Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

Thanks, Petra. You are very kind.  

We surely miss our Bailey.  She sure made life fun. She would like to share these stories of our fun times.

I came to my furever home at 6 weeks.  My 1st dad (later to become brother) got me while he was a college student.   I first lived in an apartment at Texas Tech.  They said I was strong willed.  Naw, I just like to show how strong and smart I am.  Once my dad got a package from home with fishing waders. But they must have forgotten to send me anything.  I opened the box and nothing was for me.  That wasn't nice.  I still had those nice sharp puppy teeth.  I left the waders looking good.  Dad came back from Spring Break and wasn't happy.  He told me when he got in the river, water started coming in his waders.  Guess someone should have sent me a present in the mail.

Dad's best friend loved for me to come over and play.  One time I was in his backyard and noticed he had a beautiful umbrella giving shade to his patio table.  I jumped up to get under the shade, honest.  I was just trying to adjust the umbrella for more shade when the whole umbrella came down.  Guess someone didn't secure that umbrella.  He should have been glad I found out first, but he didn't seem to be that happy for my help.

When I was a wee pup, I went to spend the weekend at my grandparents, they have  place in the country.  When grandpa was supposed to be watching me, I tricked him.  It was dark, but I could see the neighbor's pond about 100 yards away.  I went on a moonlight swim.  Grandma freaked when she couldn't find me.  The water was great and I was loving the swim when I heard my name, but who would leave a moonlight swim just to go inside?  Then I heard my grandpa say a few choice words and tell grandma he could hear me splashing in the pond.  I decided it was time to go back.

When I was 2, dad graduated from college.  Wreck em Tech!!!  We moved in with my aunt for a bit.  She had a town-home and two small pups (I call them wanna be dogs).  After a week, I went to live with my Grandparents.  They loved me so much they would not give me back and became my new parents (1st dad missed me but was glad I had a big house and yard). One night mom was cooking and it was an awesome smell.  She came to the kitchen and kinda freaked when I was eating out of the sauce pot.  I didn't mention this was not my first time, but she put everything on the back burners after that.  Darn

My parents started spelling words after I was living with them a bit.  I really loved hearing the "F" word (farm) and I could run and hit the back door open.  I could never figure out how to open the truck door to get inside.  And when I was at the farm, I loved hearing the "B" word (Buggy-UTV).  The "B" word meant I would get to go out and chase it all over the 40 acres.  I could fly like the wind running beside my buggy. After I lost my leg and my back hurt, Dad would take me out every night and put me in the buggy and we would ride around.  Then he would let me out for a bit to enjoy the creek and load me back in to go to the house.

I loved our farm.  Mom and dad finally built me a house so we could live there all the time.  I loved all the wild life at the farm, well almost all.  I loved watching the squirrels run up the trees really fast when I came rushing toward them.  I could really get the deer running when I tried to run beside them.  Once I thought I had played too hard with an opossum and killed it, but as soon as I turned away it ran off.  Really sneaky, wasn't it?  But there was one animal that did not like me.  One night I saw a cute black and white animal I wanted to make friends with. It sure wasn't very friendly. When I ran in the house, my dad said I was foaming at the mouth and really smelled awful.  He mad me sleep outside on the porch.  That is the only night I every slept outside.  I got a lot of baths after that, but still smelled like that old skunk every time I got wet for almost a year!

I was a good snake dog.  Mom hated those snakes. On our walks, I always was on the lookout for them.  She knew if I stopped and barked at something she couldn't see, I had found a snake.  But.....my mom loved to plant pretty flowers in an old claw foot bathtub under a tree.  Now, I was just trying to protect my family when I took one jump and got in the newly planted bathtub to try to get a snake (or something) out of the hole in the tree.  Dad gave me up.  He told me to get out then videoed me doing it again.  That year the flowers were not near as pretty.

I loved hearing my leash jangle.  I never had one on outside at the farm.  I just got to go where I wanted. But, the jangle of the leash meant a car ride.  I loved, loved car rides.  It didn't matter where.  Mom would open the back hatch and I would run out the front door and jump in.  Sometime, she would just load me up and go down the road to get the mail, or run to town to go through the drive thru for a drink.  It did not matter where, I just loved to go.  

I got to be the only child.  Some people called me a bully, but truthfully I just wanted to make sure any visiting dog knew whose house it was.  So I put them in a corner, and made them stay there a while.  At first, Mom and Dad wanted to get another pup for me to train to be the best dog, like me.  But they realized I was so good they didn't need another pup.

I know my entire family misses me a bunch.  I am on the lookout for the perfect dog for them.  I think it will take a while, because it will be hard to get another dog after they had the world's greatest dog for 10 years.

Bailey

P.S. Thank you, Sally, your kind words and sage advice really helped my mom.