At 4 years old, Miel was surrendered to a local veterinary practice after an accident at home that left her with permanent nerve damage in her rear legs. With the lose of feeling her feet, she began to flip her back paws and walk on the tops of her feet rather than the pads of her paws. This created infectious fissures on her feet. Due to her special needs, she arrived to our Sanctuary in 2018 to receive the specialized care and rehabilitation that she desperately needed to survive. She needed to heal her infections and wear specially adapted boots and braces to help her build muscle in the right areas of her legs to walk properly, despite her losing the feeling of her back feet.
As she’s been healing physically, Miel also has some behavioral insecurities that we’ve found and probably were the reason for the accident. She doesn’t like people coming and going through doors, and being in a busy environment stresses her—this has been identified as PTSD from trauma in her past homes.
Over the years, Miel has incredibly healed from her injuries and now walks, runs, and jumps just like a normal dog! Though she has physically healed, Miel still has a hard time accepting new people or dealing with unexpected things that may occur in the real world. She can be incredibly sweet to her small group of friends, but it can be difficult to be accepted into her circle. Our staff has developed a new way to introduce new people into her life and have also muzzle trained her so she can have fun and stay safe while staff interact with her. She thoroughly enjoys field trips to quiet hiking trails and enrichment activities in the play yards. Miel has a long journey of mental and behavioral healing with us, but we’re so proud of the obstacles she has overcome so far and thankful for our amazing staff and Sanctuary for giving Miel a happy, fulfilling life.
