Today is a day that will go down in the history books as the largest Tripawd gathering ever!

What an amazing day it was at our first ever Tripawds gathering in Longmont, Colorado. When we planned this party, we figured we'd be really fortunate if a dozen Tripawds showed up. What an incredible sight it was to see Tripawd after Tripawd coming through the dog park gates!

We believe we had 30 Tripawds attend, but my silly pawrents forgot to bring a guest book so we'll never know for sure. There were so many incredible pawrents and Tripawds of all sizes stopping by all day, we wish that we had more time to get to know each and every one better.

We should have some great local newspaper coverage out of this, thanks to Tripawd Lily and her pawrents Clay and Jody, who handled public relations for the event. And our hero Tika gets the award for traveling the farthest for the pawty, all the way from eastern Kansas, an eight hour drive!

We can't thank everyone enough for taking time out to gather with us today. We hope that more of you can come out for our next one sometime in the future.

Better yet, how about planning a Tripawd Pawty in your town?

More pictures are posted on our Tripawds Facebook Page.

Here's an excerpt from the Longmont Daily Times reporter who covered the Tripawds Pawty! …

"Most people don't even notice it right away," said Jan Lund as he watched his three-legged dog explore the park Sunday. "Except my mother, who's 93. She saw him and said, ‘How come he limps?'"

Check out the whole article here …

Three paws, all heart
Owners of ‘tripawd' dogs come together at local park
By Scott Rochat
Publish Date: 8/17/2009

And, here's a snippet from the Daily Camera article covering this fabulous event …

Esther Beck, of Fort Collins, said she was "devastated" when her 3-year-old Great Dane, Athena, was diagnosed with bone cancer. Because Athena was so young, Beck said, she decided to have the affected leg amputated 11 weeks ago.

"We just wanted to give her the best chance we could," Beck said. "The amputation doesn't seem to be slowing her down much."

Read more here …

'They're awesome': Loving 'tripawd' dogs in Longmont
Three-legged canines get around just fine, owners says

By Amy Bounds
Sunday, August 16, 2009

Those darn reporters! How on earth can they get such an original name wrong? Duuuhh!

Tika, it was sooooo great meeting you, your sissy and your Mom and Dad. We are incredibly honored that you came out to see us all. Thank you so so much. Next time will you come stay with us at our house? We could have a real dog pawty then!

You guys rock. We love you!!!!!

Tikaani said:

Tika here.  I just wanted to let everybody know that I had the GRANDEST time.

Tika, we keep forgetting to ask: can we get the recipe for those awesome salmon treats you made? I ate all mine up, they're great!