Determination

LESSONS FROM IDAHO
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE DETERMINATION

Many long time residents remember when Life here, didn't have a lot of convenience. Bigger home lots, larger fields, plowing your crop with a horse, and hauling your own water. Some remember those days, few still chose to live that way.

This pup was bred to be a livestock guardian, and being in the Bermuda triangle of the mountains, it's quite an important job, against predators. During the Arctic blast we had, she was hit by a widow maker, and lost use of her legs. After that, we moved her into the house, and decided whether to put her down or not. A paralyzed dog is of not much use against predators, and not many can handle an animal with these type of needs. Especially when they grow to be 160lbs. or more, and close to 4 feet tall.
She was in good spirits, and still very social despite her situation. So we decided to give her a chance. All of our guardians are fed a raw diet normally, because of the lack of additives, and fillers. In this case, though we added a tea of yarrow, for the injury repair. Common broad leaf plantain for soft tissue repair, St Johns wort to repair the nerve pathways through the injury. Despite common practice and opinion, there is always an alternative that may work just as well as others... With daily stretching and leg exercises, we saw more resistance from her in her hind legs and tail. She hated it at first, and was not happy and social for the first week. We are going on a couple weeks now, and after letting her range with her brother, and the goats, her determination has changed, even though she still doesn't like therapy. The second picture you see, is from 4 am this morning, taking her out to do her business, because I don't poop on my house floor either...

After doing her business we did the normal, stand as long as you can, unassisted before we go lay down for the rest of the morning. This is something she despises, but does, mainly because she seems to have learned that we are trying to help. After about 12 minutes she dropped her butt to the ground, and lowered her head, almost seeming to be disappointed. So like the last week I suspended her on a leash and collar around her rear, to take the weight off so she could move her legs in a walking motion without the weight on them.

This is when she decided to dig her nails in to the ice and resist going in the direction of the door, which is not a normal event after 12 minutes of weight on her spine. So I squatted back down next to her, and she gave me that determined look, and lightly hopped on her back feet... So I stood her back up, and she remained there for another full 12 minutes, before dropping her but, and hobbling to the door.

This afternoon when my wife brought her up to the house for the night, she sat close to the door. Leaned up against the snow berm close to the front door, and pushed herself up to standing unassisted by leaning on the snow berm. Then after some mental preparation, she full on dove through the door, and made it 3/4 of the way up 2 feet into the door before getting hung up by her hips on the threshold.

Nothing against certain professions, but from a professional stand point, this is not the type of recovery you would see without thousands of dollars of surgery. So why would we see it?
This comes todays lesson from Idaho- NEVER UNDERESTIMATE DETERMINATION!