Ranger is a 5-year-old Rotti/Lab mix living in sunny Sherman Oaks, California. The story of how Ranger became a “tripawd” is a sad one. In December of 2008, his foster mom, Jennifer, received a call from her friend Hannah, who worked for the Sam Simon Foundation.
The Sam Simon Foundation is a wonderful organization run by the co-creator of The Simpsons, Sam Simon. The foundation serves low-income communities by offering free surgeries for pet owners that cannot afford to take their pets to traditional veterinarians.
Hannah had received a call from a man whose dog had been hit by a car about a month prior. The dog’s name was Ranger. Because the man did not have the money to take his dog to the vet after the accident, he allowed the dog to suffer with his injury for four weeks before seeking help. His front left leg had been badly mutilated and was useless. Inevitably, the leg began to die and seep blood and pus from the infection. In a cold-hearted move, the owner stuck Ranger in the back yard to keep him from “getting blood and fluid all over his furniture.” Now Ranger was not only having to withstand the pain of his injury and the difficult task of moving around, but he was separated from his family – knowing Ranger, this must have been the worst part of all. He is one of the most social, loving, loyal dogs one could ever hope to meet. It must have been agonizing for him.
A few weeks after the accident, Ranger began to chew the leg off. At this point, the owner decided it was time to put Ranger down. He took him to the vet where a technician was amazed by Ranger’s loving, upbeat demeanor in the face of such awful neglect and pain. She knew he deserved a second chance. Thankfully, she knew about the Sam Simon foundation. After telling the owner about the program, he contacted Hannah to see if surgery arrangements could be made to amputate the leg. They would take Ranger immediately. The only problem was that the owner lived in Bakersfield, and the Sam Simon mobile surgery center was in Los Angeles. Ranger would need to come back for weekly check-ups for about a month before he could go home. So Hannah called Jennifer. Without a second thought, Jennifer said yes.
The night after the surgery, Jennifer and her boyfriend Adam brought Ranger to their home to recover. Amputations are very painful, so he was given injections of morphine to help calm the pain – but it did little to help. The poor guy was in a stranger’s home, away from his family, and in unimaginable pain. But through it all, his loving demeanor never wavered.
Ranger went in for his weekly appointments and recovered quickly. It was then that his foster mom found out he would be going back to the owner that so badly neglected him. Unfortunately, the Sam Simon foundation only performs surgeries. They do not/cannot pursue cases of neglect and so Ranger was forced to return to Bakersfield. Angry and sad, Jennifer handed him back to his owner with a 30 lb bag of high-quality food (he’d been eating Kibbles & Bits before she took him in), a brand new name tag, collar and leash, and a promise that if Ranger ever needed to leave their home, she would take him in a New York minute. With a heavy heart, she said goodbye and hoped things would be better for him.
Two years later she received an email from Ranger’s owner. Apparently he’d been trying to find a new home for him, in and out of various family member’s and friends homes, no one really wanting him. The owner was ready to take him to the shelter – but figured he would contact Jennifer first. She told him to bring Ranger down the next day… he would have a place to stay with her.
Unfortunately, Jennifer has a soft spot for handicapped animals. One of Ranger’s foster brothers, Falkor, is deaf & blind (genetic, from birth), and the other one is a puppy mill rescue with severe emotional/behavioral problems. Being a college student on a limited budget, keeping Ranger wouldn’t be fair to him or his foster brothers – so he’s up for adoption to a home that can appreciate and deserves to have such a magnificent animal companion in their lives.
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