Help USAR K9 Venus on her Road to Recov

One of our OK-TF1 Search and Rescue dogs, Venus, was injured during hurricane Ida's deployment.

After returning home, she began to show signs of an injury to her left hind leg. Venus was flown to the University of Tennessee to see Dr. Millis who is one of the best canine orthopedic surgeons in the country. He found she had a torn cruciate with no meniscal tear that could be repaired by performing a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO). Venus underwent surgery on Oct. 5. The procedure went well and she did great. She will be staying at the hospital until Oct 15th to begin rehabbing her knee. Once Venus gets home she will continue to rehab the knee for at least six months. She has a long road ahead of her, but we are hopeful she will make a full recovery and get back to work with her handler.

Our handlers and their dogs work and train tirelessly to be ready to serve our community in the event of a disaster. However, the handlers get no monetary reimbursement for any veterinary expenses that are incurred by the canines. OK-TF1 graciously covered the cost of the down payment for Venus's surgery. However, a balance of $3,400 still remains. Our goal is to ease the financial burden on the handler as much as possible. We greatly appreciate any amount donated!