My Best Day? Maybe the One When I Caught a Falling Baby.

Story Corp is an National Public Radio feature that captures the audio of people telling the kind of story also featured here. This is one you don’t want to miss.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103418413

Stella the Three-Legged Dog

Stella

Four years ago we rescued a three-legged Great Dane named Stella. Or she rescued my husband and me.

Stella was hit by a car when she was five months old. Bad injury. The femur was broken and rammed through her hip bone. It’s a miracle she survived the accident and a second miracle she survived her previous owner who reportedly said, “If it doesn’t heal on it’s own, I’ll shoot her.”  She dragged her injured leg for weeks until the Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue Group finally intervened. They drove her, overnight, to a specialist in Colorado Springs who removed the leg and part of the hip. She nearly died on the operating table–miracle number three. See http://www.rmgreatdane.org/stella.htm

 Here’s the good part. Stella, a happy, tail-wagger 24/7, has become a certified therapy dog. She visits hospitals, libraries and homes for the elderly. A favorite place is the local mental hospital (juvenile section). Stella’s big. Even with three legs, she can look formidable. At first the kids hang back.

“Does she bite?”

Great Dane

 

 

“What happened to her?”

That last is the real question. People will stop us on the street to ask that one. It’s obvious Stella is a dog with a story.

The kids at the mental hospital do more. They own her story. Those who remember her from a previous visit rush to tell the newbies all about her. They like the parts about how she was hurt, abused, abandoned, placed in foster care, then rescued. They also ask questions. Hard questions.

“Why did you want a dog with three legs?”

 Ask that question and, all of a sudden, the story is no longer about a rescue dog. It’s about you.

I shrugged. “When she runs, it’s like she’s forgotten dogs have four legs. Sometimes we forget, too. She’s just a great dog.”

 

Stella Runs