I just discovered the most wonderful rattie blog.  It is about Yodi, the three-legged rat terrier.  The pictures are delightful and the text is amusing.  I highly recommend a visit just to see the antics of this feisty little dog.
He redefines the "feist" that denotes rat terriers.

To read more about him and see his antics, click here

I have posted the entry that describes how he became a three-legged dog.  This is just after our recent brush with a loose and uncontrolled pit bull while we were out for a morning walk.  Dog on dog violence is never okay.  Do you suppose the owners of that dog helped pay for any of the care these pet owners gave to their precious little boy?  I'm sure they did not, but I can also assure you that the total cost was large.  Thank heavens we have people like Yodi's Mommy and Daddy in the world.
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Yodi's Accident
On June 27, 2003, at about 9 months of age, our rat terrier Yodi (12 pounds) was attacked by a loose pit bull that ran onto my parents' property just as we got out of the car. Yodi had to have surgery at an emergency vet to repair several tears and bite wounds on his chest. A few days after that surgery, we brought him to our vet in Sarasota, who kept him for a few weeks for observation, pain control, and a few procedures. Yodi was very weak and tired and when we went to visit him, he was often just laying down; he could hardly move around and sometimes could barely lift his head. Yodi's red blood cell count dropped severely so he received a blood transfusion from one of the technician's dogs, a Weimaraner. (He got big doggie blood, which helped him feel a lot better.) Yodi's left front leg was swollen due to trauma and the vets applied heat and massaged it in hopes of getting the swelling to go down. A large patch of skin/tissue was dying on his chest (where he had been bitten) and he had to have surgery to remove the decaying tissue. Days later, we learned that his left front leg still wasn't doing much better and we were referred to an animal hospital in Tampa. We took him up there for a consultation and learned that the tissue in the leg was dying, which was sending toxins into Yodi's body; the toxins were making him sick and weak and were entering his body too fast for his body to be able to fight them and heal himself. This left us with the decision to either amputate the leg and save Yodi's life, or let our little puppy go. The obvious decision to us was to amputate the leg. We didn't have second thoughts about it. The amputation was done on July 10th. We couldn't believe it when the vet called and told us that Yodi was sitting up in his cage and had even walked outside - all by himself - to go to the bathroom. We saw him two days after the surgery, and we were allowed to take him outside for a walk. We couldn't believe how well he was getting around. Especially because the last time we saw him before the surgery, he coud barely lift his head. We saw him a second time, about a week later, and he was actually gobbling up his treats, giving lots of kisses, and running and jumping on and off the sidewalk. His final procedure, a skin flap (skin graft) was done on July 21st to cover the large patch where the tissue on his chest had died and been removed. The day after that, July 22nd, he came home with us.

July 5, 2003 - (Beneva Animal Hospital, Sarasota)
This was the first time we got to see the stitches and scars from Yodi's first surgery. He had two incisions which were stapled, and one area that was just stitched up. We could tell that he'd lost a lot of weight. In some of the pictures you can see how swollen and bruised his left front leg was. The area under his arm that is black and bruised is the area where the tissue would decay and need to be removed.

For a very close, detailed picture of Yodi's injuries, stitches, and staples, click here. (It's not pretty, and might be hard for some to look at.)

July 12, 2003 (Tampa)
This was the first time we saw Yodi with 3 legs. I don't think any of us really cared about how he looked or that he had 3 legs - we were all so amazed at the way his health turned around. He was kind of groggy that day because he still had a pain patch on, but we were thrilled to see him walking. What a tough little doggie.

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