Dog News

This Thanksgiving one homeless dog had a lot to be thankful for

by ADMIN

Life With Dogs is reader-supported. We may earn a small commission through products purchased using links on this page.

An animal lover and a veterinarian have made a new life possible for a badly injured dog in Idaho. Sarah Starr was travelling near Gooding, Idaho when she spotted the dog at the side of the road.  She made several attempts to approach the dog but he was skittish and kept getting away from her, despite his severely injured paw, but she was determined.

“We were able to put out food and it came back for the food,” said Starr. “It was hungry enough that it didn’t know we were sneaking up behind it.”  Once he was safely in the car, Starr and a friend headed to Boise while trying to contact a veterinarian.  They had to make several calls before they found one that was willing to help given their situation. “We called a lot of veterinarian clinics and unfortunately, they’re running businesses so it’s hard to take an animal in without money down. We ran into a lot of people that were hesitant, knowing that we were kind of in the circumstances that we weren’t sure what this was going to cost, it wasn’t our animal,” Starr said. “Some of the people we called were quoting us $2,700 which was unaffordable to us at that time.”

Their saviour was Dr. Darrin Everett at Broadway Vet who offered to do the necessary surgery for only $800.  Everett was quite certain that the mangled paw was caused by an animal trap.  The dog was likely released from the trap by a person because the only other way out of a trap like that is for an animal to chew his own leg off, but that wasn’t the case with this dog. These traps are common in the area and can obviously be extremely hazardous to both pets and people.

Everett had to amputate the injured left front leg but the dog will make a full recovery.  “Very sweet dog, really not stressed, very stable. Clearly it happened a significant time in the past, probably a couple of weeks, but a super sweet dog, really easy to work with, and probably was going to be a really successful patient,” he said.  Dr. Everett and his team also neutered the dog free of charge but the best news is that the grateful Starr will be adopting the lucky canine and giving him a safe and loving home.