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A 2-legged rescue puppy was finding it hard to find a friend until one day her family brought home Waffles, a paralyzed Great Dane. Their friendship has changed both their lives.
Duke and Steph with The PAWerful Rescue explain that IHOP’s family was planning to euthanize her when they saved her. They right away knew IHOP had a huge personality despite not having two front legs. But, the puppy was finding it hard to make a friend. When one puppy came home she soon realized she was different and “it hurt her self-esteem.”
But that changed when Waffles, a Great Dane who couldn’t use her legs, came home. The two immediately acted like they were long lost friends and have been inseparable ever since. Duke and Steph say that the dogs’ friendship has helped them both overcome their handicaps and blossom. For example, when Waffles was first trying her wheelchair she was reluctant to try it until IHOP came outside and joined her.
“Their quality of life has improved so much from being around one another,” says Steph. That’s when she and Duke knew they wouldn’t be able to separate the pair and decided to keep them both forever.
Duke and Steph shared more about Waffles on Instagram:
“We rescued Waffles when she was just ten weeks old with an inoperable spinal injury. At the time she had no use of her legs and the emergency vet we took her to advised us to take her home and give her a really good night before bringing her back in to cross her over. They said she had no quality of life to look forward to and caring for a paraplegic Grate Dane was something just not feasible.”
“We decided as we do with many of our hospice dogs to give Waffles the best days until her quality of life started to go downhill. Then Waffles met IHOP. The two instantaneously bonded and that was the first glimpse we had of Waffles moving her legs. Once we saw that it was game on!”
“We started daily in home physical therapy with Waffles and eventually moved her into a wheelchair. At first it looked pretty hopeless but then we decided to bring IHOP out and again we saw a glimpse of Waffles using her legs.”
“Once she conquered the wheelchair the concern from the specialist was that because of her breed as she grew the fracture in her spine would eventually begin to cause her an immense amount of pain. They predicted she would not make it to a year old before we would need to cross her over. Well today Waffles is 14 months old and you let us know how her quality of life looks.”
“We are firm believers in things happening for a reason and these two were brought together and into our lives for a reason.”
It just goes to show the power that one friend who believes in you can have!
