Katie (Araidh Kiss of Life) was born of 29th September 1999 out of Champion Araidh Dot to Dot (Dot) by Dead Ringer (Hooli), she was bred by Lesley McFadyen.

Katie was the only surviving puppy from a beautiful litter of 6, Lesley hand reared Katie every 2 hours at first, which led onto 3 hourly until eventually she was weaned and on to the more usual 4 feeds per day.

Katie came to us at 10 weeks a very cheeky, confident puppy, she soon made it clear to our other 2 Stafford's and German Shepherd that she was here to stay.

Tragically at 16 weeks she jumped up and over the back of the settee, injuring her back leg, x-rays showed that she had a slight fracture and had sustained injury to her growth plate, 3 weeks cage rest was diagnosed.  Weekly vet visits ensued, but after 3 weeks, It was apparent that this wasn't working and we were referred to a osteopath specialist, his damning verdict was that the growth plate had partially closed and that the leg had healed in the wrong position, major surgery was needed which in turn would probably lead to a further 2 operations.

A fixator was fitted, which is basically an external steel framework that has 4 wheels attached to it, each wheel would have to be turned 0.5mm twice per day which would therefore add 1mm of bone per day.

She had to have totally cage rest with instructions to keep her as quiet and still as possible!

We added over 17mm in length to her leg, over a 6 week period with rest days in between when ligaments became sore and over stretched.  Finally nearly 4 months after the initial accident we were allowed to give her a break from the cage, and lead walk her 3 times per day for 5 minutes, which in turn led to 10 minutes and then finally to 15 minutes.

A few weeks later she got the all clear and at 8 months was free of the cage and as crazy as before.  The furniture is now all against the walls!

Looking back had I known all what was to come I would of probably been on sedatives, but she coped very well, it was a family effort keeping her mentally stimulated and happy in the cage, days were split between my husband and myself playing with her and doing little bits such as sit, paw, taking titbits gently etc, she thrived on this and enjoyed the attention, the other staffords used to go and sit right up against her cage 'to lend support' where she'd just sit up against them from her side of the cage, with maybe a little puppy bite every so often! 

At the time it seemed never ending with daily visits to the specialist at first, then gradually alternative days to twice a week visits to the surgery which was over 45 minutes away, even turning the fixator was to become routine, I'd seen a similar thing on a children's hospital programme, with a sobbing child so had imagined the worse but the reality couldn't of been further from the truth, the fixator consisted of 4 steel pins (2 top, 2 bottom) going through the leg held together by steel pins running down the leg the bottom and top pins had to be turned 0.5mm twice a day, this was no problem, Katie handled it beautifully by standing still whilst I held her and my husband got the spanner out to make the necessary adjustments before bandaging the whole leg up again.  Katie never made a murmur, during this and was always rewarded with a tasty offering!!

Katie is now fully recovered and able to run and play with the others, she attends 2 obedience training classes per week.  One 'problem' encountered at Obedience class is refusing to walk when doing heelwork clockwise, but happily obliging when we walk anti-clockwise, though this seems to of been solved now, using a long tube of primula cheese!

Katie is now doing very well at obedience and trying very hard to follow in her big sisters paw prints and is often the most well behaved dog in her class, which consists of many other breeds.

She started Agility training in May 2001 and is doing very well but more importantly is enjoying every minute, she has started with getting used to the equipment moving on to the jumps, she certainly seems to have the same enthusiasm as Tammy which can only be a good thing!

Katie has a long way to go to compete with Tammy's pawprints though at the moment  she excels at digging holes in the garden, eating the flowers, de-heading my roses, running through the house with dirty paws, dive bombing Marvin and generally causing chaos but we wouldn't change her for the world!

Katie qualified for Crufts 2002 and passed her Bronze Kennel Club Good Citizen at Birmingham City Championship Show and  then successfully passed her Silver at the EASBTC FunDay.

Katie has recently tried Flyball and caught on to the requirements very quickly, looks like another challenge!

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