A New Addition to Our Family

This sweet girl.... is our new addition that we adopted today! Meet Ellie

(That poor patch on her arm is where they've had to sedate her so many times :-/  )

Words can't describe how much we love her already!
As most things have gone for us these past few months, we had no intentions on getting another dog. I've wanted one for a while because I want Brandy to have a little play mate but I didn't want one until at least spring time when we had a fence in. I've been looking for a second dog for a long time, even though I know we wouldn't get it once I found it..(I'm one of those pathetic people that checks KSL pet ads every night just to go to bed feeling awful because I can't give every pet on there a home.) However, the day I came home from Hawaii I saw this post on my friend's facebook page:

This is a little pit pup we picked up yesterday, she has obviously been hit by a car, her back right leg is broken and the other one is swollen and bruised. She is on pain management but we can do little else for her. We are looking for some help- major! We either need a willing rescue to take her or someone who is able to pay for her vet care! Anyone? Know anyone? please crosspost and share share share If we cannot figure out something for her or find the owners who let this happen to her she will be euthanized... I can't let that happen, please please share share share!!!

When I first read this it absolutely broke my heart. Literally. I felt sick to my stomach because I had a feeling she was for sure going to be put to sleep. Who honestly wants to adopt a puppy that they have to pay thousands of dollars to fix?? I know she would've found a home the next day but she was 'broken'. Fate happened to kick in and Brandy ripped her dew claw open and we had to visit the vet.
On a whim, I brought up broken legs on puppies and what kind of options we had and how much it would cost to fix and how do you rehabilitate them and how would it effect their lifestyle? I had endless questions and our vet answered all of them for me. When he put all my answers out, I realized her medical bills were something we could do and could help her get back on her feet. I thought about just paying for her surgeries, fostering her, and then finding her a home.
The next day I called the Davis County Animal Shelter and talked to my new friend Natasha (The one who rescued her). Luckily that same day I called, a group called "The Pit Crew" based out of the Salt Lake County Animal Shelter had rescued her from being put to sleep and taken her to the shelter in Salt Lake. I'm so glad I called because if they couldn't find a lead to get her adopted, they were going to amputate her leg due to the fact they don't have the equipment to fix it and they don't have the money to pay for her surgeries.


Here is Ellie's story on how she ended up in the shelter:
A really angry mom called Natasha yelling at her that there was a bloody puppy in her garage and she didn't know how it got there but she needed to come get it because it was disgusting. Natasha questioned her asking questions such as "was you garage open? do you live on a busy road? do you know who the dog could belong to?" blah blah blah and all the mom could say was "you just need to come pick it up" When Natasha arrived to pick her up she was indeed covered in blood and had what she thought 2 broken legs and she had been left in a closed garage. What she was able to uncover is the mom went out of town for the weekend and her sons had stayed home and bought a dog without permission. Not even a  day later, she had ventured outside onto their busy street they lived on and got hit by a car. The boys panicked and threw her in the garage and left her there until the mom found her!!!! The mom freaked out and didn't want anything to do with the dog and that is how she ended up at the shelter. Heartbreaking... I know!


On with the story, I played phone tag with Natasha and my other new friend John (who is located at the Salt Lake Shelter). I was able to set up an appointment for Dan and I to go meet her and to bring Brandy along to see if they got along. I didn't know what to expect when I saw her, I knew she had a broken leg and the other one was fractured so I thought she was going to have to just lay on the ground and be carried everywhere. I was 100% WRONG. What a little trooper this girl is! I fell in love IMMEDIATELY and the whole fostering plan went right out the window. She was meant for our family! When I saw her, she was in fact walking. She hobbled on her fractured leg that has stitches going all up it because they performed surgery on both legs, and used her  cast to support her up. It is the saddest sight to see at first and was actually some what emotional for me and Dan to watch her. She saw me and instantly wobbled up to me! Love Love Love! Once she came to me she went right over to Brandy and wanted to play. I was so nervous for how Brandy would react with her because the shelter was observing how Brandy acted and that determined if she would do well in our home. Brandy did so good and Ellie loved her! Despite her gimp legs and cone of shame, she's such a happy girl! Before finalizing the adoption, John sent me home with her xrays for the weekend so I could show them to my vet and get a price on her surgeries to make sure we were comfortable with them. He even told me to price out amputation because it's a good possibility we might have to amputate her leg. I'm not a vet or anything but I knew (or thought I knew) that her break wasn't even that bad and we would be fine.

Her poor right leg is broken all the way across :( 

I showed the vet my xrays on Saturday, we talked surgery and I was so excited with the news he gave me! Ellie was going to be just fine and no amputation was necessary. (I knew it!) I called him right after I left here and told him we wanted to go through with the adoption. What do you know... it was his day off so he wanted nothing to do with me. SOO I called him first thing today and set up a time to finish up the adoption papers tonight and took her home!!!!

Let's backtrack a little into the past-
I have a special place in my heart for Pitbulls. Why? Here's why- because before I started dating Dan I was against Pitbulls. I thought what all pitbull haters thought. They were fight dogs, mean, aggressive, made to attack people, horrible animals, all those things you hear everyday when you think of a Pitbull. However, when I met Dan and learned he had a pit I was really skeptic about it because I hated them. Then I met Brandy and it was love at first sight. (I even wrote a whole post about her for hell's sake- that says a lot) She is the sweetest, most loving dog ever and is the biggest wuss ever.