User:D.Newlun

TRIPOD PETEY the Pitbull Therapy Dog

In May of 2017 an approx. 4 mth old pup was found dying on the side of a road in Davenport, Oklahoma. The dog had most likely been run over, crushed, and dragged by a car. His plight was posted on social media by a sweet woman after she had rushed him to a Veterinary hospital. The puppy was shared across social media. Many people sent in money to assist with his growing medical bills. One person who spotted his story online was a  newly grieving therapy dog handler in Mustang Oklahoma. She saw the postings about this dog and was immediately captivated by the dog's story. This woman had just lost her best friend and canine therapy dog Jake, only 8 weeks earlier. Jake's death was a shock and very unexpected even though he was 13.5 years old. Daily, and sometimes multiple times daily, she would see this dog's picture and his progress updates come across her Face Book feed. The face of a broken angel is what she first thought of when she saw the picture of this battered, crushed and abused boy. The woman, named Dena couldn't shake this dog's plight from her mind. The dog needed surgery to remove his crushed left rear leg. He was battered. He had tar and tire marks on his torso, bloody swollen paw pads, and trauma to his hips and tail. Generous & kind people gave money to help restore this young dog's health. Dena sat back and followed the story daily. When the pup was well enough to leave the hospital his kind rescuer Barb, took him to her house to foster him. She was looking everywhere for someone to adopt the dog, during his entire hospital stay but nobody was coming forward. The dog ended up back in the hospital for other procedures because he developed some complications. Barb  finally found a rescue group out of Minnesota that was willing to take the dog but that meant that she would never know the end of his story. Barb was heartbroken and continue to plead online for someone locally to step up and rescue the dog. It was at this time that Dena reached out to Barb via text asking her what the dog's temperament and disposition were like. Barb stated that the dog was amazing, gentle, happy, and had a wonderful personality. Dena, who was a former veterinary technician knew that animals in this dog's situation were  going to need a lot of rehabilitation to recover from these type of emotional and physical injuries. She felt if he was shipped off to Minnesota right after having these types of trauma's that he would most likely die or never fully recover. Dena finally, and somewhat reluctantly,  decided to drive down to Chandler Oklahoma to meet the dog and to perform a temperament test on him and see what his disposition truly was. It was a meeting to observe the dog and  provide temperment testing, nothing more, but as Dena left Chandler Oklahoma, headed back to Mustang she now had a new 3 legged family member in the truck with her. He was just so special and these two Souls needed each other to heal. This pup was then re-named Petey and Dena began the next full year working with him slowly to train him to be a therapy dog. He had the personality he just needed exposure to durable medical equipment, sound exposure, ramps, elevators, escalators, & socialization experiences, etc. There were people along the way who told Dena that Petey shouldn't be a therapy dog. Some close to her scoffed, some openly tried to discourage his training. One of them actually said " a three-legged Pitbull would never be a therapy dog for her organization". This did not discourage Dena. She knew that Petey had the right stuff for therapy work. It was his journey, his path, his purpose to do this work. Despite public ignorance and fear about his "aggressive breed", Petey remained the happiest and sweetest dog on the planet. Dena says all the time "that Petey is nothing but love on 3 legs". It is factual, and if you ever have the privilege of meeting him in person you will see the obvious truth of that statement. Petey became a Canine Good Citizen at approximately one year of age. He became a certified and registered therapy dog with Alliance of therapy dogs at 1.5 years of age. Petey works at multiple hospital facilities, a rehabilitation hospital, and for a hospice in Oklahoma. He made it into the first round of the 2019 Hero Dog Awards as the only therapy dog from Oklahoma. Petey has also won a nation wide contest by the Pibborafi company. This company makes plushie toys in the likeness of real life rescue dogs. Petey's little mini Petey plushie will be available for sale in early 2020.