Kisha in Kansas finds her forever home!

Written by Kisha's "foster flunkie mom"



Kisha came to us the end of August. She was rescued from the animal shelter here, where she had been turned in by her owners because she was lacking her two back paws and most of her tail. This was not a birth defect; her mother had chewed off her paws and tail when she was a puppy. I can only assume the mother was starving or she wouldn’t have willingly chewed on her own puppy. We agreed to take Kisha in as a foster. It didn’t take long for us to realize that the lack of back paws in no way slowed this Cairn down. She loves to run and chase her ball when thrown, although to this day she still doesn’t quite get the concept of bringing it back to you to throw again. She has her color preference for balls (really likes the pink ones), but will chase and play with any color. She goes on walks on a leash without any problem, although when she decides she has gone far enough, she stops and waits for you to turn around and go back.

The stairs going outside remains a challenge, although if we are outside and she is inside, she will go down the steps (2) to get to the landing so we can see her and come to let her out with us. She knows that if she waits long enough, hubby or I will lift her down the two steps to her freedom. Going up the stairs doesn’t seem to be a problem and she runs up them happily. She has gotten into chasing the birds that flock to our backyard – can’t wait to see what will happen this summer with all the rabbits that flock to the garden. Resident dog is in charge of keeping all squirrel up and out of reach, but that’s okay because Kisha really prefers to follow the flight pattern of the birds. She greets any strangers (and even non-strangers) with a couple barks, but will quit when told "no bark". Winter was tough on all of us. Kisha didn’t like the cold on her lacking paws and would refuse to go outside until we cleared the snow to the grass for her. Then, she would complete her duties and be ready to go back in. I have looked for little snow boots to protect her back paws, but wasn’t able to find any in our area (rural Kansas). She has been a joy to have in the household and has bonded especially well with foster dad as they go everyplace together. After six months with Kisha, we decided that Kisha was already in her forever home and adopted her.