When disaster calls, maybe we all need to ‘be more dog’ and carry on. Julie Hill reports on some amazing recoveries.

Amaya n eeds to lie down more often than the other dogs, but keeps up.

Rachel and Amaya enjoying life!

Alex was trodden on by a horse, but clung to life with terrier tenacity, and now you wouldn’t know he had been ill; Amaya was scheduled to be put down when her racing career came to an abrupt end following a leg injury, but now few people spot the fact that she has only three legs; and Mabli wolfed down a foam ball, which resulted in her having a fair chunk of her intestines removed, but is full of Lurcher liveliness once more.

When your dog suffers a life-changing injury or condition, it’s easy to despair. But nothing is certain in life — and these plucky dogs beat the odds and not only survived, but thrived. With loving owners by their sides, dogs can make amazing recoveries.

INSPIRING AMAYA

When Greyhound Amaya was just five years old, she fractured her hock. Her racing career abruptly ended — and so, almost, did her life.

“It’s quite a common injury because of the speed the dogs race at, the corners, and sometimes because of the quality of the track,” explained Amaya’s fosterer and now owner Rachel Jackson, from Stockport, Cheshire. “Amaya was examined, and was due to be put to sleep, but luckily a lot of the rescues have people on hand at some of the tracks, and basically they said: ‘Sign her over, we’ll take her.’”