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Brian and Alaina already had a full house with four children and a cat, Messi. But their family wasn’t quite complete. They went on the search for a furry companion for Messi, and one that would play with the kids and be active with them. Brian brought Gus home to meet the rest of the family on his lunch break one day in spring 2020, and everyone was incredibly excited to meet the mixed working breed puppy.
Gus was a great fit for their family, and Messi loved having Gus as a companion. The pair quickly started to wrestle and play, and the kids loved playing with Gus, too.
As a puppy, Gus was short and chubby, but as he grew he became much more slender and developed “deer legs”. He was always a sweet dog and a great listener. He became a very active dog who loves to run.
In December of 2020, Gus’s love for running and playing got the best of him. We’ll never know what he was chasing after, but once he dug under the family fence, he did what active dogs do—he ran. Unfortunately, Gus ran into the street and was hit by an unsuspecting car.
His femur was broken badly. He was able to get up and run away from the accident toward home, but he was in a lot of pain. When Gus got home, and the family realized he was hurt, they were heartbroken.
The family rushed him to a pet hospital, and were told that his broken leg would likely need to be amputated. Since Gus was so young and active, this worried the Mundts. They knew he could live a long healthy life with three legs, but they wanted to try to save Gus’s leg. They were referred to other pet hospitals, but found that the surgery would be too expensive for them to afford. Then, they found Mission Animal Hospital.
"Finally we got a referral to Mission Animal Hospital, and they got us in right away because of the severity of the injury. From there they took amazing care of not only Gus but of us, and were able to work with us on payment so it was possible to save Gus's leg."
Dr. Hadley at Mission performed the surgery to repair Gus’s leg. The bone was broken in multiple pieces, making the repair extremely difficult for Dr. Hadley and her team. Dr. Hadley said, “We had to utilize several different types of fixation to reconstruct and stabilize the bone. However, that was only half the battle. Then, the bone had to heal. This was then up to Gus and his family!”
The Mundts were up to the challenge, and after surgery, the family worked hard to help Gus heal well. For nearly two months, they carried him outside and strictly restricted his activity to help protect his repaired leg during the recovery process.
But every week, he improved, and each time they came back to the hospital, the family received good news.
“He healed up amazingly and now lives a full and active life. He loves to run around our huge fenced in yard and play with the kids. He just turned 1 year old and is still an amazing addition to our family," Brian said about Gus's recovery.
"He has brought us closer together and going through that made us realize he's more than just a dog, he's family, and Mission helped us ensure he was treated as such. We are very grateful!"