Please read Sydney's remarkable story...........

and wonder why we are soooo thrilled with this HUGE breed win at the Supported Entry at Somerset Hills KC.

 Sydney was attacked by a wild bobcat on the morning of Dec. 15, 2007 ( 3 days after her 2nd birthday!). The bobcat came over the 8 ft tall chain link fence that surrounds the dog's play yard and found Syd, biting her clear down to the bone on her front left leg several times, piercing a major artery. When I found her, she was covered in blood and barely awake.

When we arrived at the vet, she was in shock and it took 3 vets, 2 techs and myself nearly an hour to stabilize her enough so that she could go into surgery. It was a miracle that she pulled thru! She had an incision from the top of the leg all the way to her toes. After two days in the hospital, I took her home to recover. We had to make daily trips to the vet's to have the dressings changed and the incision checked. All was going well until Dec. 21 when Syd had to undergo a second surgery due to a bacterial infection.

Dec 24, Christmas Eve, the vet told me that she would probably loose the leg because the infection was not responding to the interventions. We would give her 4 days to see how things progressed but it did not look encouraging. Dec. 28 my vet said that the infection was not responding despite all of our efforts and thought that we should take the leg to save Sydney's life. I decided to take Syd to Tufts University Vet school to have an orthopedic consult, all the while thinking that she would be three legged by the time the new year began but at least she would be alive.

On Dec 29, the doctors at Tufts said that she had a 1 in a thousand chance of beating the infection but they were willing to give it a try. We went home and I ran IV's and flushed the wound every few hours until Dec. 31 when we went back to Tufts. Two of the vets there thought that it was time to take the leg. The chief orthopedic vet thought that there was still a chance as Syd was strong and gave us another two days.

On Jan 3, Syd and I made the 3 hour trip back to Tufts and they found that the infection had cleared! She would keep her leg but more than likely had suffered permanent nerve damage and would limp for the rest of her life. Well, Sydney proved them all wrong. Three weeks into the new year, she had her final stitches removed and took her first steps. Then she took her first zoom around the yard- no limp!! Of course, she was completely bald on her leg and on half of her chest, but she was fine and healthy again. I thought her show days would be pretty much over, but she proved me wrong as well!

She returned to the ring Labor Day weekend, taking BOS first day out. The following week she made it to the final BOB cut at the Sept. 4 Non Sporting Group of New Jersey TTCA Regional Specialty. Then, Saturday, Sept 6 at the Somerset Hills KC show she went BOB in the supported entry over the top ranked TT's in the country! Sydney really knows how to make a comeback! She is a true miracle girl!