We bipeds have nothing on Dexter, a seven-year-old Brittany Spaniel, who turns heads everywhere he goes in Ouray, Colorado.
Having lost his right foreleg and much use of his left after being hit by a car as a puppy, Dexter taught himself how to walk on his hind legs.
Everyone, including Dexter’s human, Kentee Pasek, assumed Dexter would always need adaptive equipment to ambulate. He did use a wheelchair at first — until Pasek was thunderstruck by Dexter’s moves.
One morning, Pasek set Dexter at the foot of the stairs leading up to her porch. At the time, he was not hitched to his wheelchair. Pasek ran into her house for coffee and returned to find that Dexter had climbed the stairs to lounge on the porch.
“I was like, ‘How is this going on?’,” Pasek told CBS News. Astonished, she placed Dexter back down the stairs, grabbed her phone and recorded the miracle Dexter was happy to repeat.
In the six years since, Dexter has achieved celebrity status: leading parades, building an enviable social media platform, and inspiring humans.
Each month, Dexter receives hundreds of literary and artistic tributes. One letter from a woman enduring intensive radiation treatments for breast cancer told Dexter, “You certainly bring joy to my day.”
“Dexter [asks] us, ‘Why aren’t you out there doing the things you want to do?’ Because he has,” Pasek said.
Other animals getting by on half as many paws as they were born with have wowed their humans with courage and persistence in adapting to their new normal.
Incredibly, Joey, a collie-mix, had both rear legs intentionally severed when he was six weeks old. Having endured several surgeries and rehab, Joey was primed to road test his new, rear-wheel prosthetic. Joey’s adoptive humans, Tanya and Charlie Diable, relished their baby’s newfound zoomies. They have since made it their mission to outfit as many special needs animals as possible with life-giving prosthetics, especially those in shelters who might go unadopted — and worse. The non-profit Joey’s Paw has nurtured the innate adaptability of more than 1,000 animals, gifting them a priceless quality of life.
Less severe accidents or more localized disease processes may cost pets a single limb. Cancers, shattered bones and irreparable nerve damage can warrant amputation: a humane alternative to multiple, complex surgeries with painful recoveries and uncertain results. But being a living, breathing tripod rarely keeps a dog or cat down.
Dr. Sharon Kerwin, veterinarian orthopedic surgeon at Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, lauds pets for coping with lost limbs.
“Amputations do not seem to slow animals down or even bother them too much,” Kerwin wrote on A&M’s website. “Most animals will tolerate an amputation extremely well and have a really good quality of life afterwards.” Such was the case with Kerwin’s three-legged cat who could still leap tall counters with a single bound, dart about and “get into all kinds of mischief.”
Next time life knocks me down, I’ll remember dextrous Dexter, jovial Joey and Kerwin’s cat who schooled me on how to stand a bit taller than I thought I could.