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| 2 legs: Nino who lost his hind legs thru abuse; Cesar who was born without front legs |
Home for Life cares for many two legged dogs at our sanctuary,and if the paraplegics- those dogs who have all four of their legs,but who use a cart, are included 10 % of our canine population is two legged!
Two legged dogs draw attention, and especially if the circumstances underlying the loss of their legs are remarkable as with Nino and Cesar above. Nino born in Mexico, in a village outside of Cancun lost his hind legs thru shocking abuse as a mere three week puppy, when his litter mates were slaughtered and his hind legs amputated by a gang of youths wielding machetes. Nino's life was saved by his street dog mother, the only survivor of his litter, when she grabbed him in her mouth and ran but not before the boys had cut his hind legs off. She brought Nino to a taco stand vendor who often gave her scraps and dropped the mutilated puppy at the taco guy's feet The compassionate and quick action by the man and his wife no doubt saved Nino's life: they applied sliced onion to the ends of the stumps which stopped the bleeding and also acted as a disinfectant They then brought Nino to a small rescue in Cancun and from there he came to Home for Life - But not before he met Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale on his way to us via Los Angeles: the musicians and celebrities were very touched by Nino's tragic story and were happy to pose for a photo with him, preserved for posterity below! As an adult dog Nino is cheery and always seems to be smiling. He seems unaffected by the trauma he suffered with no memory of the abuse. He is the strong spirit and the survivor to carry on the legacy of his family and of his sibling puppies who were so tragically and brutally killed: he's not going to waste a second being glum.
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| Nino ,a puppy from Mexico on his way to Home for Life, in a photo with Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, taken in Los Angeles, CA Cesar is a Chihuahua born in Minnesota, but his mother rejected him when he was only a few weeks old as he was born with no front legs. He came to Home for Life at only 2 weeks old, and was bottle fed every couple of hours until he could eat on his own. And that's the story of how he happened to be along on the photo shoot when Cesar Millan was in town for one of our galas; Cesar ( Millan) posed for a few promotional photos for our gala with some of our other Home for Life dogs but then spied the little Chihuahua puppy in the box, awaiting his next hourly feeding. Although Cesar Millan is known for his ability to manage the biggest and toughest dogs, one of his favorite breeds is the Chihuahua and he was delighted to meet the little puppy, and immediately picked him up . You can see his authentic delight to meet this tiny puppy in this photo by Mark Luinenburg, spontaneously obtained after a long day and photo shoot. At that point the pup did not have a name- we were just focusing on making sure he was getting enough to eat and would survive. Millan right there and then christened him Little Cesar after the Dog Whisperer himself! That's quite a legacy to live up to but Cesar has grown into his name and is now 13 years old , Missing front legs is much more challenging since most of the weight of a dog is carried on the front. Cesar has a cart but prefers to hop or be carried like a little emperor from one location to the other. What is remarkable for the other dogs is Cesar's strong and determined spirit: it's those characteristis that they respect and respond to rather than the physical deformity. |
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| Little Cesar, tiny puppy, with Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer & Christopher Robin the Wirehair Fox Terrier : photo by Mark Luinenburg |
Two legged dogs need more care and are more vulnerable. If they have lost their legs or become paraplegic due to abuse or injury especially to the spine, many are incontinent. For bigger dogs this issue becomes almost impossible to handle in a typical home setting. Additional challenges involve the heavy lifting needed to get a disabled dog in the tub for a bath and in and out of a cart multiple times a day: it's very tiring for a dog to be in a cart for an entire day with all their weight on their front end At Home for Life, our dogs are in their carts two hours, and then rest of two hours out of the cart and so on throughout the day. They are cleaned and checked at each cart change and receive full on "para care" and cleaning involving a bath twice a day.
The care for two legged dogs is laborius but a care for life sanctuary is ideally set up for this daily attention. And with this specialized care our two legged dogs live their lives like any dog. Once the hurdle of the daily care is taken into consideration, the disability is just not the first thing that comes to mind about any of our two legged dogs.
It would be easy to weep over dogs at Home for Life like Nino and Cesar and to pity them for what they lack or lost often under tragic circumstances. And it would have been tempting, once we had taken dogs like these in at Home for Life® to always portray then as pathetic two-legged dogs, almost like circus sideshows to engender sympathy or shock.
In the age of social media, often it is the tragic and startling animals’ stories that draw the most attention and support. But we wanted Home for Life® to represent something different in animal welfare and for animals like Nino, Cesar, Poppy whose story is below and for all our two legged dogs.
There’s a place in the world for everyone, a place that can be called home. It is a place where even when life seems at a dead end, two legged dogs who might be considered victims or oddities can find a home to provide the stability and safety for a new beginning.
Our summer mail appeal is about another of our two legged dogs, the Shetland Sheepdog Poppy. She had such a hard life before she was only a year old losing both her legs and her life, nearly. When you read her story and see her photos, the fact that she has only two legs might be the first thing you notice but, her lack of legs won't be what you remember about her.
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| Illustration of Poppy by Iain Welch Art and Design |
"Any fool can be happy, It takes someone with a real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.” - Clive Barker
Home has never meant more than in this time of uncertainty amidst a deadly pandemic sweeping the world -- a place of safety and protection. Having a home, a place to belong, provides a foothold amid chaos, the stable base to imagine a new and better future despite the challenges that surround us.
We know the miraculous power of having a home for life and have seen again and again what having a place to belong means for animals who come to Home for Life longing for the safety, security and acceptance that our sanctuary provides. There's no place like Home for Life for dogs and cats like 2-legged Sheltie Poppy where we make sure the trauma and rejection of their prior years will neither define them nor be the end of their story.
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There's No Place Like Home
Flowers and new spring grass carpet the low prairie hills around Home for Life sanctuary. Poppy, a Shetland sheepdog, stands in her outdoor enclosure, eyes bright with excitement. She is clean, nicely groomed, and ready for action! She perks her ears and looks back toward her living quarters for Frank and Frosty, her canine housemates. A Home for Life caregiver brings them out, opens the gate, and the three dogs race out across the fresh green hills.
Poppy’s days are filled with fun, loving care, companionship, and some serious work as well! Poppy is a therapy in dog Home for Life’s Peace Creatures® program, which last year reached over 7,000 vulnerable kids and adults in our community and provided nearly $1 million in valuable services to those in nursing homes, mental health wards, battered women’s shelters, pediatric oncology wards, and prisons. Poppy is a great ambassador for the sanctuary, extending the vision of Home for Life and the healing she has benefited from to ease the loneliness and distress of the most fragile people, living in obscurity on the fringes of our society, and her important work helps draw these people back into the embrace of the community.
It is hard to believe that, just 4 years ago, Poppy herself was homeless, in pain, and struggling for her very life. She had been living in the streets of a village in a third world country, and was one day struck by a car and left for dead. She dragged herself to a hiding spot and remained out of sight for over a week until a man found her and brought her to the Vafa Animal Shelter for help. The picture taken of Poppy at the time of her rescue shows a fragile, shy puppy, about 3-4 months old and lucky to be alive. '
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| Poppy the puppy after her resccue |
The accident damaged her pelvis and caused her knees to turn at a 180◦ angle. Two of her vertebrae were apart and seemed dislocated. The vets in her home country did an MRI. The scan revealed severe injury to her spine. They performed a surgery to fix her vertebrae, and later amputated both back legs which were beyond repair.
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| Poppy suffered greatly nearly bleeding to death after her first amputation suegery |
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| Poppy recovery from her amputation surgeries now a two legged dog |
Poppy faced a bleak future as a 2-legged dog in a third world country, where even strong and mobile dogs often suffer from maltreatment and neglect. Home for Life supports the work of international organizations like Vafa Shelter that are helping to change perceptions about dogs and animal welfare in their societies. Our sanctuary has taken several dogs from other countries, dogs whose needs were more involved than rescues were set up to handle long term. Poppy certainly fit that category! She was welcomed to Home for Life and made the long journey here in the fall of 2016.
Poppy's injury left her very vulnerable, with only two legs, but the main issue with dogs who lose the use of their back legs is not mobility but incontinence. That's why these dogs are often overlooked for adoption, and why they need specialized care to keep them healthy. With her long fur, amputations and incontinence, constant vigilance would be needed to keep her clean and healthy and prevent infections. She also needed to build up the strength in her front legs since, even in a cart, they would need to bear all her weight, and that can become tiring.
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| Poppy and Soosan another of our two legged dogs demonstrate the locomotion. Did you know? in 2019 Home for Life was named one of the 10 Most Amazing Sanctuaries in the country by USA Today! This photo taken by Mark Luinenburg was used to in the article by the newspaper |
The initial impression, to see a dog with only two legs is sometimes shocking and frankly disturbing. But with the attentive care she receives from Home for Life's® staff, Poppy has thrived and never gives her missing legs a second thought, focusing instead on all she can do. Poppy's determination to make the most of her life touches the heart of anyone she meets. Poppy work to become one of our therapy dogs in our Peace Creatures® program began with visits to Como Park Senior high school in the spring of 2018 to help students there during the stressful period of final exams and has continued to include visits to many area nursing homes.
At Home for Life®, Poppy's traumatic start and missing legs have not stopped her from living a full life, with friends, the opportunity to run, to swim and even to give back through Home for Life's® outreach programs. Fate must have had a plan for Poppy when she so miraculously survived her injury, alone for nearly 2 weeks without care, the amputation of both legs and surgery on her back and then the long journey to Home for Life®. It turned out that Poppy had much to live for and much to give though her start seemed so bleak and filled with despair before she was even a year old. Her sweet nature and her determination to live life to the fullest inspires those she encounters who are often facing their own challenges.
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART Is
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| Poppy resting after a swim in the Apple River which runs on Home for Life's property |
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| Poppy at an oureach session with the students of Como Park High Shool |
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| Brush with fame! Poppy meets Ashley Judd at Home for Life's 2019 Fall Gala |
It would be easy to weep over Poppy and to pity her when her life was forever changed by the loss of her two back legs when only a puppy. And it would have been tempting, once we had taken her in at Home for Life to always portray her as a pathetic two-legged dog, forever marked by the tragedy of her first year. In the age of social media, often it is the tragic and shocking animals' stories that draw the most attention and support. But we wanted Home for Life to represent something different in animal welfare and for animals like Poppy.
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| On a Peace Creatures pet therapy visit Poppy brings a smile to a resident of Woodbury Senior Living, Woodbury, MN |
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| Poppy with Matilda, another of Home for Life's Peace Creatures therapy dogs: illustration by Iain Welch Art and Design |
There’s a place in the world for everyone, a place that can be called home, . It is a place where even when life seems at a dead end, a dog like Poppy can find the stability and safety for a new beginning.. Home for Life@ provided that for Poppy, and that’s what we can do for other animals with your help.
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| Poppy is an ardent swimmer and a master of the dog paddle !
I Wish I could give them all a home - Now you Can!
As uncertainty, fear, and chaos continue to rattle our world, the loving security of home means more than ever -- especially for vulnerable animals like Poppy .
We know what it has meant to Poppy to have the steady care and healing Home for Life provides- the opportunity to have a life that no one could imagine was possible when she was alone, a two legged disabled dog in a third world country. Your support has made the difference for her- as it can for so many animals like her who need a someone to care about them too.
An internationally recognized care for life sanctuary, Home for Life®, offers a service to animals in need like no comparative organization. Many shelters and rescue organizations aspire to find a home for every animal and dream of the day when there will be no homeless animals. At Home for Life®, that's what we want too -- and that's what we provide -- for cats and dogs like Poppy who are overlooked for placement. Home for Life® has created a new idea, the care for life sanctuary -- a life-saving and life-affirming alternative for dogs and cats who have not been able to find a home or keep the home they had and for animals who have lifelong special care needs that most adopters cannot provide. We call our idea the "Third Door" in animal welfare, which gives at risk dogs and cats, animals who might have been passed over for adoption, a third chance and an alternative to an undeserved death.
The dream of a home should be an opportunity that is available for all dogs and cats, and now with Home for Life®, and the innovative model we have created at our prototype sanctuary in Star Prairie, WI, it can be!
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