Penelope, the Happy Newly Tripawd Pup!

Penelope is a young Catahoula mix from Florida that had her leg injured when she was hit by a car in December 2018. The family was hopeful that she would recover full use of her injured front left paw in the following months. Unfortunately, it later became clear to her grandma, Corina Cox, and Penelope's vet that the injured paw had atrophied. In Penelope's best interest, they decided to amputate her injured paw. Without amputation, the paw would continue to drag on the ground causing painful sores to reopen daily.

Dogs and cats with amputated limbs due to birth defect, injury, or cancer are not uncommon. They are so common as to have a non-profit foundation and a community support website, Tripawds, and the Tripawd Talk Radio podcast hosted by community founders Jim Nelson & Rene Agredano. Pets on three legs are remarkable in that they do not sulk about their "lost" limb as humans often do. Instead, pets are quickly moving on their remaining feet and back to normal is just days. People could learn a lot about healing from dogs, especially brave tripawds like Penelope!

Penelope’s vet provided her family an estimate of $700 to perform the leg amputation. Facing such a large vet bill, Corina decided to turn to crowdfunding to raise the money for Penelope's amputation. Not only did she start a campaign on CoFund My Pet, but she also started a campaign on GoFundMe to get as much exposure as possible. “I was willing to try everything to help get this sweet dog the surgery she so desperately needed.” Corina aggressively promoted Penelope's CoFund My Pet campaign on all social media outlets to get as much exposure as possible—tweeting many pet foundations and support groups; she even tagged the President and Ellen DeGeneres. Although her GoFundMe campaign fell very short of her goal, her fundraising campaign on CoFund My Pet raised her complete $700 need in just 13 days. Penelope’s family was overwhelmed with the support of those that came to her aid. “I tried the other sites to get help, and it just didn’t seem like anyone cared,” Corina said.

On September 10, 2019, Penelope had her amputation surgery, and all went mostly according to plan. Although primarily her paw was injured, the veterinarian had to remove the full leg up to the shoulder. After only two days of recovery, Penelope did not seem to mind. She was up and walking around and smiling as if she had always been a tripawd dog.

Our CoFund My Pet team could not be more excited than to have been a small part of this successful journey with Penelope and her family. Being pet parents ourselves, we know that pet owners will do everything they can to take care of their pets. No pet owner wants to have to make a decision that is not in the best interest of their pet because of their inability to pay for their pet’s vet bill. Unfortunately, too many pets are lost annually to economic euthanasia or have to live in pain because of their owner’s inability to afford a vet bill.