I first met Haley in September of 2009. She was one of the 35 dogs seized in Iowa. Iowa was one of the states involved in that big ‘ol crap storm in July of 2009.

In Iowa Haley was my introduction to what was going to be. The first dog of 35 we were going to be evaluating for the US Marshall who would then present our findings to the presiding federal judge.

Haley was lucky. She had Rita, the US Marshall who worked tirelessly to find someone, anyone, qualified to evaluate pit bull temperament. Rita had a plan. She wanted to be in a position to cognitively appeal to the presiding judge on the dogs’ behalf. To Rita, there had to be a place in the world somewhere for some of these dogs.

She was right there was.

There hasn’t been a lot about Haley on our forum or this blog.  Life outside of the shelter was a scary thing. Haley has needed time to adjust. Lucky for her she scored a spot with ARLP treasurer Amy and her dude, disc dogger, Larry. How awesome was that?? Together they have worked to introduce Haley to a world that she would want to be a part of.

As Haley began venturing out of her shell Amy and Larry noticed that Haley was having issues with one of her legs. When some R&R failed to improve the condition they brought her to ARLP’s veterinarian, Dr. Rahimi. X-rays revealed that our sweet little Haley had a luxating patella. This occurs when the groove at the bottom of the femur in which the patella (knee cap) slides up and down, is too shallow.  The knee cap slides from side to side instead of sliding up and down, and jumps out of the groove – or “luxates”.   When the joint is luxated, it causes the leg to go lame or limp – not to mention it is very painful.  If left untreated, the groove will wear down and the joint will become arthritic, causing permanent swelling, poor mobility or total lameness.

Last week Haley had surgery to repair the patella. It went well! And we are all hopeful that Haley will make a full recovery. The hardest part now will be keeping her still. For in true pittie fashion, Haley feels she is good to go. And why shouldn’t she? Life is good now. No more dogfighters, no more rotating knee caps, no more scary things.

Here is some video footage of Haley. Haley remains uber camera shy but we will do our best to get photos to document her progress.

As you can imagine, Haley’s surgery was expensive. Even though we are only a lil’ bitty rescue operating on a shoestring we didn’t think twice about whether or not to make this repair. Haley has come too far to start hitting snags now.

If you would like to help A Rotta Love Plus with the cost of the surgery and follow-up care by making a donation, please click on the donate button at the top left of this page.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

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