Hard-luck husky lives happily ever after

Everywhere Galen Matney and Annie, a three-legged husky, go, people take notice. Then they remember her heartbreaking story.

“Every time I take her some place, she’s an attention-getter,” Matney said.

More than six years after Matney and Annie came together, Matney stopped by the Daily Inter Lake to report they were a match made in heaven.

No longer an orphan, Annie found a forever home with the 71-year-old cardiac patient and Cassie, a elderly red Persian rescued from the animal shelter.

In August 2003, Matney read the story headlined “Hard luck husky needs a home.”

It related how Annie was found by a compassionate neighbor and taken to Whitefish Animal Hospital with a shattered leg, broken pelvis and another leg full of buckshot.

Her kennel mates fared even worse. They were found dead, still chained up at the Star Meadows mobile home where their owner had deserted them and moved on.

At the animal hospital, Dr. Jim Thompson decided he had to amputate the shattered leg. The dog survived the operation but was half-starved at 25 pounds.

Within a month, Annie got up to 50 pounds under the foster care of Margaret Herche Evans, then a veterinary technician at Whitefish Animal Clinic, and her three Labradors. The husky’s hard luck changed when Matney read the story and called to offer to adopt her.

His call was one of more than 40 the clinic received after the story appeared. Matney, as a cardiac patient who needed a walking companion, seemed like an excellent match for the three-legged dog bubbling over with energy.

“I’ve had a complete knee replacement and a couple of heart attacks,” Matney said. “I walk as often as I can.”

The only possible hitch in the arrangement was the red Persian cat that he rescued from the brink of death. Matney said that Cassie couldn’t walk when he began nursing her through ringworm and an abdominal blood clot.

The cat pulled through — but would she survive a Siberian husky as a roommate? Matney said a beautiful relationship developed.

“When I bring Annie in, she wanders around until she finds Cassie and then they touch noses,” he said. “They’re best friends.”

The husky has become more than an exercise companion to Matney. She goes everywhere he goes, riding in the back seat with her own special blanket. The two enjoy wandering together around dog-friendly stores such as Murdoch’s.

Annie apparently bears no grudge about the abuse she received at human hands. Matney described her as “a real sweetheart” around him and other people.

He had no trouble training her. Matney speaks of Annie like a proud parent of an honor student.

“You tell her something one time and she’s got it,” he said. “The only bad thing is she likes to go on walkabouts.”

The Whitefish clinic had warned him that Annie needed a home with a good fence and lots of exercise to exhaust her copious energy supplies. Matney thought his four-foot gate on his deck plus walking often would do the trick.

He discovered that his three-legged dog could climb over the four-foot gate when Annie went on a walkabout and ended up in Ferndale. Luckily, his barber spotted the three-legged dog and returned her home.

“Now I have a 6-foot gate,” he said. “It’s amazing what she can do with three legs.”

Matney estimates that his dog is now about 8 years old. He wanted to let people know that the sad story ended with the hard-luck husky living happily ever after in Bigfork.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.