This is the story of an amazing little girl. A puppy who if born in the wild would have been discarded and died.
Tinker Bell was born at 9:54 on the morning of March 1, 2008, the last puppy in a litter of six. She came out in a ball instead of the normal elongated manner.
Tinkers birth weight was 3 oz. the normal for a sheltie puppy is 5 to 8 oz’s. One look at her and we said her name is Tinker Bell.
The day after her birth her weight had dropped to 2.5 oz, a very alarming weight. I had lost a couple of puppies earlier in the year from other litters and was determined that she was not going to be another one. I started bottle feeding her with canned replacement milk immediately. Continuing to bottle feed her, she gained weight slowly, it was a week before she was back to her birth weight. At 8 weeks of age she was only 1lb 14oz. She was two weeks behind her litter mates in everything she did.
At this time I could not determine why she could not nurse from her mother, and thought that she was just a slow starter. It took several weeks before we realized what was wrong. She could not move her elbows and shoulders.
Several people told me that she should be put down, but that was out of the question. Other then her legs there was nothing wrong with this precious little girl..
As she gained strength we soon realized that not being able to move her legs in a normal manner did not stop her from getting around. This feisty little girl deserved every chance she could get.
In April, Tinker was examined by Dr. Guy DeNardo, at the Quakertown Veternary Clinic. She was diagnosed with severe Congenital Elbow Luxation, which means that her leg bones were not properly situated in her sockets. Not only were they out of the sockets, they were on the opposite side of the leg from where they should be, and the lower part of the leg was twisted. This is such a rare condition that Dr. DeNardo could find very little documentation on it, and other Specialists he spoke to had had little success with correcting it.
In June her right leg was operated on, at that time it was discovered that the socket was also mal-formed, her lower leg was placed back into the socket the best way that the Doctor could put it. She had pins and was in a cast. She was in a cast for 8 weeks. Because of her many visits to the Vets, she was soon a favorite of everyone at the clinic. Again just because she had a cast on did not stop Tinker.
It was decided not to operate on the other leg, because it was some what usable and we were afraid that operating would make it worse.
When the cast came off, it was time to start therapy, luckily it was summer and I have a pool. As with most Shelties, Tinker did not like the pool, She wore a lifejacket, but she soon discovered that she could move around the pool by kicking her back legs, and just let her front ones hang. Time for plan two. We now had to move backwards in front of her and move those legs for her. We also would hold her on our lap several times a day and move the shoulders and the elbow. It got so that when she saw us she ran into her crate to hide.
Tinker has made steady progress since the operation. She refuses to walk on a leash, and being the softy I am, I don’t make her. She can move around the house just as well as her pals. She has turned into a bully and the rest of the gang let her. It is amazing to see how gentle the other dogs are with her, they play, but are always careful not to hurt her. Her favorite thing to do is to hang onto a tail and be pulled around the house.
She no longer needs the protection of her pen, but she will retreat to her crate when the other dogs play rough with each other.
She learned how to go up steps in September and within two months learned how to go down them. Which we thought she would never be able to do. I was going to build her a ramp so she could get down into the yard by herself. She still can’t stand fully upright, but she doesn’t care. If she wants to see better she just sits on her hind legs like a kangaroo.
During all this she had the attitude that she was special, and that humans were put on earth to serve her, and I think she is right. God gave her to us to remind us that with unselfish love anything is possible.
A tiny mal-formed puppy that in other circumstances would have died is now a beautiful bright eyed sheltie who owns the world.
I hope that by reading Tinkers story, people will realize that a handicap may slow you down, but it does not have to stop you from doing what you want to do, you just have to do it differently.
TINKER UPDATE : March 1, 2009
Tinker is one year old now, what a journey she has had in that year. Up until recently Tinker confined herself to the living room and kitchen area of the house, but she will now take herself down the hallway into the bedrooms, and the den. She loves to go outside and bark at the other dogs through the fence. We can no longer call her handicapped, this little girl wants to be in the middle of what ever is going on and she moves with the speed of a Grayhound
