Thursday, June 30, 2011

Tornado Dog

I didn’t know if any of you heard this story, or if it was only broadcast locally in Alabama, but I thought I’d share it this week.

It’s about Mason, the plucky terrier mix who crawled home on two broken legs. The scrappy dog had been hiding in a garage in North Smithfield, Alabama, when the storm hit on April 27. It whipped through the community, destroying houses and uprooting trees, but when it had passed Mason was nowhere to be seen. His family had all but given up hope when two weeks later they returned home to sift through belongings only to find the dog on their doorstep.

He was in a bad way with what appeared to be broken limbs. The family rushed him to the Birmingham Jefferson County Animal Control shelter where veterinarians gave him once over. He's got two broken legs and they're distal radial unal fractures,' Dr Barbara Benhart told Wavy-TV 10. 'They've not been able to be in alignment so neither one of them have healed so he had to crawl on two broken legs to get home,' she added. Mason's owners asked the shelter to look after him while they try and put their own lives back together. And with the help of donations and the generosity of a nearby veterinary clinic Mason underwent an operation to fix plates into his two front legs last week.

He is now doing well and will go home to his family in six weeks time, a spokesman from the animal shelter said. Now the pup has become something of a celebrity and even has his own Facebook page.

Phil Doster, who works at the shelter, said that Mason's injuries were the most dramatic they'd seen in an animal that had survived so long on its own. 'We're honored to be part of his recovery,' he added.

Alice England
makingstuffwithlove

2 comments:

Giupetto and Gianna Tails said...

Oh Alice, I did see this story, but not to this extent. It is a wonderful and yet sad story at the same time. So sorry for the doggie that crawled all that way, in pain. But so happy for all of them that he was such a determined pup and found his way home, and that the genorousity of others were able to fix him up.
Thank you for sharing.
Diana

Three Wishes Collective said...

That is so amazing! I feel so awful that he had to suffer so long and all alone, but so glad he's ok now.