Today we get to honour Ceilidh and her memory by sharing a bit of her story.
Ceilidh’s Story from the Words of Her Family:
Ceilidh came into our lives in March 2008, when she was just 3 months old. As an extremely cheerful and goofy Border Collie puppy, she quickly bonded and became best friends with her new family. It wasn’t until January of 2016 that she suddenly lost movement in her back legs and was taken to the emergency animal hospital where she was diagnosed with Intervertebral disc disease (IVDD). After undergoing surgery and a two week stay at the vet, she was finally ready to return home to her family. Unfortunately, her loss of mobility also came with incontinence and severe urine scalding. However, after lots of love and care, all of the sores from the urine scalding healed and she even regained control of her bladder. This meant that she was able to let us know when she needed to go outside.
A few months after her surgery, Ceilidh began going to rehab therapy which quickly became one of her favourite things to do, especially because she became best friends with the staff at the clinic. Unfortunately she never regained movement of her back legs, but that definitely never slowed her down! She always stayed extremely determined to do everything she wanted and to live her life to the fullest. Thanks to her wheelchair, this was possible for her! She was able to move around freely outside, go for walks and play all her favourite games again. In the winter, she was able to switch her wheels for skis which allowed her to keep going even when there was tons of snow outside. Even though she wasn’t able to use her back legs or move around as easily as she could when she was younger, she stayed the happiest, most cheerful dog ever. Her favourite activities included going on walks in her wheelchair, visits from her human Grandma, and car rides to the vet for rehab. She also loved playing soccer or hockey (depending on the season) where she would act as goalie and use her front two legs to stop the ball from getting past her and then would pass it back.
Sadly on November 8th, 2022 we had to say goodbye to our beloved Ceilidh, one month before she would have turned 15. Although it was incredibly hard to say goodbye to a best friend like her, we are very thankful that the surgery and care she received after being diagnosed with IVDD allowed us to love her for an additional 6 years.
