updates-building-a-handicap-ramp-for-jabb

Sorry for the delay in these updates, all of these pics are from shorty after the amputation. Jabba has a nice big back yard but to get to it he needs to go down a few steps. He was fine going down even the day after the amputation, and made it back up once or twice, but also fell and opened his wound a little so we decided to build him a ramp, mostly done by skilled laborer grandpa. When the beautiful ramp was finished, Jabba took one look then ran as fast as he could back inside. He would not go near it! Luckily we were able to train him, using firm parenting and brute force (picking him up and putting him on the ramp over and over and over again). Now days, 2 months later Jabba handles stairs with ease but still likes to use the ramp.
One of Jabba's grandparents, Richard Taylor of Chapel Hill North Carolina, helps build him ramp to help with the stairs on the back porch.
Jabba goes down his new ramp. How posh!

Hello world!

Jabba-Bear is a 2 year old German Shepard/Border Collie mix. He was recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his left rear “ankle” via x-ray and biopsy, and had the leg removed on January 21st, 2011. The next day he was already running and acting like his regular very happy self.

This blog will chronicle his path from amputation to standard chemotherapy and enrollment in a clinical trial using metronomic therapy at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

We (his parents) are Ph.D. students at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, NC. Luckily his mom’s parents live in Raleigh allowing us easy access to NCSU.

Hopefully many pictures to follow!