A teenage amputee made a friend for life when he met a three-legged Dachshund who recognized they were in the ‘same situation.’
It was last August that Sam Sartain lost control while riding his ATV, which flipped and landed on his leg.
NBC reports that doctors were forced to conduct a series of amputations on him that removed more and more of his right leg.
Best friends: Sam Sartain lost his leg to an ATV accident in 2013 and says that Pooh, once a stray three-legged dog, recognizes how similar they both are
The surgeries pushed him so far to his limits that he became thin and required a feeding tube.
Once that ordeal was done, Sartain was fitted with a prosthetic leg in May that had him back walking and eventually playing school sports.
‘It’s cool because when I went back to school, not only did I have that respect as a person, but as an athlete too,’ he said.
But he really felt whole once he met Pooh, a stray dog who almost lost his life after being struck by a car.
Sartain’s mother Judy says she came across a Facebook page for rescue Dachshunds and found a dog with a similar story to her son searching for a family.
‘As a mom you search for any resources that can help and animals are very therapeutic and they give you a reason to get up,’ Judy said.
Family: Sam not only found a friend, Pooh found a home with the Sartains, who welcomed him in after he was rescued
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Long road: Pooh was hit by a car, and vets said he lost blood and his right hind leg couldn’t be saved, but after surgery, Pooh pulled through
Miami-Dade Animal Services found Pooh after he had been hit by a car. Officers brought him to Dachshund Rescue South Florida, which raised $5,000 in two days for his critical surgery.
When he first arrived, loss of blood and trauma made vets uncertain Pooh could withstand surgery, and he had to be stabilized before the operation.
‘The thing that was similar between me and Pooh,’ Sartain said ‘was the complete top layer of skin was just torn off, you could see the bones.’
After Pooh’s recovery, the two were introduced and formed an instant bond.
‘It’s a weird feeling,’ Sartain said, ‘because he looked at me and he realized I guess that we had the same situation and he immediately ran over towards me.’