Dakota is a 2 year old Great Pyrenees/Golden Retriever/Chocolate Lab that my son, Tad (12) had picked out from a litter of pups to take home. Dakota has been a part of our FAMILY ever since. 

On Wednesday afternoon (5-14-14), Tad had just gotten home from school to find his dog was not at home but our other dog (Lazer) was. That was odd since the two dogs are inseparable. So Tad headed down the dirt access road, along side of the canal to look for his friend. Only 300 yards from the house, he could hear & see Dakota, sitting halfway down the embankment surrounded by broken cement. Once Tad made it by his side, it was clear that Dakota wouldn't budge. Had he fallen in there and hurt himself? The whimpering sent Tad to the neighbors to get help. A few minutes later, Milan helped Tad get Dakota up out of the embankment and hobbling down the dirt road to the paved street. A few minutes later, my fiance, David Zentner, pulled up and loaded Tad and Dakota and headed for Eastside Animal Clinic. 

It was just after hours and the vet on staff was pregnant so Dakota would have to wait until morning for xrays. However it was pretty clear to her that his leg was fractured. They offered to take him in for the night and keep him comfortable. 

It wasn't until morning that they did the xrays and noticed a puncture wound on the right side of his tail on his buttocks. And when the xrays were up, they saw metal fragments by his broken femur.
Finally... The verdict was in, Dakota had been shot.

Within the first 24 hours, we had planned on taking Dakota to a larger Vet hospital to have his leg plated so we could save the leg. However, Dakota's leg was scheduled to be amputated Monday (5-19-14) morning but they decided to go ahead and do it at the end of the day on Friday (5-16-14) just after we left the clinic. 

The reason we ended up choosing amputation is because he displayed signs of arthritis when he was 6-12 months old, so from a fellow veterinarian & friend, who lives in Crawford, NE. we determined that Dakota will probably develop arthritis again when he's 5 or 6 and could become cripple. Amputation is his best option for survival and being comfortable. 

I called over to the Animal Clinic Saturday morning to check on Dakota's progress. They told me he is doing great and he could go home. Yes!
Only one problem... we got to the clinic and the clinic doesn't currently accept my only method of payment (Care Credit) so they were HOLDING DAKOTA HOSTAGE until they could set it up. They wouldn't even take payments!

Dakota did stay there over the weekend and we got to pick him up on Monday as long as I left my CC there as collateral until they could get it set up. Dakota is home but our bill is now $850 & steadily climbing. We will always have obstacles to overcome with him, along with continuous vet checks to make sure his incision is healing properly, and a close eye on him to be sure there were no vital organs damaged that the x-rays did not detect.

We are asking for donations because I lost my job at the beef packing plant last year and our family is barely making ends meet now...Dakota is FAMILY... we could have put him down, but the vet assured us he could have a long & happy life, missing a leg.