Entered: 05/13/2005
Status: adopted
Age: 4
Color: Liver/White
Weight:
Gender: Altered Male
Location: Goochland, VA
Health: UTD, HW-, Good, except for an issue with his rear legs (discussed in detail below)
Temperament: Good with other dogs, good with people as young as 4, ignores cats in his foster home
Original:
Louie came into MAESSR’s care from a shelter in central West Virginia where he had been found as a stray. He is completely housebroken and will use a crate, but does not like it. Since he has very good house manners, his foster family has not found any reason to press crate use. Louie doesn’t trash can pick or counter-surf. He sleeps on a dog bed beside his foster parent’s bed at night. Frisbee is a favorite game and Louie can catch one in the air!
Louie has demonstrated an intense desire to play ball and carries a tennis ball with him at all times, just in case someone has the urge to throw it for him. This presents a problem because his rear legs do not listen to the commands from his brain at all times. Sometimes this sweetie looks like he is drunk in his rear end.
When Louie came into foster care, some thread was hanging out of the skin on his spine and had obviously been there a while. While he was under for neutering, the vet removed old stitches. The vet said it appeared that Louie had been through a surgery on his spine which could account for the problem with his rear legs. MAESSR had initially been told that Louie had a pin in his leg because of an old injury. The vet x-rayed his legs and could not find a pin or any evidence of an old injury. The vet also checked his hips for dysplasia and reported that, while his hips were not the best in the world, his hips were not the problem with his rear legs. The vet feels that it is possible for Louie to regain strength in his rear legs and recommends swimming as the best therapy for muscle/nerve regeneration. She also recommends that Louie not live in a home with a lot of stairs. The vet stated that she felt Louie would be more than able to make it worthwhile to anyone who would love him and care for him.
This springer has a heart as big as the world. He does NOT let his rear legs slow him down at all. He still wants to play ball, so his foster parents just play a little slower with him. He still wants to run and play, so they just run and play a little slower. Louie wants to cuddle, so he gets to do that as much as he wants. This boy really likes to be with his people and would like nothing more than to find a family who will love him forever.
Do you have a heart big enough for Louie?