Gus Gets a New Family and a New Name!

Gus' journey to his new family was a short one. In fact, the transport was non-existent since he didn't move from his foster home - we adopted him!

Ever since we lost Beener to cancer three months ago, we knew we'd eventually get another rattie and that we'd 'know it' when the right one came along. And then Gus entered our lives and our hearts.

Along with a new family, Gus got a new name - Toby. The name Toby means "God is Good" and is the perfect name for our little boy.

Toby is friendly and confident and will be a great foster brother for future incoming rescue ratties. It'll be interesting to see how he takes to his new role of mentor to the foster kids.

Toby's rehab from his hip surgery is rolling along. He prefers to hop along on three legs and is resisting my efforts to get the other leg working and on the ground. He's continuing his swimming, which is one place he does use his leg. I'm also having him walk on a softly inflated air mattress - it moves so much as he walks across that it's hard for him to "three-leg" it. Lots of treats helps keep him moving and sometimes makes him forget about holding his leg up. Rehab is a long process and any little improvement is encouraging.

We are thrilled to have "Gimpy Gus" as a member of our family and thank New Rattitude for the opportunity to foster, and then adopt, this great little guy! Another dog saved with rescue . . . now on to the next rattie who needs us.

Post-Surgery - Donut neck for "Gimpy Gus"

Post surgery time was not fun for Gus. Besides earning the nickname "Gimpy Gus", 1) he had to endure the pain of both the FHO and neuter (done at the same time); 2) for the first 10 days his view was out the bars of a crate, as he was on limited activity: and finally 3) he ended up with the indignity of having to wear an inflatable E-collar to keep him from licking his incision.

Breaking out of crate-restriction couldn't come too soon for Gus - from day three he was feeling pretty good and didn't think he needed to have all that rest and inactivity. The othe dogs were running around and playing and he wanted to join them. It's hard to keep a good guy down.

The inflatable collar is much better for a dog than the traditional hard plastic cones - it's comfortable and doesn't hinder their vision and sense of space. Actually I think Gus was wondering where the beach was since he was wearing his flotation device.

Now we're into Gus' rehab period of recovery. The main job is to try to get him back to using the leg. In his opinion, he's getting along just fine on three legs, so he sees no reason to put the fourth on the ground/floor. My job of convincing him to use it is proving to be a challenge with this smart little whipper-snapper. Every little 'trick' I try to get him to put his leg down, he comes up with a counter trick to get around it. He's quite adept on only three legs.


One of the things we're doing to help strengthen and build back some muscle on his leg is hydro-therapy - swimming. Even in the water he manages to swim well without using the leg, so we're manipulating and pushing on the leg to get him to push back. We see improvement as he's paddling more with his gimpy leg.


Gus' rehab will take months, but it'll be so worth it when he is finally running again on all four legs!