Happy Tail for Bandit!

Happy Tail for Bandit!

Bandit came into our lives as a foster almost 11 months ago and my kids and I will never be the same!!

 A year and a half ago Bandit was hit by a car and broke his back right leg. Well the rescue vet in Oklahoma (where he is from) attempted pinning his leg but it wasn’t successful. Well he sat in the pound that way for a couple of months before he came to Fargo.  I picked him up at the faculty site of 4 Luv of Dog and he just whimpered and talked. He was in so much pain!!  Oh I can’t even imagine what he went through!!! He was started on pain meds and we got him fairly comfortable.  We had to carry him up an down the stairs because he wasn’t able to do that.  Three days after he came to us, I took him to the Casselton vet, where he has been going ever since. One of the techs said she cried when she saw his X-ray, his leg was so bad!  Well they also found out that his left ACL was torn 100% from the compensation he was doing.  Then there was the “what do we do now” with no functional back legs, they couldn’t amputate one of them. With the support of all the angels out there, money was raised for the two surgeries Bandit was in need of.  There were a few months of rehabilitation therapy before his first surgery to make sure he had enough muscle built up. Weekly visits to Casselton!

My kids and I have just given him love and hope!  Well he is 13 wks out from his TPLO surgery (ACL repair). That was a big surgery!  Wow!  And the restrictions there were on activity!!  Well Bandit needed a lot of reconditioning so we started building up muscle and he went from just being able to walk 2 houses down and back to walking all the way around the block!! What an accomplishment that was!  Well 3 weeks ago I felt a lump on the underside of his right leg back leg. He had refused to go for a walk and I knew something was not right. He had a therapy appointment the next day and the vet xrayed it and it was broken again. Wow!!  Then it was to get him back on his pain meds and wait a week for his amputation surgery.

Here we are two and a half weeks post op and he had his staples out and has gotten a great report that all is healing and progressing as it should be.  Finally Bandit can be off pain meds and doesn’t have any restrictions to his activities.  He has already adapted to his three legged lifestyle amazingly well!!!

After being on this amazing roller coaster ride of ups and downs, disappointments and happy endings my kids and I realized that Bandit has been in his forever home all along!

I am so thankful to 4 Luv of Dog Rescue for bringing Bandit to us. And if I could hug each and every one of the people that cared enough to donate money for Bandit’s surgeries it still wouldn’t show them how much I appreciate them!!!  Thank you everyone for all you have done to make it possible for Bandit to be pain free finally!   My family and I are so blessed to have him in our lives!! Bandit, welcome home, where you have been all long!  How can this be a foster fail? It is a wonderful success!!!!

Lori, Savanna, and Tyler Dufault