Finnegan: Fall if you but will, rise you must

Remember Finnegan the injured lab found in NC? 

Finnegan was found lying in a rural pasture in North Carolina by Clifford’s Army Rescue Extravaganza (C.A.R.E). volunteer Nancy C.  Without any knowledge of how long he’d been there, it was clear he was starving and suffering severe injuries.  Despite obvious discomfort, Finnegan never once showed any aggression. This gentle boy just looked up at Nancy with his big black eyes begging for help.  It looked like he had been hit by a car and had something wrong with his pelvis.  Nancy knew that if she didn’t bring him to the vet right away, he wouldn’t live through the impending snowstorm that came just hours later. Nancy paid for his initial vetting and x-rays to find out what was wrong with him in hopes he could be saved. Volunteer Deb H tried to find his family before he inevitability ended up in the shelter and Jan T stepped up to foster him locally in NC until rescue was found. 

After seeing this beautiful dog and hearing his story, City Dogs Rescue felt compelled to step in and help.  We closely work with the local gassing shelter Cleveland County Animal Control in North Carolina and know what commonly happens to injured new intakes to the shelter.  There’s no money or care available to help them so many injured animals are often euthanized on arrival to many shelters.  We shared his photo in hopes of finding a foster and raising funds.  Several of our loyal followers offered to help by donating and we received a solid foster offer from Sarah and Josh who recently adopted another black lab from CDR named Wrangler.  We sent all of his medical information to our vet partners to determine his prognosis.  It became clear that Finnegan was in great pain that would require pelvic surgery and amputation of his leg.  Sarah and Josh committed to doing whatever they could when he came to Washington, DC so we could get him healthy.  

After Finnegan went to a local specialist here, we were surprised to hear that he had shown amazing resilience. With just two physical therapy sessions, Finnegan’s range of motion has improved dramatically.  The specialist was pleased to share with us that Finnegan demonstrated that he could possibly regain the normal use of his pelvis and keep his leg with physical therapy alone! The roller coaster of emotions has had many of us reeling, so we were in tears of pure joy when Sarah sent us the video of him walking on all four legs and using the stairs.

Yet again, we are truly astonished that a dog with such a dismal fate can make such a huge turnaround to a possible full recovery. Finnegan enjoyed the recent DC snowstorm and is even enjoying playing fetch in the yard.

“[Fall] if you but will, rise you must“

“[Fall] if you but will, rise you must” is a quote from Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce meaning if you fall, you must rise.“