Residents | Happy Tails > Princess
Denia/Sophie
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Princess Denia
in grass
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Princess Denia playing with
Precious
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Now named Sophie with adoptive
family
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Princess Denia/Sophie: The Miracle Dog
Sophie is a walking, running, jumping German Shepherd that according
to the veterinary medical profession should not be doing any of
those things. She was born, and almost immediately the problems
with mobility were evident. Disease was ruled out first; but it
was unclear why her back legs were not functioning. A veterinarian
friend, Dr. Karen Dashfield, who had helped out tremendously during
the Hurricane Katrina rescues called and asked Executive
Director Laura Bradshaw if Healing HEART Sanctuary wanted
another puppy. Laura said she’d better rephrase the question
before she got an answer; so the vet then asked if HHS would
take on another puppy. For her, yes.
Princess, as she was first called, was in New Jersey and we are
in Utah. How were we going to get her here? Laura called on some
other Katrina helpers
at Delta Airlines and
we found some flight attendants that were flying that way and could
bring her back to Salt Lake City. It was all set and a few days
later the new puppy was here.
Laura met the flight attendants at their home in Salt Lake City
and was barraged with questions about the puppy, her condition,
and what we were going to do for her. They were wonderfully concerned
people who had had special needs pets before. Laura explained as
best she could, as she had just met Princess herself. They asked
if they could be kept in the loop; and received assurance that they would be.
Since Laura had last spoken with Dr. Karen in New Jersey, one
of Princess’ back legs had begun to move a little. This was
encouraging. But the name Princess just didn’t fit her. Her
name was changed to Denia after one of Healing
HEART Sanctuary’s
staunch supporters. The puppy reminded Laura
of the namesake Denia, who is a fiery woman who is always going
to try and never, ever, give up under any circumstance! Laura saw
that tenacity in both of them. Eventually the puppy’s full
name became Princess Denia, because she was kind of a princess
about things.
Laura used range of motion exercises, the Infratonic
sound wave machine, water
therapy, and soon
Princess D was up. Both legs moving and working! The interesting
thing was when Laura would take her to a vet, and they went to
a few, the vets would look at the x-rays and say that she can’t walk because the hips aren’t even in the
socket. Laura would then look at them funny and say, “But
she does, look”. They couldn’t understand it, she shouldn’t
be able to.
Princess Denia grew very fast and even though she maybe shouldn’t be
able to be normal, she was. Laura had kept in touch with the wonderful
flight attendants who announced one day that they always wanted to adopt the puppy from her from the moment they met her. They knew that one day,
who knows, she might not be able to walk or there may be many surgeries
involved. But they could not get this beautiful puppy out of their
heads and heart, and they would do whatever was needed for her.
The only thing they were afraid to tell Laura was that on that
long flight to Utah from New Jersey they had already started calling
her Sophie, a name they loved and felt fit her.
Call her anything you like, Laura said, just love her immensely
and take care of her forever. And they have.
Sophie is now full-grown and can hike 5 to 10 miles at a time.
She occasionally has problems with her knees but with some rest
she has, so far, been able to bounce back without needing surgery.
They have been to many specialists and are keeping a close watch
on how she continues to grow and go. She’s one lucky puppy!
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