Dog Who Ran Away From Midway In January Gets New Home
Runaway Dog Suffered Broken Back After Escape
BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. (CBS) -- A rescue dog who ran away from Midway International Airport in the depth of winter in January has found a new home in Chicago.
WBBM Newsradio's Dave Berner reports Madison is a little timid, but her tail wags when you pet her.
The chocolate brown Doberman mix has had quite an ordeal, including delicate back surgery to repair a broken vertebra, likely caused by being hit by a car.
Now she's found a permanent home, with one of her former foster mothers, Missy Kolbe, who held Madison on a leash at Veterinary Specialty Center in Buffalo Grove.
"I have a love for dogs with a little bit special needs. I have a lot of time and a lot of love," she said. "I love them like my kids."
Even before running away from Midway in January, Madison already had a challenging life as a breeder dog in Texas, according to the folks at Illinois Doberman Rescue Plus. A volunteer was taking her from a private plane at Midway to a car that would bring her to her new home in Wisconsin, but the dog escaped.
She slipped out of her harness near 53rd Street and Central Avenue while the volunteer was walking her ahead of their long car ride.
She was found cold and hungry a few days later, more than four miles away at 38th Street and Spaulding Avenue in Brighton Park. She apparently had been hit by a car after escaping.
Veterinary surgeon Claude Gendreau operated on Madison's broken back.
"The vertebra that was fractured was so displaced, compressing the spinal cord, it was a miracle really that Madison could walk at all," he said.
Kolbe was among those who searched for Madison after she escaped.
"She's been pretty emotionally damaged, probably, as well as physically. So she's a little timid," she said.
