http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTPkH9NPles
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were the sensational dance duo of the thirties who still explode on the screen with their talent and grace. The Fred and Ginger of this story have no less grace and still untapped talent, (they are only four months old). They have a story to match their names and this blog will attempt to do that over the next few months.
Their mother was a puppy mill rescue who, along with a group of Japanese Chins rescued at that time, were all pregnant. Many of the puppies were born with deformities of the heart or bones. As many reading this already know, my wife and I have our own pet Chin, Bette Davis, who we adopted through Marilyn’s Voice Rescue. She was also a puppy mill dog with a deformed leg. After I corrected her deformity, she regained use of her leg and now runs like a gazelle. We were looking to adopt a little girl for her and, after speaking with the rescue organizer, decided I would repair her brother, too, and help place him. Of course, by the time my daughter and I made the trip back from Indiana, where we picked them up, we had already decided we would be keeping the siblings together.
They both have a condition known as, “Patellar Luxation”, common to Chins and many other small breed dogs. I have performed countless of these repairs and developed a 4 part technique that has served my patients well with excellent surgical results and legs that are better than new. The condition is graded 1-4 with 4 being the most severe. Like Bette had before, both Ginger and Fred have grade 4+ luxation, the worst. Like Bette, I have confidence they will do well and so I will be posting their surgery and follow up here on the blog and on the hospital facebook page. Keep posted. Surgery is scheduled for Monday, June 15th.