Sweet Ella

Ella became a Tripawd on September 8th, 2010. Her life has led her on a long journey and I am so glad that I am a part of it!

::Puerto Rico

Ella was abandoned as a puppy at the local dump in Puerto Rico.  She was just thrown out with the trash, left to fend for herself as a small puppy in the hot Puerto Rican sun. Luckily through divine intervention and the generosity of strangers she ended up in our arms here in New Hampshire.

:: A Broken Foot

When Ella was 12 weeks old she was playing ball with our dog Jake when all of a sudden we heard her screech in pain. We noticed right away that her paw was swelling and she was in a great deal of pain. A late night trip to the emergency vet revealed that all of her toes were broken. Just a freak accident. The poor little girl ended up in a full arm cast for 4 weeks. After the cast was removed we discovered that the emergency vets did not set her paw correctly and her wrist was crooked. We were told that she would end up with arthritis later in life. Our poor baby was off to a rough start!

:: Four Surgeries

When Ella was 9 months old we noticed she was limping in her back end after runs at the dog park or long walks on the beach. We brought her to the vet and after a series of x-rays we discovered that Ella had hip dysplasia in both hips. Soon after her 1st Birthday Ella went in for TPO surgery on her right hip then 6 months later she had surgery on her left hip. After lots of pain and therapy Ella was finally recovered, or so we thought!

At the time we were so happy our sweet little Ella was finally healed and pain free, she could live a normal happy life. We started back visiting all her dog friends at the park and then noticed she was once again limping. Back to the vet we went for another round of x-rays and then we received the bad news.  Ella had luxating patella’s in BOTH knees and she was going to have to have two more surgeries! So here we went again, more surgeries and more pain. How much could this poor sweet dog take?

:: New Life

Ella recovered wonderfully from all her surgeries and never lost her sparkle. She has spent the last 3 years post-surgery living a wonderful life. She got to be the spokes dog for my dog bakery (which I started due to the hefty cost of all her surgeries), she has been in newspaper articles, on the radio, in a local book and mentioned on NH Chronicle. Most importantly Ella along with my former business Barkin’ Biscuit has helped raise money for many other dogs and animals in need.

:: Amputation

Now here we are in a new chapter in Ella’s life and I’m sorry to say it’s going to be a hard one once again.  Remember how I mentioned the vet said she would have arthritis later on in life? Well she does and it’s very, very severe. So severe that the only option we have is to amputate her front left leg all the way to the shoulder. Ella is in so much pain that she can barely make the trip to our mailbox and back. At bedtime her dad has to carry her up the stairs and place her on our bed as she can’t make it herself.

Ella is not even 7 years old and she can’t even go for a walk or play tug-o-war with her brother Bodhi. Amputation seems like a drastic approach but it will bring her a life without pain. Sure it will take some getting used to for her and for us but she will have a quick recovery and her quality of life will greatly improve. We just want Ella to live a long and happy life where she can swim and play and most importantly finally be pain free!

A lot of people tell us we are crazy to do all these surgeries for ‘a dog’, that we should ‘just put her to sleep’- we think that is crazy! When we adopted Ella she became our family, our child, our heart. When you adopt a dog you are responsible for them and I take that very seriously just as I would if she was my child. I would do anything for Ella; she brings us more joy than I could ever find words for.

Here is to a long and happy life on 3 legs my Sweet, Sweet Ella.