Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
Tripawds is your home to learn how to care for a three legged dog or cat, with answers about dog leg amputation, and cat amputation recovery from many years of member experiences.
Join The Tripawds Community
Learn how to help three legged dogs and cats in the forums below. Browse and search as a guest or register for free and get full member benefits:
Instant post approval.
Private messages to members.
Subscribe to favorite topics.
Live Chat and much more!
Register
Log In
Members
Add Topic
Offline
Our first dog was a Lab/Border Collie mix. We got him as a puppy, and had gone a week with no idea what to name him. He always seemed to be underfoot, tripping us at every opportunity. One of us made some comment along the lines of "He's like a shadow – you can't get away from him." We both decided the name "Shadow" sounded appropriate, so it stuck.
Several months later, we adopted a Lab/Husky mix, a fat tan puppy with a black muzzle and piercing blue eyes. All that black on his face gave him a slightly menacing look, and my wife Diane said he looked like a brute. The movie Gladiator was out at the time, and Diane, knowing my love of that movie and all things Roman, immediately turned to me and said, "You aren't going to name him Brutus. Don't even think about it." She then said, "What about 'Maximus'?" (The name of Russell Crowe's character in that movie). We both liked that name, so he was Maximus from then on – "Max" for short.
After Shadow died unexpectedly, we quickly adopted another dog because Max was desperately lonely. She was an English Lab who had belonged to a family with two small girls. She got loose one day and was hit by a car and badly injured. The family showed up at the shelter to get her, but the vet refused to release her, saying that the dog would die without surgery. The family was moving back to Mexico, so they had to leave her. There was a very emotional scene, and the two little girls were crying and saying "Tell whoever takes her that her name is 'Linda'." After hearing that story, there's no way we could have changed it. And even if we were so inclined, Linda was already a year or two old and used to the name. Like most Labs, she's not blessed with an especially deep intellect, so I doubt that a name change would have worked anyway.
After Max lost his battle with cancer, we decided to adopt again. Although we'd originally planned to adopt another adult dog, Di kept looking at a picture of a brown and white puppy on a local shelter's website. She forwarded it to me, and then I couldn't stop looking at it either. We both realized this picture had gotten under our skin, so one day Di went to adopt the eight-week old pup. We were determined to come up with an original name for him, and had no intention of using the name the shelter gave him, especially one as silly as "Bernie." Unfortunately, we couldn't think of anything right away, and in the meantime, we kept finding ourselves yelling things like "Bernie! Knock that off!" and "Bernie! Get out of there! Bernie! Drop that! Bernie! Stop chewing on Linda!" We got so used to yelling it at him that he it just sort of stuck, and besides, he was already associating himself with that name – usually that hearing it was a signal to flee the scene of the crime. As for the many, many ways that he earned his surname of "bin Laden", that's been well-documented in many posts elsewhere on these forums.
So Ken has Highlander's Braveheart Samson and I have Evelyn, a Modified Dog. Hmmm.
I think Bernie's name is great! It suits him, and having the three people names is really cool. It sounds like a family reunion. "Over there is my Uncle Max. This is his sister, Linda. And that guy barfing on the potted plant is Bernie, their step-brother."
From abandoned puppy to Tripawd Warrior Dude, Dakota became one of the 2011 February Furballs due to STS. Our incredibly sweet friend lived with grace and dignity till he impulsively raced over the Bridge on 12-15-12.
Dakota's thoughtful and erudite blog is at http://shari.tr.....pawds.com/
Cooper was already Cooper when we adopted him
I NEVER KNEW THAT!!!! Monkeybutt would love to kiss that person who named him! It rhymed with everything Stooooopid!
But I know the real reason you named "Samson", Samson....it rhymes with ................nothing! 
That's rather sad about Linda...I never knew her story!
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
I didn't grow up with a dog. I was terrorized by the Samoyed next door and the Collie two doors down (she was tied to a tree her whole life-- I now understand why she was so mean, poor thing). My husband wanted a dog, and I didn't want our future children to fear dogs as I did, so after months of researching, I found a breeder and put a deposit down on an unborn puppy. Now for the name... Being terrified of dogs, I though we should name him "Outside", as that's where he would be-- he would know his place. My husband was reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" at the time and suggested, Scout. Much better than Outside, don't you think... So Scout it was-- official name Apollo Watermark Scout (he was born in Space City, aka Houston). When we picked up 12 week old Scout, my maternal instincts kicked in. Love at first sight. Needless to say, Scout didn't spend much time outside. I slept with him on the kitchen floor until he was toilet trained-- couldn't bear the thought of crating him. While we were at work, he spent his mornings outside (we extended the roof line of the house by 12 feet, creating a huge covered patio for Scout in case it rained) and we took turns coming home at lunch to play with him and put him in for the afternoon. When Scout was 4, I quit my job in order to stay home with my children, Scout, Anna, Elizabeth and Alexander (the other three are human). Life was good. On our walks, four-legged Scout was always at the end of his leash, scouting out the trail. Tripawd Scout spent his final nine months on Earth walking off-leash. Watching Tripawd Scout way up ahead always made me smile. Scout's nicknames were Scoutypoo and Scout-a-pus. We lost Scout to cancer on Tuesday, but I know my boy is just running on ahead, scouting out the way just as he always did.
Scout: January 31, 2002 to November 7, 2011
Scout's diagnosis was "poorly differentiated sarcoma"; amputation 1/11/2011. Scout enjoyed 9 fantastic years on 4 legs and 9 glorious months on 3 legs. If love alone could have saved you…
Hey Scout's mom,
Thanks for sharing a little more about your boy. This is an awesome line:
We lost Scout to cancer on Tuesday, but I know my boy is just running on ahead, scouting out the way just as he always did.
Makes me smile and cry at the same time.
I wasn't going to keep Maggie outside- but there was NO WAY she was sleeping in my bed. That lasted two nights- my bed has been full of pugs ever since!
Karen and the pugapalooza
Hi,
What a fun topic! We have a theme going with the name of our beasties. We call them the "Us" brothers because all of their names end with the "us" sound. We started with Otis, the chocolate lab. His official name was Otis Jefferson and we intended on calling him OJ until the whole OJ Simpson incident happened. Needless to say, he became just Otis. He was a wild man who survived 2 active boys. Otis lived to be 12 years old and was a wonderful friend.
When Otis was 8 we got Rufus, the black and tan coonhound. We decided on his name because we thought it was a good "us" name for a hunting type dog from the middle of nowhere (population 200). Rufus is now 11 and is the toughest dog I know. Two months ago be got loose and chased down 5 coyotes in the yard. I went out in the woods with a baseball bat to chase them off but Rufus decided it would be more fun to go after them. He came back with a few nibbles in his butt. Given the chance, he would go after them again today! We call him the cockroach because nothing can stop him.
In 2006, a year after we lost Otis, we started searching for a new dog breed. We wanted something different who was a good family dog. We decided on an Irish Wolfhound. Fergus Finn joined our family in October of that year. We searched Irish baby name books looking for the perfect "us" name and decided on Fergus. Finn is his dad's name. Fergus is the kindest, most loving dog I have ever had. He considers himself a lapdog and has no qulams about climbing on everyone's lap (all 130 pounds, almost 7 feet long of him). When he goes to the kid's sporting events we bring a separate chair for him and he puts his but in the chair with his front legs on the ground. It is hysterical, he looks like a very hairy human! Fergus became a tripawd on 9/22/11 and has now gone through 2 rounds of chemo. He is fighting the good battle (on my lap) with a smile on his face and with his tail wagging.
In 2009, we decided 2 dogs were not enough. We got Shamus Jameson. Used the baby name book again and added on the Irish Whiskey middle name. Shamus is another Irish Wolfhound. He too is a lap dog. When the IWs tag team you on the couch, you're not moving. 260 pounds of giant breed dogs fast sleep are a heavy load! Shamus is another wonderful guy. As with all IWs, he demands attention 24/7. The tripawd journey has been tough for him. He wants to wrestle and run with Fergus and doesn't understand the problem with that. He also wants 100% of his mom's attention. As Fergus continues to improve, Shamus is getting more "me" time.
Well, that's how the "US" brothers joined our family. My husband has mentioned getting an Angus, but 4 dogs is more than I can handle!!
Have a great day,
Tara & the "US" brothers (Rufus, Fergus & Shamus)
Boy, does it ever help to spend time at tripawds.com! We miss our Sylvie terribly, but it's so healing to keep up with other posts . . . And I love this one!
Sylvia became Sylvia because . . . Several years ago, when we lived in S.D.'s Black Hills, I was quite involved in the community theatre in Rapid City. If I wasn't in or working on a play, my husband and I always had season tickets and were in the audience. One season, one of the plays presented was called "Sylvia". It was great fun - The title character was a dog (actually, a person portraying a dog - not crawling around or anything, but verbalizing what this dog was undoubtedly thinking). The dog adored her "dad" and believed that they were always to be together. However, "dad" fell in love with a human and Sylvia was appalled that a human would presume to replace her. Sylvia shared with the audience her frustration with this stupid human female. At the very end of the play, there was a projection of the "actual" dog . . . and it was an Old English Sheepdog! Years later when we adopted an Old English Sheepdog, my husband was adament that we name her "Sylvia". I wanted to name her "Sophie" because I really liked that name for a dog. After one day of being Sophie, it was just so evident that she was as pushy and "outspoken" as the character in the play, so she became Sylvia for good!
- Karen and Angel Sylvia
Sweet Silly Sylvie, the Old English Sheepdog
Diagnosed with osteosarcoma 11/04/2010 at almost 7 years of age * Left hind leg amputated 11/09/2010 * Chemo on 12/10, 12/17, 01/10, 01/31
Sweet Sylvie's earthly journey ended on Nov. 3, 2011, one day short of a year since her diagnosis and 6 days short of her one-year ampuversary. Her family celebrates her life as a sheepdog – ever the puppy, ever silly, ever sweet – and are grateful for our 7 years together.
I'm loving these stories! I laughed; I cried!
I want a lap full of Fergus! He sounds great. And that Linda story... so sad. Scout - such a great name. One of my favortie books!
And, Sylvia!! We've seen that play! It was many years ago, but I still remember the scene where he's out on the street with Sylvia and she starts yelling at/trash-talking a cat across the street. Hysterical.
Keep 'em comin' people!
Jackie, Abby Louise's mom
Abby: Aug 1, 2009 – Jan 10, 2012. Our beautiful rescue pup lived LARGE with osteosarcoma for 15 months – half her way-too-short life. I think our "halflistic" approach (mixing traditional meds + supplements) helped her thrive. (PM me for details. I'm happy to help.) She had lung mets for over a year. They took her from us in the end, but they cannot take her spirit! She will live forever in our hearts. She loved the beach and giving kisses and going to In-N-Out for a Flying Dutchman. Tripawds blog, and a more detailed blog here. Please also check out my novel, What the Dog Ate. Now also in paperback! Purchase it at Amazon via Tripawds and help support Tripawds!
I am so enjoying reading everyones naming stories! Here's my furry family members (umm and I'm not talking about my hairy uncle Doug) names:
Baxter, the sweet little boy that had me seeking ya'll help out- he was a shelter dog that they named Alfred. He had the name the 6 months he was waiting on a family, but wasn't responsive to it. And really, as good of a shelter as it is, it wasn't like anyone was taking time with him and he was being called it. We knew when we adopted him (a little more than a month ago) that we would change it and finally after a week hit upon his name.
I was thinking I would name him Dexter after my favorite character on Showtime's serial killer series Dexter. But as we were talking about it, it evolved into Baxter and it just seemed right. He already responds to it so I think we did right.
He has the best attitude of all three of our dogs. He is so smart, so independent- just rolls with whatever is going on and always with a sweet disposition. He's a bundle of energy! He's maybe 9 pounds- all long legs and crazy hair.
Diesel, also a shelter dog adopted less tahn 6 months ago, was named Bissell when we adopted him. He was also at the shelter for about 6 months and wasnt attractive to most adopters because he was heartworm positive and would have to undergo treatment when adopted, which he successfully completed two months ago.
We did try to keep Bissell as his name, but REALLY couldn't embrace it. If we were going to change it though, we thought we should try names that were similar.
We ended up with Diesel. Keep in mind, we are a house of females (me, two daughters and a female Doxie) so Mike was all over finding a "manly" name for the only other testosterone ruled member of the household. Cause, really, who is more manly than Vin Diesel?
Diesel is under 2, a Standard Dachshund/Jack Russell mix, under 25 pounds. Imagine a Jack Russell with the oh so solid body of a Dachshund and ALL the quirks of a Dachshund.
The manly name says nothing about his personality. He must have been abused at some point, because he is literally afraid of his own shadow. He's the gentlest of all three of our dogs and wants nothing more than to snuggle. I usually call him my little Romeo because he has likes to get right in your face, gaze in your eyes and give you a quick kiss- only us girls though. And he loves to stick his snout down my cleavage- he's only found a snack (dropped piece of bacon crumb) one time, but he remembers!
And last, but certainly not the least important, is our Layla. We had her named by the next day. She was almost a Sydney, but then Eric Clapton's song Layla came on and we KNEW it was her name.
She is a registered ( = snobby) Mini Dachshund. Her registered name is Layla, Princess Warrior. She's delicate and prissy to look at, so Layla fits, but she is surpringly fierce like a little warrior, and she thinks she should be treated like a princess, so Layla, Warrior Princess is our girl! She is the small, bossy, demanding, iron fisted ruler of our house.
Mike gave her to me for Christmas (I sure do love that man!) two years ago (third Christmas together this year). She is maxed out at a solid 12 pounds. She's the oldest and most definetly the pack leader.
As for nicknames:
Baxter = Spider Monkey, Itty Bitty
Diesel = Romeo, Sweet D
Layla = Booger, Little Bit
OMG I LOVE this topic!!!! Since the other one was before my time, I'm glad I get this opportunity. And with 3 dogs and 3 cats and a bunny, this might get a little long... 
Guenivere Sylvia: our old lady, she'll be 12 in December. Something of a Lab/shepherd mix, solid black. My husband and I got her from the local pound. He'd never owned a dog before. He likes sci-fi/fantasy books, and he'd been reading a series about a dark elf and his companion, a HUGE black panther named Guenivere (except it was a Welsh-ish spelling, more consonants than vowels, don't even ask me to try it). So when we went into the kennels and saw this black dog (name on her kennel card was Lego) just begging us to take her home, yep, that was our Guen. Sylvia, the middle name (all our kiddos have middle names), came from the play several of you have mentioned. LOVE that play, and it fits Guen to a T. I swear she looks at my husband and says, "I think you're God if you really wanna know." Nicknames, she gets Guen, Old Queen, Guenny, Guenny-bear, Teddy-dog (loves to snuggle), Sprinkles (just watch her pee sometime), or Old Lady.
Domino Josephine: our oldest monkeycat, turned 11 in April. We adopted her at the same time as Guen. She's a "tuxedo" cat, so she got Domino for the black and white. Josephine came out in a fit of anger one day (that's how all the cats got middle names, actually). Nicknames, she's Dom, Mow, Duchess, Spook, One-eyed Wonder Cat, or B*tchy.
Annie Leigh: turned 9 in August, our big mellow yellow Lab. Foster failure, hubby just fell in love with her. She came with Annie, he liked Leigh for a middle name. For nicknames, she probably has the most: Ann, Nan, Nanners, Nanny-boo, Lump, Sugar Lump, Mello Yello, Noob, Noobly, Nanny, Nanny-Leigh, Pokey...answers to all of them, pretty much.
Felicity Jane: another monkeycat, snowshoe Siamese, turned 10 in May. I was working for a vet at the time and someone dropped off a box of kittens, yeesh. I saw that tiny face, those blue eyes, my heart just melted. Hubby named her for his patron saint, and at the time the pretty name suited the wee delicate kitten. Nowadays, well, she mostly gets nicknames: Fis, Fissers, Mouth of the South (getting told off by a Siamese is really quite something), Chub, and my favorite, Fluffernutter.
Katy Sue: my Tripawd. 🙂 Her name at the SPCA was Coco, how original for a brown dog. I had "Katy" picked out for a while, after one of my favorite saints, Catherine Laboure, and "Sue" just seemed to go with it. Simple name for a very simpleminded dog. 🙂 She gets Katydid, Kate, Goober, Dopey, Babydog, Clown, and most recently Hopalong.
Caedmon Jude: monkeycat and mama's boy. He's about 10 years old now, hard to believe. Stray kitten, just walked up on our porch one day and decided he lived there. He got 2 saints' names: Caedmon was a monk who was embarrassed because he couldn't sing until one day God blessed him with extraordinary talent (my Caedmon rarely speaks, and when he does it's this tiny little mew, so funny), and Jude the patron saint of hopeless causes (because Caedmon was lucky my husband said he could stay). Nicknames, he gets Caeds, Momma's Boy, Big Handsome, Monster, and Bubba.
Mellie Mae: she's the bunny rabbit. She got named after Melangell, patron saint of rabbits (who knew?). Her primary nickname is Bunnyhead, creative I know. 😛
I'm Crystal, but you can call me Katymom. :) I'm Triproud of my Tripawd!
Katy Sue Sarcopski – born approx 2/03, found "the lump" 9/7/11, suspected soft tissue sarcoma (most likely liposarcoma) 10/11, became a Tripawd 11/1/11, official diagnosis of infiltrating lipoma 11/23/11
Follow her "tail" at katydidit.tripawds.com!
After we picked up "Sherry" at Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue, we just kinda watched her for a while and the name Shelby came up. Kept the SH part but Shelby is a good, strong southern name. And, Carroll Shelby is one of my hero's.
Sherry had bad things happen to her so we needed to leave that name behind. We promised Shelby nothing bad would ever happen to her again. And we'll do our best to keep that promise.
the chauffeur
Ha! Ajax came to us as a puppy called "Dapple" due to the brindle on his muzzle and forelegs. There was just NO WAY we were going to yelll "Hey Dapple, come" at a 75 lb black male Lab in the middle of Central Park. So he was "Dapple Puppy" for a week, and then "Puppy Dapple" and then just puppy.
We put a list of names on the fridge. PIcture: "Today the puppy's name is: ________". It was 4 days of Scottish names like Brody and Duncan before my husband revealed that he had been harboring the perfect name for years.
Ajax - a Trojan warrior (my husband studied classics)
Ajax - a mountain in Aspen where we had our second date (that, conveniently, comes with great "Ajax" gear)
Ajax - NOT a cleaning product!
ps Ajax has a HUGE crush on Katy of katydid. What is that gorgeous Labby color? Not just brown, but silver brown? Smitten.
What a fun topic.
When I first got pregnant we picked out Mikayla as a girls name - two active and troublesome boys later I still haven't had a little girl to call Mikayla so it got shortened to Kayla for our sweet little puppy. Sarge our other dog came with his name and still gets called sargent when he is in trouble!!!!!
Over 9 years ago we were looking for a name for our new male chocolate lab pup and knew he would be a hunting dog. One day we were in a pet store looking at all of the collars and came upon a hunter green collar and I said.... Hunter green... mmmm... how about "Hunter"? That was it... we had our winner.
When I was looking for his AKC registered name I looked into some old Saddlebred horse issues - Saddle & Bridle. I came across "Northern Lights". So his registered name became Crosswind's Northern Hunter. (Crosswind was his kennel name).
Then, 3 years later came our female chocolate lab pup. She and our male both had a common female in their lines. Her name was pretty peculiar. It was "Little Girl Alice Wiedeman".. funny hey! Well since this female was Hunter's dam, and the grandmother of our new pup, we wanted to incorporate it some how.
We also wanted her name to start with "H". Later I found out that I subconsciously added the names of 2 labs I knew... Bailey and Holly ... and ended up with Hailey. And Hailey's registered name became Erins Edge Lil Girl Hailey Jo (Erins Edge was her kennel name). Lil Girl turned out to be quite fitting for her as she's a little lab weighing only 50 lbs. fully grown!
Funny how we get to our furry family member's names isn't it!?
Read about our Hunter at http://superdog.....pawds.com/
7/27/2003 ~ 7/24/2013
Our Super Dog Hunter crossed over the Rainbow Bridge on a beautiful summer day in July, just 3 days shy of his 10th Birthday. He gave us everything since he was 8 weeks old. Hunter was a 14 month warrior of OS. We LOVE and MISS him every day.
I'm glad you found this old thread, it's like a hop down memory lane!
Nothing new to report from pugapalooza- Tani is still deaf so her nicknames are really now hand signals. Obie is sort of a nickname in itself- sometimes I call him Obs. Well I guess his newest nickname is Evelyn's Boy Toy!
Karen and the pugapalooza
1 Guest(s)
