WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – From abuse to a happy home, the story of one dog is inspiring members of the community to never give up, no matter how difficult the journey.
According to Shelter Animals Count, it’s estimated that 10 million animals die every year from abuse. In Southeastern North Carolina thousands of people work tirelessly every day to keep animals safe and find them loving homes. Just one dog’s success story is reminding shelters and animal rescue groups to stay encouraged.
At just a couple month’s old, Pebbles was found by New Hanover County Animal Control. She was abused and neglected and suffered from a crooked front leg along with fractures in both of her back legs.
Due to her condition, Pebbles could not stay in a shelter and was fostered through Freedom Bridge Animal Rescue.
“Unfortunately it’s more common than I would like to admit. A lot of the time the puppies that we pull have either been found as strays, starving, or have injuries whether they were physically abused by a human or not is sometimes hard to tell,” said Diana Topjian from Freedom Bridge Animal Rescue.
Through Freedom Bridge, Pebbles was taken into the home of Nikka Braceland. Pebbles was Braceland’s first-ever foster.
“I wanted to try something new,” said Braceland. She described the journey of taking in Pebbles as a difficult but overall worth it experience.
The first few months together Braceland and Pebbles were in and out of the veterinary office. Pebbles underwent one surgery to correct her back legs and a few weeks later a spay.
“It was very challenging trying to get a puppy to be calm because she wasn’t supposed to be walking around. I had a harness for her when we went on walks I would lift up her back two legs,” said Braceland.
When she recovered from her two procedures; Pebbles was prepped for another surgery to fix her front leg.
“We went into the surgery thinking she would get the paw rebroken up in the front left paw and realigned and she would have a cast,” said Braceland.
However, the surgery ended up being anything but standard. While in surgery, veterinarians discovered the entire leg needed to be amputated.
“I got the call about 10 in the morning, that they were going to have to amputate it. It was a surprise to me, I was shocked, I didn’t think I would have such an emotional reaction. I was basically crying the whole day,” said Braceland.
The cost of all the surgeries ended up costing Freedom Bridge thousands. The money was raised through community support and neighbors who wanted to see Pebbles succeed.
“With any puppy that has medical, we have to make sure we have enough funding to do right by the pup. We really rely pretty heavily on donations from our community and our community has been extremely generous to help us do that,” said Topjian.
Every penny turned out to be well worth it for Topjian, Braceland and Pebbles. The dog’s life turned around for the better after the procedures, even with one less leg.
“She was so happy, she was out of pain, she was a different dog,” said Braceland.
Braceland ended up adopting Pebbles, now one years old. Braceland also invested in a prosthetic leg for Pebbles and she continues to help other foster dogs.
“It makes me super happy that she can go to the dog park and play with other dogs and we can go on walks. I’m just thrilled, I never thought I would have a dog let alone a three-legged dog,” said Braceland.
Braceland and Topjian agree that Pebbles long journey shows a story of resiliency. The hope is other rescue and shelter dogs will have the same happy ending.
“She’s gone through a lot before we got her, she certainly went through a lot once we had her and she just was a trooper and Nikka was right there by her side the entire time which is why I think they are so incredibly bonded.”
“The importance of fosters is just critical and can not be overstated. If we didn’t have folks like Nikka who’d be willing to walk through this journey with pebbles then she probably would have been euthanized,” said Topjin.
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