django...

for the past 2 and a half weeks we had been fostering the cutest little bugger of a puppy, django, a border collie/terrier mix. django had a pretty rough start in life. at about 13 weeks old his siblings attacked him, broke his leg, and covered him in puncture wounds. when he was found the next morning he was in shock, and as close catatonic as i have ever seen a dog. he was rushed to the vet where we were told that he should probably be put to sleep. his leg was already badly infected and he was in extreme amounts of pain. they decided though to give him another 24 hours on strong antibiotics and pain meds to see if he would respond. the next day he had come around and they thought perhaps he might just need his leg amputated. they would give the antibiotics a few days to get the infection under control before doing surgery. the day of his surgery, this little trooper went ahead and started putting weight on his leg. for the three days before this he couldn't even feel it, and it's as if he wanted to say "hey, i'll be ok just give me some more time. see i can stand on it!". more time is what we gave him. i picked him up from the vet that day and took him home. within the first 24 hours he was hobbling around and a few days later he was full on walking on it!

django came to us with the name robby. a terrible puppy name if you ask me. after his traumatic ordeal we decided to give him a fresh start with a new name. i decided on the name django, after django reinhardt the jazz guitarist, who at the age of 18 was badly burned over much of his body. doctors wanted to amputate his leg but he refused. within a year he was walking again. it felt like an appropriate name for our little guy.

despite my best efforts i went ahead and fell in love with him. he's one of the most well behaved puppies i've ever come across, and having worked at a dog rescue for 2 years, i've seen my share of puppies. at 15 weeks he had learned sit, shake, and down. we were working on some more tricks and he was coming along. he was 90% house trained, and the lacking 10% was probably the fault of his foster parents (ie evan and i) not being 100% consistent. he's very eager to please and more then willing to learn. great puppy qualities!

two days ago i took him back to the vet for a recheck. they were amazed. this puppy who had left there unable to walk came running back in, tail wagging, ready to give kisses and show off all his new tricks. he was given a 100% clean bill of health and deemed fit for adoption. now came the hard part, for me that is. i was to bring him back to the rescue. technically we are not allowed to have dogs at out apartment, and i could only be stealth with him for so long. he can be seen by adopters more often there, and he can begin socializing with other dogs. it was really all for the best. so with teary eyes i dropped him off yesterday, and by teary i mean down right bawling. he's got a great roomy though, miss annie, a four year old boxer mix (see earlier post for her story) who has taken him in as if he were her own pup. he's adapted well to rescue life, but my living room feels suddenly empty without him flopping down at my feet.

so django is now ready for a great, loving, forever home. he's a wonderful little puppy with strength and courage to boot! do you have a spot in your heart, and home, for him?

*for more info on adopting check out www.northmecklenburganimalrescue.org