Puppy travels to town looking for a walk

DENVER – A little more than a year ago, Boomer, a black Labrador mix was born. Since then, all the little dog has known is pain. He suffered a severely mangled front paw early in his life.

“Looking at Boomer, we knew we had to save him,” said Kim Accurso, founder of the Furry Kids’ Refuge, an animal rescue organization based near Kansas City, Missouri. “He was scheduled to be euthanized.”

His deformed front, left leg prevents him from walking very well, and just months into his life, Boomer was abandoned.

Accurso held fundraisers to bring Boomer more than 600 miles from Kansas City to Denver to see Dr. Robert Taylor at the Alameda East Veterinary Center.

“The problem now is that one of his back legs has started to break down,” said Taylor.

He says the uneven weight distribution is causing the little puppy pain across his whole body. However, Taylor can perform a revolutionary procedure to implant an artificial limb directly into Boomer’s bone.

“What’s so unique about this, it becomes a part of his body,” Taylor said. “We have this cuff of this special metal and we wrap the skin around that, so that literally grows into that metal.”

On Wednesday, Boomer had detailed scans of his bones done so the artificial limb can be created for implantation in about two or three months. Nearly all the work done by Taylor and his staff for the scanning, surgery and fitting of the prosthesis is being volunteered.

“He’s just one of those little, what I call waif dogs, that touch my heart and we want to do everything we possibly can to help him,” Taylor said.

“To be able to do this for an animal, for a rescue animal, just is amazing,” Accurso said. “Just blows me away, the kindness that comes out in people in the rescue field.”

Boomer will be only the sixth dog in the world to undergo this procedure. If all goes well, he should be able to run around, dig holes and chase balls like every other dog.

“To see him be able to go through this and become a normal functioning dog and do the things that dogs do is what it’s all about,” Accurso said.