Frankie Threepaws

Saturday I decided was the perfect day to make some special Frankie time.  Since I needed to run to the feed store I figured that would work well for him.  I opened the back door to the Jeep and turned around to pick him up.  He decided he was tired of being “helped” and jumped in all by himself.  Even with 4 legs he would put the front legs on the seat and wait for me to pick up the back end for him.  I guess the 4th leg was holding him back.  We drove into town with his head out the window.  At each stop light he would come up and sniff my hair or lick my face.  I wondered if he thought we were going to the vet again ?!?   Pulling up to the feed store he settled in the back for a little nap while I ran in.  It was a cool day and I left all the windows open for him to enjoy.  We pulled around back to pick up our purchases a couple minutes later.  I opened the back gate and Frankie and I patiently waited for about 10 minutes before it was our turn.  I scratched his ears and his belly so he was quite content with the wait.  While loading the Jeep the guy kept saying what an interesting dog Frankie was.  Frankie looks like a dingo so I agreed with him.  As we loaded the last items, the guy got very serious and in quiet tones he asked ” Do you mind me asking what happened to his leg?”. A little surprised my brain jumped to the story my husband has been telling everyone, IED in Iraq, but I just couldn’t do it.  I explained about the dog fight and how amputation was the bet option.  It surprised me though that this guy saw Frankie’s loss of a leg as a traumatic experience that would be hard to talk about.  With or without his front leg, Frankie is a great dog who loves attention, belly scratches and food.  While the time surrounding the surgery was stressful, I will never look at the choice we made as something to be hidden or kept secret.  I took Frankie home and he rolled around in the grass (bragging to the other dogs about his adventure, I am sure).  Then it was time for his next nap.

This morningto took Frankie to the vet for his post-op check up.  After peeing on all the landscaping Frankie was weighed (58 lbs) and we waited to see the vet.  Well I waited, Frankie took a nap.  I guess peeing on shrubs requires a lot of energy.  Dr. Thomas looked Frankie over and gave him a clean bill of health.  He advised me to watch Frankie’s weight to make it easier on his remaining legs.  No more stuffing antibiotics and pain pills down Frankie’s throat…that makes both of us happy.  The vet told me he just had an annual visit with a black lab mix that he had to remove the front paw when the pup was under a year old due to an injury.  That lab is now 12 years old and is still energetic.  I am still amazed at the number of tripawd pups out there.  And no one seems to think they are sad or depressed.  Happy Wednesday everyone!

Poor Frankie…he was just getting used to the whole three legged deal when one day he got wobbly.  It looked like he was having trouble keeping his balance and kept spreading his rear legs really wide.  I checked him over and found that he has an ear infection.  No wonder he can’t keep his balance.  I hate to admit it but after everything that is going on, this is kind of silly.  The dog with 3 legs get an inner ear infection and can’t balance too well because of it.  Poor Frankie…I guess that just means he needs lots more love and treatment.

It has been getting around to my friends how Frankie lost his front leg.  I am amazed at how many of them either had a tripawd or knew someone who did.  They all talk about how happy the dog was and that they weren’t hindered by the loss of limb.  A woman who is near and dear to my heart called last night.  Ellen loves Frankie and just thinks the world of him.  I was worried about calling her and telling her the news because I was worried about upsetting her.  To my surprise she told me about her old dog who was diagnosed with cancer.  Amputation was the only option for him.  She said the procedure gave her 3 more years with him and ech day she loved him more.  Ellen told me that when he was close to dying she took his front paw and thanked it for being so strong and allowing her to love and live with her pup for so much longer.  She told me that tripawd pups will always have a special spot in her heart.  We laughed and said Frankie was just trying to get more love from Ellen.  Now I can’t wait for her and Bill to come over and visit Frankenstein.

This weekend was filled with lots of naps for the Frankenstein.  I wish I could say most of them were brought on by the pain meds but truthfully you can’t keep a happy dog caged.  Thursday and Friday were quiet as Frankie remembered how to live in the house again.  He found a nice cool spot and camped out in our bathroom most of the day.  Friday night Ayden came to our house for the weekend and the spoiling continued. Saturday morning was colder at our house, which is perfect Frankie weather.  I tried to keep up with him as he hopped around the yard.  I gave up!  I closed all the gate to he pastures and let him run around the yard.  As long as he didn’t roll onto his stitches, I just let him be a dog.  This all resulted in a super long nap, it gave me time to run to the store.  Sunday my parents and grandparents came over to celebrate Christmas/birthdays/anniversaries/valentines day.  We had it planned for a week now but I was a little worried it would be too much for The Frank.  Nope, he proved me wrong.  He ran to the gate to greet their car.  Even attempted to pee on their tire in true Frankie fashion.  We gave him a bone to chew on during our dinner and gifts, but he seemed to be doing really well.  He went to bed early and slept through the night in his crate. Today I am back at work for a full day and Frankie is tucked in his warm bed after his morning walk.  I am surprised and amazed at how quickly he is bouncing back.  There is just no way to keep a good dog down,with 3 or 4 legs.

I have had Frankie so long that I forget not everyone knows who he is…

Frankie is a 7 year old German Shepherd/Austrailian Shepherd/terrier mix. Basically picture a Dingo and you have Frankie.  He is tri-colored with a couple white patches on his nose, neck and a fluffy white chest.

I adopted Frank, when he was 6 months old, from the Pinellas County Humane Society and he has been my baby ever since that first trip home.  He was 40lbs and they told me he wouldn’t grow anymore…boy were they wrong.  He is now 70lbs and pretty tall.  He has a great big dog bark which was perfect when I lived alone.

We lived in Tampa for most of his life and lived a very comfy life.  When I met my husband, we became the Brady Bunch of dogs.  He had Buster, a chow terrier mix, and a 10 year old daughter, Ayden.  We moved in together and Frankie ruled the backyard with Buster.  Ed and I’s birthdays are really close together so we have a joint party every year and at one party we were in the backyard with the dogs tethered to keep them out of everyone’s plates.  Buster actually helped Frankie off his leash so he could scout food out.  Buster did this 3 times for  his brother.

We moved out to the country about 2 years ago.  Frankie was in his true element.  He would slide the hill on his back, wagging his tail the whole way.  He had a new brother, Ego, a German Shepherd, with a lot of speed.  The 3 dogs made quite the pack.  Buster was our hunter and unfortunately it was his hunting skills that led to his end.  He got in a fight with a raccoon and caught Coon Hound Disease.  He left us October 2010.  We added another pup to the pack also.  Maisy is a 7 year old German Shepherd.  Her family took a job in the middle east and will be over there for 3 years.  Since we had the land and knew about German Shepherds out friend asked us to watch her.  Maisy is Ego’s boyfriend.  In August, Ayden picked out her new puppy from the animal shelter.  His name is Charlie and we are pretty sure he is a lab/rottie mix.

The accident…Last Monday I came home to see Frankie and Maisy fighting.  Frankie is kind of a loner dog so he doesn’t always know when the others are playing with him.  Maisy is not one to back down from a fight either.  I am not sure what they were fighting about but I parked the car and ran over to seperate them.  It was dark but I was able to see Maisy’s collar and pull her off.  I dragged her to the garage to clean her up.  After I saw she only had a couple punture wounds I called for Frankie.  He came limping over to me.  I brought him the house to clean him up.  When he put weight on the front leg it bent at the wrong angle. My husband helped me clean up his wounds and splint the leg.  We took Frankie to the vet the next morning.  The x-ray showed a spiral fracture of the radius, another break near the ankle, and the head of the ulna was broke.  There were too many pieces and not enough skin on the leg to safely put it back together.  They said they could have fused the ankle but that there was a lot of risk involved.  We opted to amputate.  With Frankie’s size and health he was a good canidate for the procedure.

I picked him up on Thursday and we are learning how to make it easy for him to transistion into being a tripawd pup.  He is catching on fast and the hardest part for him is that he get tired really fast.  This morning he took a tour down to the barn to say “Hi” to the horse.  He thought about swimming in the creek but I told him that wasn’t a good idea yet.  Right now he is napping on the tile floor in our bathroom.  What a silly pup!

Today I am going to pick up my baby, Frankie, from the surgery center, Blue Pearl, in Tampa.  I visited him yesterday and was extremely sad about the vents that led up to Frankie having his front paw amputated.  I kept playing the “What if…” game, which is never a good thing.  When I got back to my office I stumbled upon the Tripawds site while searching for advice on how to make the transition as easy as possible.  The information I found was wonderful and made me have a more positive outlook for Frankie.  I had Frankie when I first got together with my husband and one nisoon his10 year old daughter, Ayden, put suit ties on both of our dogs.  Ed laughed and said they looked like mobsters. Hence the names Buster “Bruiser” Brown and Frankie Fourpaws came about.  I was crying at the idea of not being able to call Frankie by his mobster name anymore until I had my perspective about 3 legged pups changed.  Now he is Frankie Threepaws!

 

I am looking forward to keeping this blog as a form of therapy for Frankie and I.  Also I am looking forward to posting stories about how Frankie is adapting to his new life on our little farm.  I will keep you posted.