Ashley-911

I came out of the bathroom this morning and found Polly limping around, holding one foot in the air.  An examination showed that she had caught one of her toenails in one of the disks that attach her licenses to her collar.   Ironically, I had noticed just that morning that her nails were getting long and decided that they could probably wait until we leave for Prague, when Ashley moves in here.  Ashley is so good about taking care of the dogs, bathing them, clipping their nails. etc.

This particular nail was curled around the loop of metal in which it was caught.  I first tried removing it from the metal loop, but what with Polly's panic and pain and how deeply it was caught, that wasn't working.

I remembered that Ashley had left her doggie nail clippers here the last time she dog-sat, so I thought I could cut off the tip of the nail and that might help.  But a combination of my bad eyesight, the poor lighting, and the wiggily dog made it impossible, so I called out the heavy guns.  I called Ashley.

I figured I could hold Polly in my lap to drive over to her house, but as it turned out she was in her car on her way to garage sales, so she dropped around and not only got Polly free from her entanglement but cut her two nails to reduce the chance of that happening again.

Polly fought her, but after it was over, she seemed content to cuddle in Ashley's lap so I guess all was forgiven.

While Ashley was here, we taked about the TV show she was on last week.  Remember Joey the 2-legged Chihuahua?  This is the link to her page, if you are on Facebook. This is the link to the journal entry I wrote about her in December.

Joey was a puppy born without front legs, taken to the vet to be put to sleep.  But nobody could do it, so the SPCA was contacted.  Ashley took her in, determined to help her be all that she could be.  Ashley got her on local TV to see if she could get donations from the public to help find someone who could build Joey some sort of an orthotic to allow her to get around. 

Because of the news segment Ashley was contacted by Ortho Pets, in Denver, the only place in the country that makes orthotics for animals. They were willing to take Joey in and take care of her, build an orthotic device for her, and find her an adoptive home.

The TV show brought enough money to pay Ashley's fare to Denver and Southwest Airlines agreed to waive the fee for shipping dogs, if Ashley would allow them to film the whole thing, which they did.

Southwest has a TV show called "On the Fly," which taped Joey's story, including her arrival at OrthoPets, Ashlely's tearful goodbye, and her return to Denver a few weeks later to check on her progress and meet her new adoptive Mom (Joey is now called Giada).

During all of this, Ashley set up the Facebook web site, which began to get followers.  Then the "On the Fly" episode with Joey's story was broadcast.  There are now over 9,000 followers...the show has been rebroadcast a couple of times and each time the site gets more followers.

There is a 6 year old girl who has no arms who loves Joey, and a vet who lost a leg in Iraq who has been inspired by Joey's story.

I suggested to Ashley that someone needs to write a children's book about this puppy and apparently that project is in the works.  It is apparent that this tiny "throw-away" dog has already made a big difference in the world and there is more in store for her.

In looking for pictures for this entry on Ashley's Facebook page, I looked at all the broken limb puppies and dogs with big problems, and sick dogs and blind dogs, and other throw-away dogs and realized that when Ashley gets to heaven, she is going to have a whole herd of dogs waiting for her, tails wagging furiously, because she has a huge heart and because of the animals she has saved and given a chance at a good life.

I'm glad she is our friend (and so is Polly!).