Half year ago I decided to become an advocate for this poor thing and do everything to help her live the normal life. And then, life happened. 

Furia is almost 2 years old border collie. In the beginning of this year, in February, she suffered from shoulder dislocation. The first vet didn’t take it seriously enough, claimed to fix it, it dislocated again. That time she was luckily referred to a surgery, that was promising until... it dislocated again. They repaired it surgically for the second time and it failed... again. The owner did not have funds to pay for another surgery.

And this is when you heard her story. I read about her fund, realised she is in pain every single day and I’ve decided to engage into helping her myself - first, with raising money for the procedure, then with rehabilitation needed because this is what I do for living. She moved thousand kilometres southwest and was consulted by our talented Croatian surgeon. Together, we decided to go with another type of surgery - the one that permanently fixes her shoulder joint in one place. It took place on 13 of June, lasted hours and left her without part of the bone and with a plate inside the joint - but she was finally pain free. 

Once we survived the first week, everything was going smooth. First, strict rest in full paw cast. After one month, the X-ray showed great bone healing so the cast could be shortened and placed above the shoulder only. 2 months later we took another X-ray, the bones were almost completely healed but the doctor said - it’s a border collie, she stays in the cast for a few more weeks. We could do some simple exercises, her posture improved and those who follow me on IG could see she is walking on 4 paws again, first time since February. We could even go for a “walk” - first 1 min, then 2, then 3… it literally made her day!

But then the nightmare happened. When my boyfriend was leaving the room, on 10th of September, she jumped on her pen’s fence and her paw got stuck. She panicked, she cried and pulled the leg before anyone could react. We hoped the bone will make it, as she didn’t show any discomfort after. The fact is, she is used to chronic pain and the X-ray showed everything that healed till now is gone and the plate got twisted.

We were back to square one. Devastated but hopeful. She moved to my friend Mia to have calmer environment. Living not in the pen, but crate. 2 weeks later we heard the good news - it is healing again! 

Until. Until 25th of October. Furia entered her crate with border collie eagerness and got stuck again. This time the bone didn’t make it and also the plate didn’t make it. It broke - most probably it wouldn’t if it didn’t get twisted before. Maybe it’s a good moment to add, that her limb that is not functioning normally since February, is lacking proprioception and she doesn’t have good awareness how to place it.

For a split second, we all lost it. By all I mean me, Miha - who was carrying her out for months for peeing and pooping, Mia - who is the person who slept next to Furia on the floor after the surgery because human touch stopped her from whining and Nina - who is always there if there is a dog in need or a friend in need.

But the surgeon didn’t and came up with plan putting us all back on track. We won’t give up on her paw, we won’t give up on her, we won’t give up on the idea of her running on 4 legs again. So after many conversations and not as many doubts as one could expect, we scheduled another procedure, that will probably make her leg half-bionic but obviously bulletproof solution is needed. 

I think Bamboo (her new nickname) is extremely lucky to have 4 most stubborn people living on the Balkans - Mia, Nina, Tomislav the surgeon and myself.

Beautiful people donated money to make the first surgery happen and I believe you will help me and her again. I just won’t let anyone cut the paw off the 2 year old border collie. 

Bamboo is celebrating 2nd birthday on 27th November so please give her the best possible present, a chance for a walk on 4 paws. She is available for adoption once we know she can live the life of a normal dog.