Our new Tripawd friend Lily, has a Dad who's a columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, Colorado. He recently wrote a column about Lily's first days on three legs. It's a truly beautiful article that makes humans appreciate all of the gentle lessons Tripawds can teach us.

Click here to read the article.

While we're on the topic, here are links we dug up to a few articles Jerry himself inspired …

MN Star Tribune Features Animal Amputees and Jerry
July 19, 2008

San Francisco Chronicle story about happy three legged dogs
June 11, 2008

Canada's Guide to Dogs: Three Legged Dogs Inspire Humans Around The World
November 30,2007

K9 Perspective: Adjusting to Life on Three Legs
February, 2008

KVEC Interview Podcast
February 2009, Dave Congalton Interviews Jim and René

The 2010 Spring/Summer edition of the Colorado Paw Pages features a profile of Jerry and how his travels led Jim and Rene to Colorado. (Click index button and view page 66.)

Many thanks to Gayle King for taking Rene's call this morning on Oprah Radio (XM 156)!

On the topic of adventures inspired by tragedy, she spoke of our travels with Jerry, which startedd a discussion about end of life decisions for beloved pets. The conversation ended with this exchange between Gayle and Oprah Winfrey …

Oprah: "I love that they got in the RV and did it for their dog, Jerry."

Gayle: "Oprah, I could see you doing that. I could see you getting in the car and taking Sadie on a trip, and being very happy."

Oprah: "Now I have five children Gayle, you're only talking about Sadie, I have five little people with fur."

Listen to the segment here, while viewing a slide show from our travels with Jerry:

Last November, we emailed our story in to a Talk of the Nation segment on NPR asking "Who do you miss this Thanksgiving?" Among all the emails the received, they chose to read ours on the air …

Sometimes we're in the news and we don't even know it! A friend recently passed this article along to us, from the Loveland, Colorado Reporter-Herald. It was published after last year's Tripawd pawty in Longmont.

Here's an article about Tripawd Miles that appeared at Examiner.com, "The 3-legged dog named Miles due to his journey," written by Dena Stapleton:

"Starting from the beginning, Baggins was a 3-legged dog that was found as a stray and had only one story to tell. Where he came from, what happened to his leg and where was he going were still a mystery. He only had three legs and had obviously overcome his amputee issue, but what he could not overcome was he was homeless and no one was coming for him. The Stray Hearts shelter in Taos, New Mexico had had him for over two months and they were in need of finding him a home and quickly. The shelter was running out of room.

Baggins was placed on the Tripawds website in the hope someone would see him and want him. Tripawds is a community of volunteers that help to provide support to people affected by cancer with their dogs that leads to amputation. They also help with trying to relocate dogs in need of a home since having only 3-legs tends to make it harder for them to find a home on their own.

Baggins was placed on the message board and pictures started to float all over the Internet. Within one week, Dawn of Auburn, CA saw his pictures and just knew at that moment she had to have him. Baggins is a Rottweiler mix, which reminded Dawn of her beloved Raven. Raven was her Rottweiler that had gotten cancer at age eight and lost his leg to bone cancer. Dawn was a member to Tripawds because of the amputation support with Raven. Eventually the cancer took poor Raven and she lost him soon after he turned nine years old. Seeing Baggins as a tripawd brought a rush of emotions that she knew what she had to do, but getting him over 1500 miles to her home was not going to be easy.

With the great Tripawds community, Dawn let everyone know she wanted Baggins and needed everyone’s help with transport. People started flooding in with comments that they wanted to help with transport. The ball was rolling. This was going to be the largest transport of Tripawds to help with but they did it. This rescue spanned across six states, had eight drivers and all within a three-day timeframe. Jim Nelson, Tripawds co-founder, drove the longest leg of the trip to help get Baggins to his new

pet-mom. Even an employee of the Stray Hearts shelter took a leg of the drive to help out Baggins. The drivers along the way were constantly updating the Tripawds community so everyone knew exactly where Baggins was and where he was going next. He had one night with a Tripawds member and shared it with her 3-legged Rottweiler named Nikki, and

another night was in a hotel in Salt Lake City. It was all worth it when he arrived in Auburn, CA and finally met Dawn.

Yes, you read that right, she met Baggins for the first time the day she received him. Dawn went through a week of preparations, two days of updates to his where about and finally met the dog for the first time when she got him. As soon as Dawn got Baggins she instantly renamed him to “Miles” for the journey it took to bring him to her heart. At that moment she began to tear up, as she knew this was a wonderful start to a new relationship with a beautiful dog. Dawn has a rescue cat named Cowboy and a rescue puppy mill bulldog named Betty. Betty had gone through a lot and is a very dominant in her older age.

Dawn said, “ I was worried before I met Miles that I shouldn’t take the risk, but Miles turned out to be so easy going that they (Miles and Betty) worked out an understanding right away.” Her cat, Cowboy, was very affectionate with Raven but she was not sure how Miles would respond or how the cat would do either. “Cowboy absolutely LOVES Miles and they even eat out of the same bowl”, Dawn explained. Dawn is very grateful for social networking, Tripawds, Pilots-n-Paws, and all the people that help along the way during the journey. Dawn said, “Rescue dogs and tripawds are so inspirational because they are in the moment. The past is over, they don’t dwell on the future, and they are just in the NOW. Miles is a constant reminder to me of how I want to live my life day to day.”

Videos of Miles at his new fur-ever home with Dawn and his pet-siblings

Miles meets Dawn for the first time

This is Miles’ first hike with Dawn after getting settled in

Miles getting a new chew but also sharing with Betty

Miles shares his food with Cowboy the cat