Rescuer Sally Ives is no stranger to the sad little refugees from the puppy mills that surround her.  As founder of Flawdogs Adoption, a rescue group in Morse Mill, Missouri that specializes in rescuing dogs from the Missouri puppy mills when they are no longer of any use to the millers, she deals with heartbreaking stories on a regular basis.  She  didn't know the background of the four year old brindle pied French bulldog female turned over to her by a commercial kennel owner who no longer had any use for the dog, but she could see that the little dog was dragging both hind legs, and that, with a back injury, every day without treatment could well mean an opportunity lost forever.  She immediately called the French Bulldog Village, and within two days, thanks to a hardworking volunteer, Betty Boop had boarded the Bus.  That same afternoon, Betty Boop visited the local veterinarian, who determined that Betty still had feeling in her hind legs, and who immediately dispatched the same volunteer on a 200 mile round trip to the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, so that Betty Boop could have an MRI.

After reviewing the results of Betty Boop's MRI, the surgeons at the veterinary school provided us with an entirely unexpected diagnosis, Betty had suffered a Fibrocartilaginous Embolism (FCE), a stroke which is caused when a microscopic piece of disk breaks off and cuts off the blood supply to the spinal cord and makes it start to die off, which causes a degree of paralysis. They advised us that she had a chance of recovering with extensive therapy over the next 2 or 3 months but, even if she did recover she would always be a little wobbly. 

The FBVillage was fortunate enough to find a long term foster home for Betty with a volunteer willing and able to put in the time and effort required for her therapy, far away in Colorado.  Undaunted, Betty Boop was packed onto an airplane, and shortly thereafter, arrived in Colorado to start her journey down the long road of recovery, and recover she did, learning first to stand, and then to walk, and finally to run!