When this woman agreed to take in a foster dog, she had no idea just how much of an impact the dog would have!
“In late April 2007, I was called by a shelter in Louisville, Kentucky, to ask if I would rescue a dog that they’d picked up. ‘Jet’ was a young male Basset Hound who had been hit by a car and had a shattered leg. I ran the Basset Hound Rescue in Kentucky at the time. Of course, I said I would take him. I got him transported down to me and got him to my vet. There, they said it would cost around $3,000 to pin the leg back together but only $150 to amputate. Because it was a back leg, and he was not your typical deep-chested short-legged Basset, I opted for amputation.
It was rough because as the bruising healed from the car accident, it strained against his stitches and I had to take him to the vet and have them keep him overnight while they took all the stitches out and let the wound drain.
We always had a number of foster dogs at our house and we also had a dog of our own who was pretty dominant. One day, about six weeks post-amputation, Jeremiah (as I now named him given that he hopped like a bullfrog) was in the kitchen with a couple of other dogs when two of the other ones got into a fight around him. Not wanting him injured, I scooped him up and turned to leave the kitchen. As I was leaving, I hit my foot on the door frame, breaking my foot. I ended up in the emergency room and that night came home on crutches. The next day I got up on the couch with a pillow under my leg, as I was told to stay off my feet and keep it elevated.
Jeremiah decided he needed to comfort me as I had saved him in the middle of the fight. He struggled for a good 15 to 20 minutes until he was able to pull himself up onto the couch unaided. This was the first time he had gotten on the couch. I had him up for adoption but at that point, I couldn’t let him go. I paid his adoption fee and I kept him. I had him for 11 years until he passed away at around age 14 or 15 in January 2018. He never really liked anybody else. He sure did love his mama.”