This heart wrenching story comes to us from Cyprus rescuer – Jack Doe who recently rescued a gentle giant called “Lumi”.

One month ago I got a call from the local council, telling me there is a large dog at a remote location and could I help.
Now caring for homeless dogs is the legal responsibility of the community councils, but that’s not happening here.

Arguing about responsibility does nothing to help the dog so I went to see if I could find and catch him. The moment I arrived, he started walking towards me with his tail wagging.
Clearly asking for help. It also became immediately clear to me he has serious hip damage and is likely to need both replaced at excessive cost.

Now it is still relatively easy to say no to people, but when a dog limps to you asking for help, you just cannot. Regardless of what it may take, so I took him home with me.

He was 48kg, stands 1.2m tall and is a Kangal. Don’t let his size (now 54kg) fool you though, he is sweet, gentle, friendly and mellow as a teddy bear. Just happens to be the size of a pony.
I named him LUMI, which means Snow in Finnish.

“He is about 10kg underweight and his ears have been completely cut off. He is also showing clear signs of abuse, as in ducking if you place your hand above his head,
expecting to be hit. There was just this bottomless sadness about him which choked me up.”

Sadly my fears about his hip dysplasia were confirmed by X-rays, showing them in an advanced state. In the next 6 to 12 months he will be in so much pain
that he will need to be put to sleep, unless both hip joints are replaced.
The cause of his profound sadness has thus been confirmed. He is just a puppy, hardly 1y old, but has not had any joy in his life.

He loves it here and despite the discomfort, has even started to briefly run around and play with others.
However just as he has found joy and happiness, his breed-specific ailment has caught up with him.

Kangals are known to suffer from hip dysplasia and need calcium supplements for their first 2 years to counteract it.
They cost about € 45 per month, which his previous “owner” obviously thought to be too expensive, so this is the result.
He has been on them ever since I got him, but they cannot reverse his condition.

I have been in contact with the only canine orthopedic surgeon on the island and the operation he needs sadly costs € 3000 to € 4000 per leg, not counting for complications.
There are no alternatives on Cyprus so that is what I will have to somehow raise for Lumi.

The good thing is that he is still young and growing, meaning the chances of a successful operation and happy life afterwards are good.
Lumi’s story continued below…