Peanut's Story

Many of you have already met Peanut either through Facebook or in real-life at the Village. For those of you who haven't, Peanut is a gorgeous two-and-a-half-year-old yellow lab mix who was brought to the Little Rock Animal Village in December of 2014. We were told that the folks who brought him had been letting him "hang around" for a couple months after he had been hit by a car on the road in front of their house. This backstory came to us third- or fourth-hand, so we're not sure how accurate it actually was by the time we heard it. One thing was certain, though: Peanut was injured, and the injury didn't seem to be a recent one. Another certainty? This dog was absolutely adorable and very sweet. He quickly became a volunteer favorite at the Village.

As it turns out, Peanut's hip was dislocated. It didn't seem to bother him, and he compensated for it well as dogs tend to do, not letting it slow him down one bit. However, it was obvious to anyone meting him for the first time that there was something wrong with his leg, which probably turned potential adopters away even though it didn't have much affect on him. After several weeks, he was still at the Village. At that point we, Friends of the Animal Village, offered to pay for surgery to fix his leg, and our treasurer offered to foster Peanut.

He's been in his foster home for a few weeks now and his foster mom says he's making good progress on learning how to be a house dog with good manners, something we don't believe anyone had ever tried to teach him. She reports that he learned "sit" very quickly, and even learned that he had to sit before he could have his medicine. When the pill pockets come out, he'll be sitting in front of you as fast as he can get there.

He's also had the opportunity at his foster home to "stretch his legs" as they say, more than he could at the Village, and boy has he made full use of that! We mean it when we say that the injury didn't seem to affect him much. He can zoom and zig & zag like any other dog, and he loves being able to run and play in a backyard whenever mom is home.

The surgery that was done on Thursday will not make his leg like new again. He had been like that for too long for completely fixing it to be a viable option. What this will do is give him more use of it, and alleviate any pain he may have been experiencing.

Peanut was up and walking by 7:00 AM the next morning. He surprised his foster mom by hopping right up in the truck when she came to pick him back up the next day, then proceeded to stand almost the whole way home! On their way, they stopped at Walgreens to pick up a prescription Dr. Brian had called in for Peanut. After about ten minutes it was finally discovered that they couldn't find the prescription because it had been put under the "Peanut 'the dog' Robb" in their system from New Jersey! Peanut's foster mom is Betsy Robb, our treasurer, and couldn't believe that there was another Peanut Robb, who had filled a prescription at Walgreens, in New Jersey! They got the prescription and headed home, where Peanut will spend the next several weeks recovering.

Peanut has to stay very still for the next two weeks, something that won't be easy for this high-energy lab. Then he'll start physical therapy. We've been told that exercising in a pool would be very helpful. If you know of a place in central Arkansas that does hydrotherapy for animals, let us know!! Peanut is available for adoption. If you're interested, contact us via email. His Pet ID# is 33325.