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!
sounds like miss maisy has a different definition of ‘play’. glad frankie is home and healing. napping is very good!!
charon & spirit gayle
Duuuuuude, you let a GIRL kick your butt like that?
S’okay, I won’t tell too many of the other Tripawds.
Welcome to the club my friend. Now let’s go raise some hell. Big Dawgs Rule!
Frankie said to tell you the story he would rather be told…there he was staring at the horns of a 1000 pound bull, the only thing between them was a cute fluffy puppy named Pip. The bull prepared to charge and crush the poor Pip. Frankie ran as fast as he could to put himself between Pip and the bull. The bull slammed into Frankie’s right front leg, shattering it. Pip was saved though and the pain Frankie felt was worth Pip’s life. The End.