Bailey is a blue merle pomeranian, a rare color, which has just been bred into poms within the last ten years. I got one of the first poms, the son of the “Wizard of Merle” from a breeder here in Pennsylvania. We kept in touch with the breeder, who lived 3 hours away from us. One summer we were going camping near the breeder’s town, so we decided to take Cooper for a visit. She ran something by us before our visit. She said she had a handicapped blue merle pom and wanted to know if we were interested in taking him, for free. She said the mama had trouble birthing him, so she had to pull him out and his legs/spinal cord became damaged. She said he had trouble walking. Well, we went and met him and of course, for dog lovers, who could say no? He was a puff ball on legs, wobbly legs, but adorable as heck, with one brown eye and one blue eye.
We had Cooper, the other blue merle, and two other pomeranians at home, who basically “habilitated” Bailey into working his legs and strengthening them so he could walk and run and jump like almost a normal dog. It’s amazing.
We went through a couple of scary times when he couldn’t lift himself to walk and took him to the vet and then an orthopedic specialist. His spine is disjointed, so the nerves to his legs are not functioning properly, not getting the messages from the brain. It was determined that surgery was too risky. They even sent the xrays to a teaching university to get an expert opinion. The times he couldn’t walk were maybe due to growth spurts?
He can do most everything now except go up or down a regular flight of stairs. He has managed to learn how to go up the five steps to our deck. That was the most amazing thing ever!! That was my surprise upon my return from Mexico one year.
Bailey is a very special dog, and we call him our “Gift from God”. He is very nurturing with the other dogs and cats, often licking them and cleaning them. He is a bed bug, he sleeps between my husband and I. If I should wake up and turn to my left, I see a big ole brown and blue eye looking at me followed by pink tongue kisses all over my face. Bailey loves loves loves to eat and makes a huge fuss and comotion over feeding time. We feed him apart from others because he eats so fast then would go and eat everyone else’s meal!
Bailey is now learning another difficult task…..dealing with a new large and obnoxious puppy…..an Old English Sheepdog that is a little too rambunctious for his liking.
Submitted by Michelle
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Such a beauty!!!