As if we didn’t love him enough already, now we can add this to Obama’s resume: Three Legged Dog Lover and Anti-Puppy Mill Advocate!

Visit “A Rare Breed of Love,” and learn more about Baby, an abused puppy mill survivor and “national spokesdog” raising awareness about cruelty in the dog breeding industry.

From our friend Lalla . . . the much anticipated second episode of TRI-STIX (click to enlarge):

I can’t believe what a lucky dawg I am. I got to meet the one and only Calpurnia, the three legged sled dog.

If there was ever a dog that demonstrates how we Tripawds can live a great life, she can. Calpurnia is tough as nails, headstrong and rambunctious, and completely defies her age (12 years old!). We met up recently, and took a walk at the Colorado Trail, on Kenosha Pass, about 100 miles west of Denver. Well, Cali ran. At 10,000 feet above sea level, I tried to run with her, but that girl just kept flying down that trail ahead of me. My Mom couldn’t run fast enough to film her the whole time! She is simply amazing.

Calpurnia and her people, Dave and TC, are active sled dog racers that live outside of Denver. They have a big team made up of rescue dogs — all of them! — and go around the snowy Rocky Mountains, mushing and racing and having a ball all winter long. Contrary to what some people have said about sled dog racing, this sport is not mean to the dogs, or inhumane. Sled dog people absolutely love their canine team members, as you can see by how much that Dave and TC have done for Cali.

I can’t wait for fall, because we are going to meet up with Calpurnia and her team, and watch them practice for winter competition. Mushing sure looks like fun, but I think I’ll sit on the sidelines with my humans and let the real snow dogs do all the work!

Two weeks ago as I was leaving New Mexico, my pawrents and I started traveling north to meet my Tripawd friend Daisy. We’d never met in person, but we were being treated by the same oncologist in Santa Fe. We had already missed meeting each other at the clinic by one day, so now we were finally going to get to play.

Sadly, we crossed paths one more time, but still didn’t get to meet. At the exact time were traveling northbound toward Antonito, where we would meet up with Daisy in a couple of days, Daisy and her parents were traveling south, on the same road. Only it was a very sad trip for them. See, the cancer had recently gotten the best of Daisy, and her health was rapidly deteriorating. Her Mom, LeeAnn, had to make the difficult decision to help Daisy across the rainbow bridge. She and Daisy were driving to the vet’s office at the same time, on the same road, that we were on.

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A lot of people are surprised that big dogs can get along as Tripawds. But did you know that even a pony can get around on three legs?

This was sent to me by my friend Calpurnia. It’s been making its way around the Internet. I hope you enjoy it!

Molly the Pony
Story by Pam Kaster

Meet Molly. She’s a gray speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners when Katrina hit southern Louisiana, USA . She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled. While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier, and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected and her vet went to LSU for help. But LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes.

But after surgeon Rustin Moore met Molly, he changed his mind. He saw how the pony was careful to lie down on different sides so she didn’t seem to get sores, and how she allowed people t o handle her. She protected her injured leg. She constantly shifted her weight, and didn’t overload her good leg. She was a smart pony with a serious survival ethic.

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I’ve just gotta share this story about my friend Maruk, from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Last December, Maruk joined the Tripawd club because of bone cancer. He had chemo, and all was good until late February, when he let out a loud cough.

Sadly, X-rays showed “blurry flakes of snow on a gray and black background,” his Mama Karen said.

Karen says in her April 1st Forums post, “All we kept hearing was how quickly the cancer spreads once it is in the lungs. Panic set in. We didn’t want our buddy in pain, so we began discussing euthanasia.

Thank goodness we snapped out of panic mode! Occasionally, we hear “the Cough”, but he is nowhere near ready to give up on life.”

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Pound puppies get an extra chance at life when a good person like you takes them home for a chance at another, better life.

And when a pound puppy has a physical challenge, yet still gets adopted, well that’s extra special!

Our friend Beverly wrote to us, to tell us about her miracle Tripawd dog, Drake. Although he passed away recently, his beautiful life story is one that will leave a pawprint on your heart forever.

Here’s Drake’s story, in Janel’s words:

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The following post was generously written by our friend Sasha, who lives in Tel Aviv Israel with her tripawd gal Lalla.

There’s something to be said about dogs when they sleep: they stretch out, growl, yelp, drool, produce various aromatic emissions and even sleepwalk And there is, of course, the oft-repeated “rabbit chase” which some dog experts claim is actually a re-enactment of pushing mamma dog’s mammalian protuberances to the max for the liquid known as milk. I for one, am going to stick to the “rabbit chase” theory and fact is, Tripawd humans are the real dog experts.

There’s no animal on this planet (apart from myself on a Saturday morning) who loves sleeping in as much as a dog. Although most of them think otherwise, most dogs do not need a human bed; they need a firm, comfortable no-frills / no-bling pad, which to our benefit should be easy to keep clean, i.e.: can be thrown into the washing machine after being used as a specialized dining room.

But when you live with a Tripawd, you do have to make special orthopedic considerations, but those don’t have to break your bank account.

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When a dog is diagnosed with bone cancer, veterinarians tend to give pawrents the worst case scenario. In my situation, my doctor at UC Davis said I would be lucky to get six more months out of life. Ha! Wrong!

Now, we know that their intentions are good, but when humans learn that their beloved furry friend might only have a couple of months of good health left, it’s too easy for them to focus on that number. Sometimes, pawrents don’t want to put a dog through amputation because they think he won’t live long enough to recover from it.

But many times, that’s not what happens.

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Hey check out my gal pal Lalla’s new comic strip, “Tri-Stix.” It’s the first comic strip all about the adventures of three legged dogs! Here is the first Tri-Stix comic, a tribute to Samuel Jacob and his funny story about what “Half-Fast” means.

Stay tuned for more adventures. Thanks, Lalla!