larger than expected and a lot of the area was left as an open wound in special dressing. The first dressing change by our local vet went well but the 2nd one did not. There was dead tissue that was not seen in the 1st visit and we were told to get her either back to Philly or to the animal hospital in Cornell University. Up to New York we went(much nicer ride and 1+ hour closer).

We were told they could either aggressively try to save her leg or to consider amputation. Hearing that word put me into shock. We left her there to try and save the leg but it did not go well and after 5 days we had to make another decision....partial amputation and then have a prosthetic device made and hope she takes to it or full leg amputation. The full leg is apparently what most people go with(quicker recovery and much cheaper $$) but she is such an active-happy go lucky dog we decided to do the partial and when it comes to a family member money is no object. We were warned that some dogs don't deal with this well but we knew Nipper would, she is just so full of life and nothing seems to bring her down.

The operation went well and the prosthetic was ordered a few weeks later after the swelling went down. 2 more trips up to Cornell and several weeks later waiting for the prosthetic brace to be modified and we/she is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Today she is almost 100% the dog she was prior to all this. Our vet coined the phrase Wonder Dog because with all this girl has been through(there were some very dark days for all of us) she has amazed everybody with her attitude. Even the vets that deal with this stated she is an exception to the rule.

I'm a training analyst/facilitator by trade and I use her as an example of how a positive attitude will help you overcome whatever bumps in the road of life you experience. Sometimes having a positive outlook is difficult but having a negative one will probably only make matters worse. As I was once told, try to find some good in each day-I hope you can no matter how dire situations may be.