DECATUR, GA....Sweet SARA is a 5 year old German Shepherd that was picked up by Animal Control as a stray.  Sara has suffered some kind of trauma to her front legs.  The ligaments on top of her ankles are torn and she is unable to walk without the lower part of her legs collapsing.  This type of trauma in both legs usually comes from an animal being thrown off of something very high or out of a moving vehicle.  We do not know what has happened to this sweet girl.  We rescued her several weeks ago to save her life and possibly do surgery on her front legs.  Sara was originally saved by a vet in Atlanta from Dekalb.  Once they got her, they soon realized she had a lot more wrong with her legs than they realized.  They were not able to help her and recommended having her put down since she was so painful and was becoming unable to walk.  The shelter carried her around everywhere (all 70 lbs. of her) while she was with them.  We were contacted by the shelter to see if we would take her since she was going to be PTS otherwise and they just loved this sweet girl.   The problem was that the cost of fixing her was going to be outrageous and no one was willing to do it.  After having her thoroughly evaluated by the surgeons, we decided she was worth saving and the surgeons gave us the best discount they could to get her walking again.  The first two weeks were terrible for this incredible dog.  We did both legs at once with plates.  The swelling in her feet and draining of fluid was a constant battle to keep down. After lots of bandage changes, Sara has finally been put in fiberglass casts.  The next obstacle was that once Sara began to feel better, she wanted to bounce all over the place with her new casted legs.  She seemed to be bouncing for joy with excitement.  Sara will have lots of rehab ahead of her but the surgery was a success.  It was a big risk to take which is why I waited so long to send this around.  Please, do whatever you can and send to everyone you know so we can get her bills taken care of so we can help more animals like Sara.  She is an incredible dog that did not deserve to die because of neglect or abuse. 

I have posted some very graphic pictures of Sara’s legs during surgery at the bottom of the page so you can see what had to be done to get this girl walking again.  They are graphic but very beautiful to see what the surgeons did to get this girl walking again.

SARA is doing wonderful.  She is out of her hard casts and is now in soft casts.  Her legs are healing beautifully.  She is one happy, happy dog and loves life and loves acting like she is the boss.