Hey everyone! My husband and I just adopted our first dog 3 weeks ago, and a wonderful person on Reddit pointed me towards this forum. I'm so very excited that there's a great, active community where I can research and learn everything to help our baby 🙂 So here's our story thus far:

Yuna was confiscated from an abuse case in December 2014. Her jerk of an old owner tied her to his truck by her back leg and was keeping her outside on the driveway. By the time animal control was called, the rope was embedded and all circulation cut off from her leg. Her owner was arrested for animal abuse, and Yuna was sent to the vet. In addition to the leg issue, she was also very emaciated.

The Animal Friends Rescue Project (AFRP) out here in Monterey, CA heard about her and funded her amputation and care. After surgery, she was placed in foster care with a wonderful caregiver who helped her during recovery and taught her basic obedience. She was up for adoption starting in February and a few potential adopters visited her in foster care, but none of them worked out.

Fast forward a bit to April, when we started our search for a new dog, reveling in the fact that we finally live in a community that allows dogs. I saw Yuna on the AFRP website and immediately knew we had to have her. We visited her at her foster home and got to bring her home a few days later. This is us on adoption day!

Yuna's a 2-year-old German Shepherd, possible mixed with lab or golden. She's settling in wonderfully. She latched onto me right away because I work from home and spend all day with her. She's a bit afraid of my husband when he gives a command or moves too quickly near her - I think because her abuser was a man. We're working on it though, she's already doing loads better. She enjoys watching my 2 cats run around, and loves to snuggle on the couch and go for long walks. Her favorite is definitely the beach, although the waves are definitely still a scary new thing.

She's still figuring out how the Kong works, but she also loves anything that squeaks and has already destroyed a few toys.

And there's a picture where I actually got her stump side. She's also got some huge calluses on her elbows from laying on a concrete driveway for so long with her old owner.

We're working on some separation anxiety; any time I leave the house she clearly runs around until she finds something that smells like me to cuddle with. Usually she pulls one of my coats from the hanger, but she's also pulled everything out of my purse and tore open a sack of flour that was in a shopping bag I had just brought home. I got her a Thundershirt, which she already loves, but I think I see crate training in her future while she slowly learns that I'm not going to leave her forever.

I've been slowly lengthening her walks because we hope to do some hikes and camping with her in the future. I've been looking up harnesses to help her along, and will probably get one soon. However, as I'm typing this she's currently at the vet to have x-rays done... last night at the dog park she ran full speed for the first time and hurt her other rear leg 🙁 We're hoping it's just a strained muscle, but it could also be a tweaked nerve, ligament tear or even hip displaysia. I'll update as soon as I get her back tonight.