07/18/2026
I know you’ve all been waiting to see RG’s genetic profile! As those who have met her know, she’s very much a house girl, she doesn’t like to ride in vehicles and she is absolutely irresistible when she finally decides to love you!
In April 2016 my nurse partner, Nana Charmaine and I found RG on the Rocky Boy Reservation along with several litter mates. Only RG wasn’t hanging with her brothers and sisters. She had found an old dog to follow around and when we see her approaching we knew why. RGs back and tail were broken and she had been dragging her hind right leg for what appeared to be a long time. When she approached her siblings they all piled on her ferociously and Charmaine and I started screaming and yelling and when they all moved away we scooped her up and tried to remove her from their area. We set her back down only to have several of them attack her again. We picked her up and threw her in the (brand new) company car. As bad of shape as she was in we thought we would just take her to Havre and drop her off at the veterinary clinic or animal control but after sending a picture to my husband my phone rang faster than that picture could have made it to him. He said she needed to come home with me and he would call our vet immediately Indian Hammer Veterinary Service . Which he did immediately upon hanging up. Alan met Charmaine and I on the highway coming back in to town to take RG home and I finished work and went home. We took her to the vet that same afternoon. Doc Cale did xrays and found that RGs last two or three vertebrae of her back were broke as well as 3 or 4 vertebrae of her tail. The broken vertebrae of her tail were actually moved up under her broken vertebrae of her back. Something or someone would have had to hit her directly center of her hind end to cause such an injury. She was guesstimated to be about 3 months old and she was undernourished and underweight. No one was sure if she would make it through for sure or if she was continent of bowel or bladder. Alan asked that we take her home and just see what we could do, opting not to do any surgery until we knew if she was strong enough to go under anesthesia.
We took her home that day and 3 days later we ultimately made the difficult decision to have her put down. Well, RG had other ideas! When I carried her outside that day she got up on that one hind leg and started running around the yard, stopping to p*e and p**p along the way!! This was the first time she p**ped since bringing her home and she managed it of her own accord. We spent almost the entire next year attempting to save RGs back right leg. We even had her paw pads rebuilt. It was a beautiful surgery and new paw pad but within 48 hours RG chewed her new paw pads off despite wearing the crown of shame and a cast. We still say RG can itch her back foot even if you put her top half in one room and her bottom half in another. We continued RGs doctoring regimen for months only to wake up one morning to her attempting to chew her back leg off. I was sure that RG was going to meed to be put down but the vet assured us she could live just fine on three legs. They even had a three legged cat living at the vet clinic at the time. That same morning we were there with RG the clinic 3-legged cat had been out hunting and caught himself a snake! I was impressed and RG went into surgery to have her leg amputated. She has been faster and happier ever since! and this year she turned 10 years old. We pray for many more years with her. 🐕🐾💞
