The best Christmas gift of all

There was so much response to the story we wrote after losing our Dachshund T.S., we thought we would write the rest of the story.

As we took T.S. to the animal clinic here in Mexico, one of the volunteers mentioned the name of a rescue dog named Scooter who had come to the clinic a month ago.

It was a Scottish Terrier mix with hair so thick and matted it could not see out of one eye.

Something had happened to its back as a pup and the dog was dragging his hind legs behind him as he moved across the floor.

There was talk of putting him down, but one of the volunteers who specialized in dog physical therapy thought he could be restored to health.

The dog weighed about twenty five pounds when he was brought to the clinic. After the volunteers clipped seven pounds of hair off him, he could see perfectly out of both eyes.

His recovery was another thing. He was given all his shots and put on a proper diet of good dog food.

Then the physical therapist took him home with her so she could work with him on a daily basis.

She already owned two dogs of her own, so Scooter became one of the family. He watched the other dogs and must have realized that he could walk on all four legs if he tried. And he did try, falling back on the ground frequently at first.

As the strength built up in his back legs, he started to walk on all fours for longer distances, trying to keep up with the other dogs.

Dana, the physical therapist, kept taking him for longer walks and when he went back to scooting, she would gently raise him by the tail and he would try to walk on all fours a little further.

Within a week there was a noticeable difference. The dog knew it was loved and being cared for. Even the other dogs seemed to accept him as one of there own.

After three weeks the improvement was amazing and Scooter could now stand on all fours for most of the day. The only time he went back to dragging his hind legs was when he went up steps or would do a wind mill with his ears.

He became a poster dog for the animal clinic.

That was about the same time we lost our Dachshund T.S. Kathy, my wife, insisted she did not want another dog, it was just too painful. I said I wanted a dog but the next dog we would have would be a rescue dog.

The subject was dropped, but never in my mind. Meanwhile I was kept aware of the progress of Scooter.

One day, there was an art show in town and the animal clinic had a booth selling glasses of wine to benefit the clinic. There was Dana serving the wine and talking about the clinic.

We had never met before, but she was aware that I had shown an interest in Scooter but had never seen him.

“Would you like to see him?” she asked as we talked at the wine booth.

“Yes, we would like to see him,” I said while Kathy was shaking her head.

“I live about a quarter of a mile from here,” said Dana. “My husband is home with the dog right now.

Dana couldn’t leave the booth but she directed us to her house and we walked the quarter mile.

Her husband Tom, answered the door and we got our first look at Scooter. He was just as we had been told, only now he was moving even better and he was friendly as can be.

There was a brief moment when Kathy and Scooter got together and I thought it might be too soon to bring another dog into her life, but then she softened and picked up Scooter and it was love at first sight.

We now have him home with us and there could have been no better present for this Christmas season.