I was asked to share this reunion between a 160lb female Great Dane(and she not fat just huge) and her human pack...Mom(Michele), Dad(Steven), Brother(Carlo) and sister(Gianna) and her dog pack St. Bernard (Lola), Pitmix (Tessa), Pitmix (Luca). This may have been one of the most emotional and inspirational days I've ever experienced. I just want to say if any of you hear from your vet that your dog is to big and they won't do well, run from that vet and find another. I am here to tell you the beginning of what we hope to be an amazing journey with our big girl Ava. I will keep you all posted as to her progress and i will get pictures up as soon as possible. But read on for the start Ava the 4yr old Great Dane...a true inspiration. 

I truly hope that this helps some of you out there struggling with the decision to help your big dog whether to amputate or not. It is a personal decision and only your family knows whats right for you, but I know how hard it was for us and we are so glad we made the decision we did. I wish all the best in your journey with your dog and your family.

Ava the 4yr old Great Dane...a true inspiration

What a difference a day makes!!! The day after surgery we sat and wondered how we were going to take care of her. After spending a couple of hours with her and hearing her whimper and barely able to lift her head we were very concerned that we weren't prepared and thats when I sent out that somewhat frantic post asking all of you for help ( and all your advice was great thank you)

So when we came home that night we sat and talked and we we're scared we want to do everything we can to help her but at 160lbs thats not so easy we watched two vet techs struggle with her size and said these people do this everyday how the hell are we going to manage and not hurt her. well as you can imagine we got virtually no sleep at all that night.

Now it's the big day Ava is coming home, we spent the entire day preparing the house for her moving furniture around, putting runners down everywhere, we had to rearrange the entire garage because we had a ramp built for her in there and in order to minimize the grade it had to be long enough. So now the house is prepared as best as we could, but the question remained in the back of our minds…were we prepared? It's about 4pm at this point and it's time to go get our girl.

It was a pretty silent ride to the hospital. when we arrive they are going over the bill and all the business side of the surgery (i wasn't paying one bit of attention…i just asked how much and please get me to my dog) At that point they placed us in an exam room and the vet came in and was going over the meds and what we could expect and and how to deal with things, at that point I heard this kind of excited panting and I knew it was her and suddenly…BOOM… the door bursts open and in bounds Ava with a vet tech in tow, not only was her tail wagging her entire body was wagging she was WALKING ON HER OWN, she was crying but this time not in pain but pure joy to see us all there she was nuzzleing, and licking (even the vet I guess she really liked him) but most amazingly she was walking, going to the right, to the left , backing up…the day before she could barely move (lots of drugs I know)

so the vet tries now to explain to me about how to use the harness to help support her weight (Good luck with that I thought…lol) it's now time to leave the hospital I have the harness wrapped around her, we have to go across the Triage are and go through the waiting room (which unfortunately was packed to the brim) the floors were all vinyl and slippery so he said go slow with her and support her weight, so I said "Of Course"

So they opened the door to the exam room and whooosh there goes Ava with me trying to keep up with the harness…yeah that didn't work out to well for me…lol…I was just a rag doll in tow. All the triage nurses were saying goodbye to her (I think her size had an impact on them..they all knew her name) but the most amazing part was hitting the waiting room, when she entered that room peoples jaws hit the ground at first I think because of her size but then they realized this was a huge Great Dane Tripaw who just happen to be dragging a human behind her. The looks went from Wow…to absolutely amazed…everyone was wishing her well and not a single eye was was anywhere except on her, and there were a few wet eyes as well, she was so happy and excited, some people even came outside and offered to help get her in the Minivan ( I never had a minivan…I do now…and it's pretty cool…lol) she was a little nervous getting in so we helped her and she settled right in. the ride home was uneventful luckily.

So as we get about two minutes from my house she sits up and knows she is almost home, when I pull up her tail is wagging she pants a little heavier, she's ready to be home. I quickly get out and get my other dogs outside. as soon as we get the door to the van (I now call it the "Van") open out she goes straight to the garage up the ramp and into the house and right to her food and water bowls, then she looks up and sees her pack mates off the deck down by the pool patio and her tail and their tails and her cries and their cries start all at once…it was beyond overwhelming (I have a feeling I'm going to be using that word a lot) at this point we can't keep them apart any longer so we let them in…what a reunion licking, and lots of butt smelling and crying and they stopped for a second and it was like they all knew ok something isn't 100% right and they all start sniffing her incision and they seemed to relax except my ST.Bernard she the Mom of the house and started barking at the other two as if to say "Stay away I got this" and thats exactly what she meant she'd let go by her but if they lingered to long she'd bark or come over and push them away.

So remember the ramp we had built in the garage we built it in there because it the place in my house where there is the least amount of stairs (only two) where she used to going down 6 stairs off the deck about 40 ft of pool patio and 3 mores stairs off the patio into the yard, we figured there's no way she can do that right away or maybe ever again, so the idea for the garage ramp seemed like a good one. well I'm here to tell you when a 160lb Great dane wants to do something even with only 3 legs you don't have much of a choice but to accomodate. She walked up to the back door and i thought maybe she just wants to lay on the deck (which she loves to do) nope to she wanted to go into the yard her way so i quickly got he harness to help her. she struggled bit with the first three stairs but the next three she went right, then right across the patio and down the next three stairs into the yard. Peeing is still not wasn't easy she squatted and fro about 2 or 3 seconds had it then kind of lost balance so we really needed to help her at that point. she rested for a few minutes and back up the patio stairs, the deck and time to relax for a while.

She's not eating all that well but drinking tons and tons of water. But she seems to be a very happy girl again. Sorry for the long version of this (it's cathartic for me) and I also want remember every second of this journey with her. Thank you for giving me the forum to be able to share this incredible insight into life that we as humans never seem to understand.

i will talk to my children and use these moments with her as lessons that i pray they take with them into their lives and their childrens lives one day. That life someday's will be up and other days will be in the toilet so to speak, but understand that we cannot change was has past and we can only hope for a better tomorrow, but what we can control are each and very moment that we are living in right now.   I'll keep you all posted…thank you again.