Hello everyone, my name is Meghan, but the one who needs help the most is my amazing dog Dinah.

Dinah came to us as a broken soul, raised all of her life inside a kennel too small in a puppy mill. For most of her life, Dinah was kept in horrendous conditions, and the only human contact she had was negative and abusive. In September of 2022, she was placed into our home for the broken and abused as a foster. Very quickly, I made it clear that I would never own another husky, loud, opinionated escape artists who will verbally assault you when dinner is delayed by 30 seconds. Dinah is all of the above, but she didn't start like that at first.

When she got here, we knew it would take quite some time to get her to open up and begin to trust us. She immediately clicked with our two dogs, and to be completely honest, they did 90% of the work. The first week, she would bolt the moment either of us moved even a fraction of an inch. By the weekend, she was brave enough to hang out in our bed, but only if we weren't in it. By week 2, she started showing interest, coming up to sniff us, but still, she would bolt if we even thought about petting her. After 4 weeks total, it happened. Dinah walked up to me while I was working on my computer and placed her head on my lap, and let me pet her. It lasted maybe 5 seconds, but that's all it took for me to pull the trigger and add her to our family.

Fast forward to today, and she is thriving. We are still experiencing "firsts" with her, and it always brings me to tears when she lets herself experience the life she deserved prior to our home. Dinah has slowly learned to trust. She loves belly rubs, loves to argue, but her favorite game is tag. Unfortunately, due to the abuse, neglect, extremely poor genetics, and living conditions, we now have to find the money for knee surgery. On August 14th, Dinah started to limp; that evening, she started to cry out anytime she put too much weight on her right back leg. August 15th, I was able to get her seen at Glenwood Pet Hospital, and we determined she has a luxating patella. I'm sure many large breed owners have heard that before, and most of the time, it's pretty easy to manage. The difference is that Dinah's patella is luxating laterally instead of medially, which is the most common luxation. My dog is in pain, yelping when she walks, shut down, and miserable. Seeing her revert to her old demeanor breaks my heart. From active to barely being able to walk from the living room to our room.

Our normal vet will be out helping his wife on maternity leave, so he will have to refer us to someone else for the surgery, so we aren't sure what the price tag will be. Getting her on the road to recovery as fast as possible is our goal. I can't keep watching her deteriorate. So please consider donating. Every $ counts and gets us that much closer to getting her back to being a mouthy, playful, opinionated pain in my butt. I miss our morning talks. Please help me bring my dog back to life again

**Lateral luxating patella in dogs refers to a condition where the kneecap (patella) dislocates towards the outside of the leg, away from the body's midline. This is less common than medial luxation (where it moves towards the inside), and it's often seen in larger and giant breed dogs, though it can occur in smaller breeds as well. **