Jozie is our little wonder girl and she is owned by our son, Brandon.  Jozie's story is beyond amazement to anyone who hears or reads her story.  When she was just a few days old, Heidi found her off to the side from the rest of her litter.  She was cold and not moving.  Typically when this happens, there is no recovering them and they pass within a short couple of hours.  Heidi brought her in the house in a small box, put her on a heating pad with a towel warmed in the dryer, to make her comfortable for her last hours.  Much to our amazement, Jozie bounced back a little...  in shock, we decided to try tube feeding this little fighter.  To our even greater surprise that worked a bit too!  Jozie had fought and stayed alive through that night, through the next day, and so on.  Until a Thursday came along and she was now more than a week old.  Heidi then noticed Jozie's elbows and one rear leg were swelling, which looked suspiciously like bone infection abscesses, Heidi was right.  By this point, Jeff, Heidi, and Brandon were already attached to this little amazing baby and we made the trip to the vet, expecting to put her down.  Not wanting to break Brandon's heart, that Friday's vet appointment, Jeff and Heidi and the vet begrudgingly decided to try to save her - everyone envisioned the worst of her passing that weekend from toxins from the bacteria trying to take over her body.  Our vet took fluid samples for submission to the lab, we drained the abscesses, and took her home with antibiotics.  Our vet was in utter amazement that Jozie was still living when she personally called to check on her progress on that  Monday.  Jeff and Heidi drained those abscesses for 7 full days until the antibiotics started working.  In Heidi's 22 years of breeding, she has never seen such a stronger will to live than in this small, little creature.  She finished her 8 week course of antibiotics and none of the Theis family could envision her going anywhere else.  Our son Brandon chose to keep her and raise her to be his dog, solely because she loves so deeply, overseeing her handicaps.  She was left with a constant reminder of our journey with her through bone thickening in her right front elbow, her right pelvis, and cartilage thickening in her left ear.  We would never change her!  She is a sweetheart, tenacious, a kick in the pants, and everyone who meets her loves her.  We figured that since she fought so hard to live and we fought so hard to help her live, it was meant to be for her to stay with us for her lifetime.  She will turn a year in January, 2010 and there will be a huge celebration for her!

To view Jozie's pedigree, please go to her sister Jill's pedigree as it is the same:

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/643526.html