Unconditional love

Everyone who comes in contact with Bailey instantly loves her.

The collie-Labrador mix likes getting dog treats from the neighbor and she likes when neighborhood kids come by and pet her.

Bailey has received a lot of attention from the moment Eddie and Laura Baker of Seymour got her from the Humane Society of Jackson County five years ago.

But a few weeks before Christmas 2007, she was injured.

One day, when Eddie came home from work, he noticed Bailey wasn't at the front door to greet him, like she usually was. Bailey had been dragging her hindquarters and she wasn't eating. He walked through the house and found her in front of the television.

Eddie took Bailey to Dr. Glenn Pullen at Seymour Animal Hospital for treatment.

"They treated it as a stomach virus," Eddie said. "We came back home and got her in bed. She was moaning and wasn't walking, so we took her back to the clinic. I was in total shock when she couldn't walk."

Pullen said he began seeing some paralysis forming, and he was concerned with how fast it was progressing. She had no feeling in her hind legs.

"I started seeing nerve deficits on the back legs, and that pointed to possible spine trauma," Pullen said.

It was determined to be a ruptured disc. In dogs, Pullen said, when a disc ruptures, it pushes against the spinal cord. The nerve deficits are a result. Treatment can involve anti-inflammatory medication or surgery.

Pullen then made an appointment for Bailey to get treatment at Purdue University, something Eddie never expected.

"That's when they told us she may not walk again," he said.

Bailey went through surgery at Purdue, and the Bakers were contacted during and after surgery.

"They called us every single day, sometimes twice a day, to let us know how she was doing," he said.

Then came the thoughts of, "how are we going to pay for this?"

"It was going to be between $2,500 and $3,500 for the surgery," Laura said. "I loved her, but I didn't know what we were going to do. We sacrificed (other things), but it was perfectly fine with my kids."

They were, however, able to set up a credit program to help them with that. Now that the surgery is done, Bailey is going through physical therapy, consisting of wading in a pool at home whenever necessary. They received instructions for that from Humane Society manager Julie Zickler.

"She gets in that thing and she doesn't sit down," Eddie said of Bailey. "She walks constantly. We just do it whenever we can. It might be a couple hours every other weekend, but it's helped out a lot."

The Bakers still don't know what caused this. Pullen said one possibility is Bailey could have jumped off something and landed a certain way, causing the injury.

When the Bakers took Bailey from the Humane Society, she caught the eye of Laura's son, Brennan Spicer, 15.

"It was his idea and he had it in his mind he was going to have that dog," Laura said. "He was relentless about it."

Spicer said, "It was the way she came up to the cage. She wanted to be with us, and she stood out."

Laura said Bailey was a "perfectly healthy puppy."

"She was happy as can be, and she didn't even act like anything was wrong with her," she said.

Zickler said animals the shelter receives are mostly strays.

"They are all animals, for one reason or another, who have no one anymore," she said. "It's even more important to make sure they are really going into a stable home environment where they are a priority. (The Bakers) actually made their pet a top priority. That is exactly a thing we look for when people come (to the shelter)."

Now that she's been through surgery, the Bakers are glad to see that Bailey is gradually gaining strength.

"It's just a matter of building up those muscles," Eddie said. "She probably never will be 100 percent. But we hope by the end of the summer she will be able to walk better."

Eddie doesn't mind carrying Bailey to take her out, and he hasn't minded doing what he's done for her.

"It was work but it was well worth it," he said. "Don't give up on them. There's always hope, no matter what amount of money it takes."

Laura felt the same.

"We just thought, ‘what would you do if you were in Bailey's shoes?'" she said. "I just thought to never back down. Not everybody could do that. What she's given me in five years, I could never put a price tag on that. It's unconditional love."

The Bakers are also thankful to Pullen and Zickler for what they have done.

"He came in on his day off in his jogging suit and baseball cap," Laura said of Pullen when they first brought Bailey in.

Pullen said it was a case he had been working on, and he just wanted to follow up on it.

"When you deal with spinal trauma, it can regress in a hurry," he said. "The most success in recovery is if you are aggressive fast.

"I commend them for their diligence," Pullen said of the Bakers. "They took it upon themselves to be responsible to this animal. There's this human-animal bond that often gets neglected in this situation. Obviously, she meant a lot to them, and they mean a lot to her and you just see that. She's truly a part of their family. You can just look at her and she's just a happy dog. She seems appreciative of what they did."

The Bakers' other two dogs, a German shepherd chow, Buddy, and pit bull-boxer-Labrador mix, Brindi, came from the Humane Society, too.

Bailey cost $50 at the Humane Society, but, Laura said, "She's worth a lot more than that. A million times more."

Despite all Bailey has gone through, Eddie said, "She's been good as gold. If they had a dog of the year, she'd be it."

How to adopt

Here's how to adopt a pet from the Humane Society of Jackson County:

Written application process (care, upkeep of animal, potential housing situation)

Interview (questions are asked by shelter and customer)

If approved, a $50 fee goes toward spaying or neutering

Before leaving the shelter, the animal is given preliminary shots to ensure they leave healthy

Location

Humane Society of Jackson County

1109 G Ave. West, Freeman Field, Seymour

522-5200

jchumane.org