FORT COLLINS — When Fozzie entered the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital on Tuesday, she was adept at hopping on her front two legs, pulling her paralyzed back legs behind her as she moved.
When the young dog left an hour later, she sped out the door on two legs and two wheels, with a donated cart to help her mobility, though it also seemed to immediately boost her confidence.
“Nothing is going to stop her,” said Loveland resident Kathy Brodersen, who adopted the border collie mix after she was rescued from the streets of Nepal and brought to Colorado.
“This will be so cool. She can eat without me having to hold her up. … Our dreams came true. For seven months, this was our dream.”
As a puppy, Fozzie was hit by a car on the streets of Nepal and left for dead. She survived, but the way her injuries healed left her paralyzed. One back leg is turned around, backwards from the way nature intended, and the other is locked in a flexed position, explained Sasha Foster, certified canine rehabilitation therapist.
Fozzie’s spine is curved, with the lower vertebrae fused, which made it more challenging to fit the cart specifically to Fozzie’s anatomy.
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