Hi, my name is Emma and this is my beautiful, crazy family. I am blessed to own two Italian Spinoni who are just as part of my family as my two boys.

Juno (affectionately known by my boys as Plonker), the brown roan is 4 years old. She was born with a deformed paw, her right hind leg has only half the paw. At first this caused her no problem at all and you wouldn’t have noticed. Sadly she developed arthritis in the paw and over the last couple of years we have struggled to get on top of the pain due to her reacting to some painkillers. However, despite being in pain, Juno is the most laid back and affectionate dog (if you are also lucky enough to be owned by a Spinone you will know this isn’t unusual) you will ever meet. She loves cuddles, tearing around the garden on 3 legs and offers her paw to anyone we meet. She has no concept of personal space so expect a regular nose boop and your arm will be pulled forcefully into the tummy tickling position .

We have unfortunately reached the end of the road for pain and infection management and now the only fair thing to do is to operate. I have sought expert advice and there are only two options left, she must have the whole leg amputated or have pioneering limb salvage surgery where a prosthetic titanium peg is meshed to her ankle bone, and then an artificial paw is fitted to this. She has had CT scans yesterday which have confirmed that her ankle bone and the rest of her leg is good and she has every chance of this being successful.

Due to her young age I am desperate for her to keep her leg if at all possible and so am trying to get the money together for her to have this amazing surgery. I wasn’t go to fundraise but the fact is I will be remortgaging our home to make this happen.

The limb saving surgery is going to cost approximately £16,000. She can have the surgery in 4-6 weeks time but the clinic is 145 miles away from where we live so there are cost implications to the regular trips that we will need to make. She will require new ‘paws’ on a fairly regular basis too. If you are a Spinone lover who might be in a position to donate a little towards Juno’s op and aftercare myself and my family would be hugely grateful.

Love from Emma, Jonah, Rupie, Luna and Juno x