FOSTER DOG’S SECOND CHANCE
Family of police detective who lost leg in motorcycle crash adopts 9-year-old Shih Tzu with prosthetic hind legs
Not all dogs get a second chance at a loving home. But when Chloe, a Shih Tzu, landed at a local shelter with leg injuries so serious that they had to be amputated, her caretakers had just the right family in mind to foster her.
Now, after a month in their care, Chloe has been officially adopted by San Diego police Detective James “Chappie” Hunter and his family. Hunter made headlines in 2013 when he was injured in a motorcycle crash in Alpine and lost a leg. Later, he was fitted for a prosthetic.
“Obviously Chloe’s circumstances are the same as my circumstances, so there’s definitely a connection there, but other than that, it’s just a matter of being a family member,” Hunter said Thursday at a morning press event held at the San Diego Humane Society.
Chloe, 9, is the latest addition to the Hunter household, where the family has another dog — Lincoln — a mutt from a rescue shelter in Mexico. The two pups have been enjoying each other’s company so far.
“(Lincoln is) doing really well with her,” Hunter said. “In fact, Chloe keeps him in check when he decides he wants to be a little rambunctious.”
San Diego police Officer Serena Boney met Chloe in March while responding to a call from the Humane Society that an owner could no longer care for the Shih Tzu and another dog, Roxy, a chihuahua. The owner had bandaged the two dogs’ hind legs to prevent licking and scratching but had done it so tightly that they both lost circulation in those limbs. By the time the owner took the dogs to a veterinarian, it was too late to save their legs.
Boney helped transfer ownership of the dogs to the Humane Society so that they could receive proper care for their injuries. Chloe’s and Roxy’s prosthetic fittings were the first time the San Diego Humane Society performed the procedures.
“We were very worried about their condition when they first came in because they were a little lethargic but they improved with time dramatically,” Boney said.
The dogs’ caretakers at the Hu
mane Society hoped the two could be fostered during their recovery period and while waiting to be adopted. Susan Garity, Chloe’s veterinarian at the Humane Society, remembers the moment they realized Chloe’s second chance could be right around the corner.
“I fostered her for a weekend away just to get her out of the treatment area and I was with another one of our humane law officers, and she’s like, ‘You know, I think I might know the perfect family to foster her,’” Garity said.
At first, the Hunter family’s plan was to take care of Chloe just while she was recovering from her surgeries and adjusting to her new prosthetic legs. The Hunters had rescued dogs before but this was their first time fostering, and they didn’t know how much care she would require.
It wasn’t long before Chloe was one of the family.
“She is resilient and awesome with her legs. She goes great, she gets along with the family and now she has basically adopted us,” Hunter said.
His wife, Arlene Hunter, said she knew from the beginning that fostering the dog could only end one way. She said she warned her husband it would be difficult to give up the dog after they had cared for her. His response: “Well, we’ll see.”
“Then just a couple days (later) she jumped on the
couch, and we’re like ‘Wow, this dog is a fighter,’” Arlene Hunter said. “She fits right into the family.”
Gavin Hunter, the couple’s 13-year-old son, said Chloe is “really sweet, really timid and loves to be around people.”
Eight years ago, Chappie Hunter lost his left leg below the knee and suffered a badly injured left arm after a collision with a student driver on Alpine Boulevard. He was off duty at the time, riding home on his motorcycle about 7 p.m. when a teenage girl driving with a learner’s permit made a left turn in front of him.
Bystanders rushed to help him immediately after the crash. He was airlifted to a hospital.
Hunter was a 19-year veteran of the force when the crash happened, and he vowed within days to make a recovery that would allow him to return to his work helping sex crime victims.
At the Thursday event with the Hunter family, Humane Society staff and San Diego police officers, Chloe darted around a courtyard, barely slowed by her prosthetic legs and always dashing back to her new family.
As for Roxy, the other dog with new prosthetics, arthritis in her spine and old age have made her recovery take longer. The Humane Society hopes that after another month in her foster home, Roxy will be ready for adoption.