I had helped Mariam to find homes for several of her rescue dogs. Then there was Mateo… 6 months old and hit by car twice on the streets. He was left to die… Nobody helped him until Mariam heard about him and started searching for him with her friend. The found him him in bad shape; 2 severely injured front legs and wounds allover his body… One of his legs already started to turn black and die… Mariam and her friend took him to the vet and his left front leg had to be amputated. He went into a foster home and turned out to be the most kind, happy and thankful dog ever!

 

Mariam showed him to me and asked me to please find a home for him because it would be soooo hard to find an adopter… I posted him for over 6 months but there was no response from anyone… 🙁 Because I always adopt dogs with special needs (blind, deaf, sick, old) I started thinking about adopting him myself but with already 5 dogs with special needs in the house I couldn’t at that point… 

 

Then suddenly 3 of my own dogs passed away within 6 months; 1 of ALS, 1 of lung cancer and one of kidney failure (all seniors too). So my husband and I started thinking and talking about adopting another dog in need. And we chose Mateo! And Mateo became Matti (which means best friend in slang Dutch). Best choice ever!! He is soooooo happy and thankful and lives his life to the max!! He’s very very social and loves running and playing! He has no problems at all with walking on 3 legs! 

 

Because his healthy front paw may become overloaded in the future, we went to an orthopedist who made a prothesis for him. We had to practice a lot with Matti to get him to trust to use his stump again but Matti did soooo well!!! And now he can walk with the prothesis when needed. He’s about 3 years old now and an amaaaaazing part of our family! ❤️’