"Happy"

"Happy" is one of our rescues.

He is a Male (Neutered) Maltese Puppy, who was born on 8/25/08.

Happy only has 3 feet.

He is missing his right rear foot.

Maltese puppies are tiny and covered with slime at birth. It's mom's job to clean them up and to chew off the umbilicus. It appears that Happy's mom was inexperienced & overzealous and got confused, chewing off his right rear foot too.

The injury is completely healed and not visible, unless we point it out to you. Actually, the rescue folks who neutered and transported him didn't notice it. We only noticed it when we were grooming him.

He plays, walks, and runs fine.

He is happy (hence, the name) and enthusiastic, and does not appear to have any idea that he is "different" than the other puppies.

Don't you just love dogs? He doesn't judge himself like people do. We're often comparing ourselves to other people, labeling ourselves as "luckier, unluckier, fatter, skinnier, richer, poorer, better off, or worse off". We get hung up on the bum deal that we got in life, determining our value based on who we're comparing ourselves to.

Let's not do that any more. It doesn't help anybody.

Let's just be like "Happy", dealing with what we are given and making the best of it every day.

Let's just be HAPPY!