In the month and a half since his arrival, Wiggles the dog has 'wiggled' his way into the hearts of staff members at the North Bay and District Humane Society.
"I named him Wiggles because when you talk to him, he wiggles from about the ears back. Everything wiggles on this dog and he smiles at you too. He's just a happy, happy dog," laughed Jen Hughes, Shelter Coordinator. "He's about three or four years old. We're calling him a Dane-Lab cross, could be a little bit of Mastiff in there. It is really hard to say. He's just a good old Heinz 57."
Wiggles was brought to the Humane Society as a stray, suffering from an obvious injury to his right hind leg.
"We did x-rays on him and discovered that his cruciate ligament in his knee had been ruptured. It basically stabilizes the femur and the tibia together, so it is in between and it holds that knee together," explained Hughes. "So he didn't have a stable leg to walk on and it was causing him some pain with the bones rubbing together, and it was slowing him down for sure."
The Humane Society opted to surgically repair the leg, rather than have it amputated. The society reached out to the public for donations to help cover the cost of the surgery, and post-operative care, estimated to be around $3,000.
"We looked at the options and we managed to find someone to do it for us and that's why we reached out to the public to help out with that. There were no local vets that specialize in this surgery. I called in a favour and one of the orthopedic vets I knew in Southern Ontario, agreed to do the surgery for us at his clinic. That's what we do, we network throughout Ontario to help get these guys home. It was a collaborative effort."
The surgery was a success, and so was the fundraiser. Within four days, donations exceeded the fundraising goal by $900.
"The $3,000 was used to cover travel costs, the surgery itself and post-op care which includes additional x-rays. He was on medication for quite awhile, and day to day expenses were factored in because he was going to be here longer than normal. Any funds that are not going directly to Wiggles care right now, are being earmarked for another dog that could possibly come in with something like this in the future, so it's set aside for this particular purpose. It's called the Wiggles Fund."
Wiggles still has a couple of weeks of recovery time ahead of him.
"He's not able to run free yet but he is doing really well, so he still needs to be reeled in, on a leash when he goes outside, and controlled walks. He's raring to go but he doesn't understand that he's got a knee that still needs to heal," said Hughes. " Once everything is healed up nicely, then he will be cleared to resume normal activity after that."
He is doing well enough to be put up for adoption.
Hughes says the dog would thrive in an active family.
"People would need to be aware that he could re-injure that leg. The cruciate ligament in the other leg could possibly go as well. So just someone that has some knowledge about this possibility. They need to be aware of how he's running, don't let him go too crazy but at the same time, he's a very active guy, he likes to play, go swimming, he was great in the car. He's just an all around good guy."
Wiggles officially becomes available for adoption today.
"We are going to change the adoption process a little bit with him just because we do want people to be aware that he has this leg that still needs to recover, so we're going to go through a little bit more of a screening process. We've worked so hard to get his leg fixed, we want to make sure it stays that way. We're going to put a notice up on our website and our Facebook page and there is going to be instructions on how to adopt him from there."
Wiggles and his new family will go through the 30 day 'foster to adopt' program. Once the adoption is finalized, the society plans to throw an adoption party for Wiggles and a thank you to the public for its support.
