Ricky

Ricky can only be described as 'beautiful', both in looks and personality! He has a longish body so size wise is towards the medium end of small. This beautiful boy came into care very very thin but is gaining weight well. Ricky has a rough low shedding coat that only requires a weekly brush to stay in peak condition. To say he loves playing ball is an understatement as he adores it! He will often carry his ball around in his mouth and drop it at your feet ready for you to throw for him again and again. Ricky is a very quiet, easy going boy who is as happy to run and play as he is to curl up in a ball and have a snooze. He is good at walking on a lead, very social with other dogs of all sizes and good with kids of all ages too. We suspect this lovely sweet boy hasn't had the pats and attention he deserves until now so it's important that his new family are very gentle and affectionate towards him. Ricky is not keen on being left alone so ideally his owners would work part time or from home.
UPDATE 5 JANUARY: This absolutely stunning boy came from a western NSW country Pound and we don't know how he ended up there but the phone call came in that he was in desperate need of rescuing. Ricky is the sweetest and gentlest boy, incredibly calm and so soft that it's hard to believe that he ended up on death row. Ricky came into foster care in really good spirits but was not weight bearing on one of his hind legs. After x-rays he was found to have what's called 'Legg-Perthes' disease which is defined as the spontaneous degeneration of the head and neck of the femur leading to collapse of the hip joint and, ultimately, to osteoarthritis. The femur is the long thigh bone that forms part of the knee joint at one end and part of the hip joint at the other. With Legg-Perthes disease, the head (or ball) of the femur which normally fits snugly into the pelvic socket suddenly starts to disintegrate, ultimately leading to painful and progressive death of the cells in that part of the femur bone. Ricky will now need a surgical procedure to fix his hip and relieve his discomfort. The operation is called a femoral head and neck ostectomy (FHO), also sometimes called a femoral head and neck excision (FHNE). This involves surgically removing the head and usually the neck of the long upper thigh bone (the femur) that, together with the pelvis and surrounding cartilage, forms the hip joint. The procedure basically allows a "false joint" to form from fibrous tissue, granulation tissue and other scar tissues that fill in and replace the removed ball-and-socket joint of the affected dog's hip. The operation has over a 90% success rate and, after a few weeks of rest, Ricky will be up and around and be a happy, healthy boy again. Surgery like this has to be done by a specialist and Dr Eugene Buffa, a reconstruction specialist, will operate on Ricky. Surgery like this costs close to $3000 and any assistance you can give towards his vet bills would be greatly appreciated. Ricky will be scheduled for surgery soon and we will advise updates along the way.