Today is day 7 of my new life with a Tripawd. FeeBee is a 10-year old 115-pound Leonberger who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her left metatarsus a few weeks ago. She's a strong, spirited dog so we decided that amputation was our best option. They did the surgery one week ago.

The first couple of days were really rough and I kept questioning whether we had made a mistake. As of Friday morning, she still wasn't eating or peeing and it took two people to get her to stand for just a few seconds.

I took her to the vet on Friday. They removed the Fentonyl patch and did some blood tests. She was suffering from a mild case of anemia so we added a 28mg iron supplement to her regular pills. The vet called Friday afternoon and told me to cut down on the pain meds. We eliminated one that may have been upsetting her stomach and cut another one in half.

She seemed to perk up a bit, so the vet had me cut the other pain med in half and add a 20mg Nexium to help the tummy. By Saturday night, she was chowing down on grilled chicken and she finally peed.

On Sunday, she was very active... mostly dragging herself to where she wanted to be, but attempting to take 2 or 3 steps every once in a while.

On Monday, she somehow discovered her balance and we were able to take her outside with just the sling I made from an old towel. She also ran 15 feet across the yard to bark at a car.

Today, we let her outside to pee and came back into the house. She did her thing and walked to the door to be let back in. When my BIL let her in, she walked across the room to lay at my feet. When I called her for dinner, she got up by herself and walked to the food bowl. She cleaned the bowl and proceeded to try to flip it over just in case there's more food underneath. This has been a dinner ritual from the first day she came to live with us:

https://www.fac.....6145585327

The speed at which she's now bouncing back is the most amazing experience I've had the pleasure to see. I think the moral of this story is that everything I learn about strength this year will be learned from my dog.

Brenda