She bounced through the grass with a slight grin on her face. The 9-year-old Shih Tzu named Chloe clearly found her happy place.
“She’s a little bit older but she still runs around like a puppy. She still has fun,” said Chappie Hunter as he watched the small black and white dog bounce around.
The dog’s joy was surprising considering four months ago, the San Diego Human Society had to amputate Chloe’s back legs after her previous owner wrapped bandages around them so tightly, it cut off her blood flow. Chloe was given new pink prosthetics after the surgery.
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“We saw that she could instantly take off on the prosthetics. She was running around, and she was having fun,” said Hunter. “She was happy, and it made us happy.”
Hunter and his family were asked to foster Chloe until she found a permanent home. It didn’t take long.
“If you ask my wife it was almost instantly,” smiled Hunter.
His family completed the paperwork to adopt Chloe as their own.
“I was more concerned of, ‘How is she going to accept these prosthetics?’ because I knew that it was a difficult process,” said Hunter, who lost his left leg when a car hit him while he was riding a motorcycle in 2013.
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“I’m sympathetic to the fact that she is a basically a survivor herself,” he said.
Hunter is a detective with the San Diego Police Department. Since his accident, he’s returned to active duty, competed in numerous Challenged Athletes Foundation events, and opened his own gym. Similarly, Chloe returned to be a happy dog shortly after her surgery.
“I have not seen anything but resilience from that dog,” beamed Hunter. “There is no reason why you cannot adapt and overcome anything.”
