Sierra is a 3 speed Rattie with Overdrive

1956 Dodge Sierra

My husband mechanically restores vintage Chevrolet cars and trucks, mainly 40's and 50's but he also has worked on as early as the teens and also some 60's muscle cars. What does that have to do with Sierra you ask? Well nothing really, except that I am using some auto terminology that I think fits Sierra to a Tee.

Sierra has finished her last swim therapy session and she has been getting more and more use out of her post surgical leg as she builds muscle and confidence that it in deed actually works! I can't say enough about the time she spent with J Linn at SplashDog. This was so beneficial to her as just us trying to only do stretching with her, which she didn't like, we weren't really getting the desired rehab. Sierra needed to not just stretch but to actually use the leg in a circumstance, like swimming, where she didn't really have much choice and this also was key in building her muscles too.

She is just so conditioned from over a year of having pain in the leg and compensating for that by not using it that to walk on all four paws is not her default method. But what I want everyone to know is that this is not a hindrance whatsoever for her. In fact she is very adept as using 3 legs and can do and go anywhere as if she were a true tri-pawed gal.

The other day she and Pixie got to running rattie runs, and Sierra began using her 4th leg and as she did she got faster and faster and it was if she had a 3 speed transmission with overdrive, making her 4th speed, or 4th leg, giving her extra super powers! She could really take it up a notch and cruise. It was such a beautiful sight! She did this off and on for about 15 minutes and she ran circles, lines, and even did some super fancy maneuvering. It was raining and I didn't have the video camera but I decided to run in and grab it and see if I could capture it even if just a little. I managed to get a small bit recorded of this resilient rattie girl. I also got one other recording of her on another day running across the yard to me on all 4s.

Sierra runs on all fours I

Sierra runs on all fours II 

Sierra runs toward me on all fours

All that running around makes for one tired little girl...