Mr. Cooper is a 3 year old Pit Bull. Who was brought in by one of our Animal Control Officers. When the ACO picked him up she realized that he had some sort of a leg injury. There was something protruding in the area of his hip. It looked like he might have a serious break, so the ACO carried him into the Shelter where our Veterinary Technician Kelly had stayed late to examine him. It was determined at that time that the injury was an old one, and though we weren't sure what it was (though we had some ideas) we did determine that he wasn't in immediate pain. We bedded him down with a couple of huge comforters, got him plenty of good food and fresh water and started talking about our plan for him.
It was evident from the very beginning that Mr. Cooper was EXTREMELY people friendly. He greeted everyone with a wagging tail and the Pit Bull smile! The staff here quickly fell in love with him. Within the first few days, he was tested for dog aggression. He passed with flying colors, obviously really laid back and dog friendly. So the questions was..what was next for Cooper?
I hazard to guess that Cooper would have been euthanized in many other shelters. Thankfully, a combination of Cooper's amazing personality and the help of some AMAZING people saved his life. One of our Veterinarians helped him get the x-rays he needed so that we could figure out what was going on with his leg. Turns out, at some point Cooper had broken his femur and had a rod put in to help it heal. Unfortunately, the rod was left in for far too long--the metal rod was what we saw protruding from Coop's leg. The same Vet that got the x-rays done volunteered to perform the surgery to remove the rod from Cooper's leg and neuter him. Then, we had an awesome foster home volunteer to take him on for a bit to heal and to give us a better idea of his personality.
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| Cooper during surgery to remove the rod from his leg |
Cooper's surgery went very well! He is doing great in his foster home, and his foster mom says that he is a very good boy, crate trained, housebroken, good with kids and other dogs, walks well on a leash, and a real cuddle bug!
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| Sunning himself shortly after surgery |
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Coop is truly doing great so far. Above is his incision about a week after going into foster. He will most probably never use the leg normally, he seems to hold it up sometimes and stand on it at other times. We will likely do a follow up x-ray to check everything out again before he will be cleared for adoption/rescue. |
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| Goofball!!! |
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| With his new best bud (He's GREAT with kids!) |
Our ultimate goal is to get Mr. Cooper well and find him a loving, and TRUE forever home. This guy has won over a lot of hearts already. I mean, look at this face! I truly shudder to imagine what fate might have befallen this sweet boy at other shelters, considering the bias against his breed and his injury. I am so thankful that our awesome medical team decided to do what was right by Coop. Again, Cooper is housebroken, crate trained, great with other dogs AND kids. If you are interested in adopting Cooper, please message our Facebook page. We are not taking holds on him yet, but hope to be taking them soon. In the meantime, we can arrange for you and your family (and your dogs, if you have any!) to meet Mr. Cooper. This is what Boone County Animal Shelter is all about, so the last piece of the puzzle is to find Cooper a family to love him just as much as we all do.
