The story of Hudson the pit bull will tug at your heartstrings.
At just 3 weeks old, someone left Hudson along with his two sisters for dead on railroad tracks. Malnourished and dehydrated, someone also nailed their paws to the tracks. Fortunately, a railroad worker spotted the pups and pulled them from the tracks before a train ran them over.
According to Gladwire, the pups were in terrible health with wound-riddled paws. One pup only had three paws, one had two missing toes, and the third had a gaping hole in the paw. Tragically, one of Hudson’s sisters did not survive the intensive road to recovery.
Hudson and his surviving sister moved to Mohawk Hudson Humane Society to recover from the near-death experience. Hudson received life-saving emergency surgery at the cost of one of his paws.
Brad Shear, former executive director of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, believed the incident was a case of cruelty against animals.
“It’s very clear that it’s a cruelty case. This is someone who intentionally did really serious harm to these puppies. Someone that can do that is a very scary person. To do this you have to be heartless.”
Those who found Hudson and worked on him had hope the pup would make a full recovery and live as normal a life as he could with just three paws.
Shortly after Richard Nash adopted Hudson, he noticed the pup having night terrors.
The pup also had a difficult time trusting people, for understandable reasons. Richard concluded he needed to give Hudson some of his life back. So, he ventured to Plastics Make It Possible and got Hudson a prosthetic paw.
Hudson needed time to adjust to using his new paw. At first, tasks as simple as getting out of the bed were challenging. Once he broke in the paw, Hudson was finally able to act like a puppy.
Nash found happiness in the fact that Hudson could finally enjoy being a puppy.
“Not many parents would be happy their dog jumped on the table, but he used his hind legs to get his front paws up on the table and that was a really amazing day. We were crying because we were so happy to see him do that.”
With the help of his owner, Nash, Hudson trained to become a therapy dog. The two go to hospitals to visit parents and work with children.
Two years ago, Hudson received the “hero dog award” during the Hero Dog Awards Ceremony hosted by the American Humane Society. He received the award thanks to his dedication toward his therapy dog training and the awareness he raised on cruelty toward animals.
Nash believes Hudson’s story gives other people the confidence and strength needed to accomplish their goals.
“Just him being there (as a therapy dog) and seeing how happy he is and how well he can walk on his prosthetic and the things he can do even though he has a disability, I believe it gives people the confidence and courage to be able to say, ‘I can do it. If this little 65-pound dog can do it, I think I can do it.’”
Those interested in Hudson’s story can stay up to date by following his Facebook page.
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