Dalton the Wonder Dog

This is an incredible story about the healing power of the body and the healing power of love. Jade's Mission received a call from Jennifer from Unleashed about a puppy that had been hit by a car. Unleashed does amazing outreach work like Jade's Mission does. They had been helping a family for a long time with their beagle named Patches that is chained outside. They had also recently gotten a puppy. The puppy was always outside in the boiling hot weather every time Unleashed volunteers would go by. The puppy was skinny and the family was not taking care of him like they should. Unleashed couldn't get them to relinquish the puppy, so they did what we all have to do sometimes and try our best to educate. The family lived out on a busy street and the puppy was never supervised, so of course you know where this is heading. The puppy was hit by a car and drug. The family didn't have any money to get the puppy to the vet, so they called Unleashed. All the volunteers were tied up at the time of the call, so they called us. We were happy to help, so Kendra jumped in her car and went to get the pup. It sounded bad and we were sure he would have to be euthanized. Kendra took him to the Humane Society since it was close to the family's house. They evaluated him and said he wasn't paralyzed, despite him not wanting to move. We transferred the puppy to our vet in Raytown where he had every bone in his body radio-graphed and there wasn't a broken bone in his body!!! We started calling him Dalton. Besides being a little banged up, Dalton suffered a major degloving wound on his front leg. It was so bad, there was a chance he may lose some of his toes. I apologize for the graphic pictures, I just want everyone to see how fast and how well he healed over time.

Kendra, one of our amazing volunteers, offered to foster Dalton. Kendra brought Dalton up to the vet every day for his bandage change for three weeks! Every couple days, when we removed the bandage, you could tell how fast his leg was healing. Dalton went on several antibiotics and pain medications and slowly started to become a puppy again. It was about two weeks after we rescued him that he started to play and explore. He was such a patient and good boy. He would just lay on the exam table at the vet and let them do their work, he didn't even flinch! He was house trained and crate trained in less than a week too. He was just the best puppy despite everything he had been through.

After 4 weeks of bandage changes, the day finally came where Dalton's leg was free to breath! Of course he had to wear the cone of shame, but he was a champ about it. Although the skin wound had mostly healed up, Dalton has suffered some permanent tendon damage and will never be able to use that leg normally. He is not in any pain and gets around just fine. The vet thinks there is a possibility that as he gets older and grows, his leg may correct itself over time. Dalton is still looking for the perfect forever home! If you think that's you, please contact us at jadesmission@yahoo.com or call at 816-737-8574.

Thank you everyone who donated so we were able to save Dalton's leg! Good luck Dalton!!!