Beautiful's Journey to Walking
You may remember Beautiful’s story from early December. She was found wandering around Baltimore City as a stray before a kind-hearted citizen brought her to BARCS. Beautiful is a sweet one-year-old girl with a heart-melting smile—and she pays absolutely no mind to her deformed paw.
Beautiful is missing some of the bones in her left front paw, which is likely the result of a congenital birth defect. While she can run short distances and has no problems motivating herself to jump into bed for snuggles, she definitely slows down towards the end of her walks. The severity of Beautiful’s limp and condition becomes clear when she is exhausted; she so badly wants to walk for longer, but she can't make it more than a few blocks.
To get a better understanding of her paw while she was in our care, the BARCS team opted to send Beautiful to one of our partner veterinary clinics for X-rays. X-rays showed that Beautiful’s paw doesn’t need any treatment for now. But, in the future, her limb may need to be amputated if it becomes painful or continues to deteriorate.
Beautiful went to a foster home for extra love and care, and while she was there, her fosters fell in love and adopted her. They describe her as the most loving, affectionate creature you'll ever meet. Down the line, her adopters plan to have her certified as a therapy dog.
Thanks to a very generous donor, Beautiful’s family has been able to get her a custom orthopedic device to help her walk much easier. Her family says the process, which started in February, has been long, with multiple consults and X-rays performed before they could even begin the process of casting and designing the device. After multiple fittings, a redesign and lots of physical therapy, Beautiful is feeling much more confident with her orthopedic device!
Her human shares, “She is learning how to navigate the world with four limbs and is doing amazingly well. She especially loves to show off her new skills when people cheer for her and encourage her! It's exhausting physical and mental work, but she's making great progress. Eventually we should get to the point where she has little to no physical limitations. It will take lots of time and work, but she is a resilient love bug.”
Beautiful’s humans also share that she is considered to be an extremely rare medical case, and her journey has been followed closely by doctors across the country. Though she’s been turning heads all over the US, the center of Beautiful’s world is right here in Baltimore. We can’t wait to see where her journey takes her next!
To help BARCS always be ready to care for special animals like Beautiful, please consider a donation to our Medical Care Fund. The Medical Care Fund allows us to begin treating animals the moment they arrive at our shelter. It’s where funding for our shelter is always greatly needed. With increased donations, we can save more animals.
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