Brutus the 2-year-old Rottweiler is walking with a new lease on life, thanks to fundraising efforts by a dedicated duo in Loveland, Colorado, that earned him four new prosthetic limbs.
The tale began as a tragic one: As a puppy, Brutus was the victim of neglect, left outside in freezing temperatures for so long that he developed frostbite on all four paws. To make matters worse, the owners tried to amputate his paws themselves, botching it up in the process and leaving Brutus barely able to walk.
"If he didn't have the prosthetics, he'd essentially be confined to rooms with carpeting,” said Laura Aquilina, the dog’s new owner, to The Huffington Post. Unwilling to let that happen, Aquilina and Laura Ornelas, an animal rescuer, started a GoFundMe page to raise the $11,900 required for his surgery. Their efforts garnered them $12,612 and Brutus received his much needed surgical procedure.
“Dr. Gall removed bone fragments on Brutus' mangled paws, his dew claws, and two toes on his back paw in preparation for the prosthetics,” said Aquilina. The Denver-based Orthopets stepped in next and supplied Brutus with four sleek new limbs.
Credit: Better Paws For Brutus / Facebook / CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital
Brutus’s road to recovery has taken eight long weeks and six months of rehabilitation, but he is doing well and still regularly goes to physical therapy. "We will work with Brutus to help him adjust to wearing his new prosthetics,” said Sasha Foster, a canine rehabilitation therapist at CSU's Veterinary Teaching Hospital. “Once he's mastered that, we will help him achieve higher-level functioning activities, like hiking and playing with other dogs.”
If you want to follow Brutus’s recovery, check him out on Facebook here.
