By Colleen H.
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| Lots of Love for Rambo! |
I wanted to
share The Story of Rambo. My husband and I are dog lovers and we
have always had a dog or two in our lives. We
have chosen to adopt rescue dogs in the past and this has always worked
out well for us. Our most recent rescue was a Dalmatian that
we adopted as a 12 week old puppy in l998. Despite, or maybe
because of, her insane energy we came to love this dog dearly. She was a
big part of our family. Unfortunately 13 and a half years flew by
and we had to put her humanely down in December. We were
heartbroken, missed her desperately and were not even able to talk about
getting another dog for months.
But time
tends to heal, or at least soften, our pains and as the spring came I found
myself searching the web for a furry addition to our lives. Our circumstances had changed, however, as we now had a 16 month old daughter
to consider. Obviously we now needed a gentle dog that would not frighten
our daughter. A dog that was young enough that she could grow up
with it, but who was not as demanding of our time as a puppy would
be. Eventually we found a dog that we wanted to go and meet through
Manitoba Mutts. We made application on line and were approved to go
and meet her at her foster home.
She was a
beautiful, happy and very energetic dog. In fact, she was too
energetic for our new family situation. We played with her along
with the two other dogs that were at the same foster home. One of
the dogs had just had a front leg amputation 3 weeks earlier. That would, of course, be Rambo. As the two other dogs were
running around playing with each other, Rambo stayed back and was chewing on
his bone, observing us. I now believe he was surveying the
situation and trying to decide if he should put the moves on us, so to
speak. Eventually he must have decided we were worthy of his
attention because he came up to my husband and leaned all over him, pawed him
and even gave out a few kisses. There was a photographer in
the foster house taking pictures of some of the other dogs for the Manitoba
Mutts website, and she commented how Rambo seemed to have chosen us! In hindsight, I think she was right!
When we
left the foster home, we drove home in silence, each in our own
thoughts. Eventually my husband commented that the dog we had gone
to meet was probably too high energy for us and for our daughter. I
agreed. But Rambo has a way of worming into your thoughts and
your heart and later on in the evening my husband commented that he
really liked that Rambo! I laughed - I really liked him
too! So we thought about adopting Rambo and tried to do some
research so we could make a rational decision with our heads and not just our
hearts. Would a dog with three legs require special care? Could
we take him for regular walks? What if he hurt one of his other
legs? Would his past life experiences have a detrimental effect on
his personality? And of course, how would he be with our
daughter? In the end, it was futile. The
photographer was right. Rambo chose us.
So on
Friday, June 1st, we went to pick up Rambo and bring him home. Here is this dog, who likely never had a home of his own, that just had his
front leg amputated, and who has turned out to be one of the sweetest, most
gentle dogs you could meet. He is wonderful with our
daughter, patiently accepting the smallest food morsel she offers in her chubby
little hands, sometimes deciding not to even hand it over after all!
Despite his brand new dog bed, Rambo loves the couch, especially the chaise lounge
part where he can really stretch out. He loves the comfy red
armchair that he somehow squeezes into and ends up leaving his fur all
over. He loves playing in the backyard with all of us
around, throwing the frisbee or the football or chewing on a bone. When he runs, he has such momentum you would never know he is missing a
leg. Most of all Rambo is a snuggler. He leans
all of his his 72 pounds against you, trapping you, and wants hugging,
loving, belly-rubs and kisses. As much as you can give
him. I think he is making up for lost time. You cannot make
eye contact with him if you are not willing to share some lovin' with him!
We love
Rambo and will do our best to ensure the rest of his life is peaceful,
happy, fun and without any further tragedy. We feel very fortunate
to have found him and we recognize how special he is. I
must say, he really did choose well!
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| Having a Beer with Dad! |
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| Hanging out! |
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| Survivor Rambo got his Second Chance! |
