Winnie B's Knees

Friends of Winnie near and far: Winnie B needs your help! A few days ago, our beloved fluffy pants wearing monster was diagnosed with not one but TWO torn ACLs. After months of having a slight limp progressed into yelping on standing and being picked up and she could no longer climb stairs or jump in the car, we took her to the vet to see what was up.  She now needs surgery definitely on one knee but possibly both.  She is young and strong and is expected to make a full recovery but it is not a cheap proceedure costing up to $6,000... 
We are reaching out to you all today to share her story and give whatever you can to support her so we can have our adventure-loving snuggle pup back at full strength. #winnstagram 


Please share this near and far and help out our little Winnie! 

Any additional funds raised over the cost of the surgery will be donated to a charity of Winnie's choosing. 

For those of you who don't have the pleasure of knowing her personally, Winnibigoshish Helena Barge came into our lives in the fall of 2013 when the Paddle Forward- Mississippi crew was lucky enough to stop at the Quapaw Canoe Company in Helena, Arkansas after a long day of paddling. 
Our crew had been talking about getting a dog for a while ( long  great story that I would happy to tell you if some other time...) and some friends ( Zachary!!) met us at Quawpaw  with an adorable furry friend in tow.  The story goes that Winnie was a stray who had been hanging out with them for the last week. They had put up signs and posted online but she didn't seem to belong to anyone. It took our group about 15 seconds to decide that we would adopt her into our river rat crew, she would go with us down to New Orleans and on the way back up she would either go back with Zachary in Helena or all the way up the Mississippi River to Minneapolis, MN and live with one of us forever. 

She fit right in with our gang, sitting on top of our dry bags in the boats, barking at barges as they slowly motored past, snuggling up in the tents and hogging the sleeping bags. We named our new addition Winnibigoshish Helena Barge. Winnibigoshish for a giant lake on the Mississippi River in northern MN, Helena for her home city, and Barge becasue we all thought that barge was a good, solid name. 


She stayed with us our whole journey down to NOLA, never running away, never barking or biting or stealing our food. Once we thought we lost her, that she had grown tired of us and wandered away to continue her wild pup life. After calling for her for over an hour, the sun was begining to set and we all sadly went back to our tents thinking that our little friend was gone.  Then I unzipped the fly to my tent and there she was, tucked up safe and sound in a sleeping bag waiting expectantly for her snuggle buddies. 

As one of the only people on the trip who grew up with dogs, I was hesitant to take on such a huge responsibility at first. What if she was a bad dog? What if she ate our food? Pooped in our sleeping bags? Gave us fleas? But everyone else was gung-ho so we took her. By the time we reached New Orleans I had firmly decided that I never wanted to be away from this dog ever again.  My team agreed that it was a good decision for me to take her back to Minnesota and all agreed to be Aunts and Uncles to her if ever there was a need. 

Right now Winnie is sleeping next to me in the basement office where we spend a lot of our time when we are not chasing groundhogs or lifeguarding on the pond. She is loved by so many and brings so much joy to so many people, I could not have asked for a better companion.

Unfortunately, she just doesn't have the best  knees!
(They are terrible joints anyway) 

Please share this and help Winnie get her groove back :)