Our Joseph & Sammy's amazing story shows that LnF Dog Rescue Adoption Center doesn't just rescue dogs, we create miracles! Joseph was a puppy who had his life saved by great group of rescuers from Kentucky lead by my friend in rescue Susan Harris. They heard there was a puppy who had been horribly mauled by the families 2 dogs. They had no money so he laid in agony with no medical care for days. Susan sent a volunteer over to their home & said if they surrendered him to them -- they would get him the medical care he needed. The puppy turned out to have a broken pelvis & both back legs ligaments were destroyed. His back leg had to be amputee immediately. Susan did what all rescue people do in a case like that she put out an urgent call for help from other rescues. I agreed to take Joseph since I had the most experience with the tougher cases. I had rescued several tripods over the years & my Vet at the time had an underwater treadmill which I knew he would need if he were to ever learn to walk again. Quite honestly I didn't realize at the time the true gravity of his injures - not that I wouldn't have taken him anyway --- but I did think at the time that he just needed excellent medical care - professional physical therapy & he would easily adapt to be being a tripod & he would get adopted. You'll see in the video attached how when he was a baby he scooted around which was OK when he was a baby but as he grew up, he ended up weighing over 50 lbs. his remaining back leg with the shredded ligaments could not sustain his weight. His back leg had the strength of a wet spaghetti. He would continue to "scoot" but he started to get sores - like bed sores - from the constant friction. We tried everything, believe me everything, but soon realized he could not go on like this. First we had a custom boot shown here. That was great at first but created a curvature of his spine. We than realized that for the sake of his spine he needed a wheelchair - he needed to be in a wheelchair full time. We had a custom wheelchair made for him which was thankfully donated by our adopters The Loveland Family. Two years went by & even though Joseph was on our website, even though Channel 6 had come here to LnF Adoption Center to do a special story about him, even though they showed a video of him with Karen Rogers (she is so pretty & nice in real life!) no one ever asked about Joseph. Not even an e-mail requesting information. Nothing at all -- We have a term here in rescue called "Lifers" which means dogs who've been rescued but for whatever reason just never have gotten adopted. My husband Jerry & I never take mental possession of our foster dogs. They live with us, we love them, but when their families "find them" they go home. We never keep adoptable dogs. Joseph was different. When over 2 years went by & no one even asked about him we did start to believe in our hearts that he was a "lifer." He would spend the rest of his life with us (which was OK with us since we loved him so much) yet I never bothered taking him off my website. Than one day I came home from shopping & there was an adoption application for Joseph. His first! The family that applied for him was "in rescue" like me only they rescued 2 legged kids! They adopted special needs children from all over the world. They decided it was time to get the kids a dog but of course being the kind of people they are they knew they had to adopt a special needs dog - like Joseph. They have a little 5 year old boy named Sammy who was from Bosnia & he has Spinal Bifida & like Joseph Sammy will be in a wheelchair for life. I like to say how perfect it was that if two little boys had to spend their lives in wheelchairs but thanks to being adopted they don't have to do it alone. They have each other. I would like to say that it was easy to let Joseph go - it was not. When I told my husband that we received a qualified application for Joseph he looked at me horrified and said "NO! No one can take care of him as well as we do!!" I said "No, this was meant to be. We have to let him go to fulfill his destiny of being the dog of a little boy who is also in a wheelchair." Anyone who knows me well knows that I could not even say "Joseph" for over 6 months without sobbing. I'm much better now, I can talk about -- type about it -- while I'm crying now - guess I always will -- because I miss that little soul scooting around my home - I know I did what was best for Joseph & Sammy. I did my job as a foster mom & let them go when it's their time -- We hope that by showing you this amazing “Happy Tail” you’ll consider making an end-of-year monetary gift to LnF Dog Rescue. Without help we cannot stay open to be here for the next miracle. If you've already adopted a rescued dog, I'm sure you're so glad you did. If you believe what we do is critical to saving lives - please forward this e-mail to your animal loving friends who could become potential adopters! We currently have 12 wonderful dogs that are still looking for their Happy Ending!
