Admiral, Herndon, VA

My name is Admiral and I’m a tripod.

In January of 2013 I was found tied to a tree, underweight, with a broken leg. Some nice people found me, untied me from the tree, and took me to the Montgomery County (MD) Humane Society.

The humane society people were really nice to me and got me vet care to try to fix my leg. My femoral head (the ball part of the ball and socket joint) was broken off of my femoral neck. The shelter vet did an FHO surgery in an attempt to save my leg, but it would be a long time before we would find out if it was successful.

See, my leg had been broken for a long time. The surgeon guessed it had been that way for at least four months, judging by the amount of muscle atrophy, and that I had probably been hit by a car. I had a lot of work to do to build up some muscle tone so that I could try to move my leg. Before my surgery all it would do was dangle. 🙁

I went back to the humane society and became a staff favorite. Volunteers would sit with me and staff would let me hang out with them in their offices, but they knew they couldn’t provide the level of care I needed in the shelter. They put out a plea to rescues to take me in. That’s when I was pulled by Ambassador Pit Bull Alliance.

The night that I arrived in my foster home was the beginning of a new journey. My foster mom took me to APBA’s vet and we discovered that, in addition to being really skinny, I had a major infection deep in my pelvic bones.

My new x-rays showed that my bones were full of little holes where the infection was eating through them. I started on strong antibiotics (two different ones at the same time!) and stayed on them for four months.

I went to the vet once a month for pain management medication, x-rays to check the progress of my infection, and to check on how well my muscles were building back up. I did actually manage to build up muscle tone and start walking on my leg, but I was always in pain. I never cried or whimpered, but people said they could tell by the look in my eyes. I never really wanted to walk very far, and when I would go to adoption events, I got tired really fast.

Still, I was always nice to everyone, because you never know who your next family might be!

After my infection finally cleared up and I had muscles I could use in my leg, it was discovered that my hock would hyper-extend. The vet said it would always cause me problems, and after all that work, fighting to save my leg, it was decided that the best course of action for my quality of life would be to amputate.

APBA raised the money for my surgery, and my foster mom took me all the way down to Richmond, VA, where my surgery was done at Helping Hands Veterinary Surgery and Dental Care. My foster mom said it was an adventure because I got to go on a long car ride and sleep at a hotel!

Surgery went well, but recovery was hard. My foster mom took a week off of work to stay home with me. She made sure I had enough pain medicine, that my bandages got changed regularly, and that my incision stayed clean. She also made sure I got up and walked around to keep my circulation going.

A few weeks later, I met a nice family who adopted me! There was a mom, a dad, a sister dog, and three kids! I was excited, but also sad, because I really loved my foster mom, but she said from the beginning that I would find a family to adopt me. I moved in with them and tried hard to be the good dog they expected me to be.

I lived with that family for two months, but it just didn’t work out, and they called my foster mom to come get me.

I was so excited to see her! I ran around like a puppy and barked and bounced around, I sat in her lap and gave her lots of kisses! She brought me home, and then she told me that she missed me too, and that she was my real mom now! I was home forever! 🙂

These days my favorite thing to do is volunteer with my Mom and APBA. We go to lots of pet friendly events where I get to meet people and tell my story. My mission is to spread the message that “Not all good dogs are good because of the way they are raised. Many are good despite it” and “it’s much more likely that a pit bull will be harmed by a human than the other way around.”

My hope is that by meeting me, more people will choose to meet and adopt shelter pit bulls, and that they will join me in my mission to make the world a better place for dogs like us.

You can follow me on Facebook at Admiral’s Pit Bull Advocacy and Education.

~ Admiral

Parent: Kristie