We adopted Riley between 1-2 years of age. She has always been very spunky and fiesty. She LOVES to run and she was fast. Easily, much faster than all of the other small dogs at various dog parks. She would want them to chase her but they couldn't keep up so she'd get behind them and nip at their back legs/butt to get them to move faster. 

She was also a jumper. She would jump on/off anything. No matter how many times we tld her no- she'd continue jumping. Eventually, she knew that she wasn't supposed to jump down so she'd look and make sure you weren't looking before she'd jump down. We've always said that she was 9 pounds of pure fire and attitude- with a mind of her own and very strong opinions.

On night in July 2012, we came home from the grocery store and found Riley limping on her left front leg. She was crying in pain. We took her to the emergency vet and a few hundred dollars, 6 weeks, and some pain meds- she was healed and back to her mischievous self.

All was good until we came home one night before Thanksgiving in 2013 and found Riley stuck at the top of our stairs. Unable to get down. I rushed up the stairs and picked her up and carried her down. Once I set her down, it was immediately apparent that something was wrong.

This was also at night but I had some pain meds left over from our foster dog's spay so I gave one to Riley so that we could take her to our regular vet in the morning. We crated her for the night and she rested.

The next morning, we went to the vet and she got an exam and x-rays. Her right front paw was broken- all of the bones. Once again, Riley was casted, on pain meds, and crate rest. Every 2-3 weeks, we'd take her to the vet to get fresh x-rays and the splinting changed. Sometimes, we'd have to go earlier because Riley would remove it (even with the cone of shame on).

After 4 months of casts, it became readily apparent that her bones were not going to heal. The vet advised us that we could do a surgery to pin the bones in place or just let it be which is what would happen in the wild and that she was no longer in pain.

We decided to let it be due to the fact that the surgery was $5K and only had a 50/50 percent chance of even helping her. We did not want to put her through a surgery without a high chance for success. Plus, the vet said she was no longer in pain.

So we took her home and went about life. For the next year, she was fine. She walked and ran. Less than and slower than before but she was fine.

Fast forward to march 2015, after a long-ish hike (with Riley both hiking and riding in her bag)- she came home and just didn't get up. Like ever.

We contacted our vet but they didn't really give us any options. Same with the specialist that she had previously seen.

Eventually, we decided to take Riley to a new vet in a city about 4 hours from us. Before our appointment, we sent Riley's x-rays. The vet contacted me and told us that the chances of the pinning surgery were roughly 50/50 but in his experience, on a dog her size it was much less likely to make it work because they don't manufacture a plate small enough for her.

We went to our appointment on a Tuesday and decided on the amputation. Her surgery was scheduled for Thursday- just two days from when we decided to amputate. After she was sedated and they removed the leg, the vet told us that the pinning surgery would never have worked. Riley's bones were just hanging on by a thread like when a kid loses a tooth and there's that last little string before it falls out. That's basically how her foot bones were.