Heartbroken, she made arrangements to buy another Italian greyhound \u201cto be the fun, cool friend I need as I age gracefully\u201d.<\/p>\n
She travelled to Christchurch to collect new puppy Romeo from a breeder and brought him home to Army Bay.<\/p>\n
But within seven weeks, the \u201cfearless\u201d pup, whom she affectionately called a \u201clovable psycho\u201d, broke one of his front legs while doing zoomies around the lounge.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just jumped off the couch and it didn\u2019t look like he landed badly, but he let out an almighty scream and I immediately knew what he\u2019d done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romeo will require further corrective surgery on his bow leg. Photo \/ Givealittle<\/p>\n
Italian greyhounds are notorious for fragile legs between 0-18 months, Woodhouse said, \u201cbecause they think they\u2019re Superman\u201d.<\/p>\n
The second break happened as Romeo was recovering from the first.<\/p>\n
Woodhouse was at work when she received a call from her housemate saying Romeo \u201cmust have got inquisitive\u201d, and knocked over a large painting and taken another tumble.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe let out another almighty scream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just ran to the car and drove home as fast as I could,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Romeo had broken his other front leg and required further surgery.<\/p>\n
Each surgery costs up to $8500, and X-rays alone are $1100.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only so much a retiree can do. The well is dry,\u201d Woodhouse said.<\/p>\n
Although pet insurance contributed $10,000, it didn\u2019t fully cover even the first break.<\/p>\n
Romeo the Italian greyhound broke both front legs in separate accidents. Photo \/ Givealittle<\/p>\n
Through it all, Romeo remains \u201cthe love of my life\u201d.<\/p>\n
Woodhouse takes the small pup to her part-time job so she can keep a close eye on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s tiny, and people instantly want to cuddle him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just wants to be with you, in the car, on the couch, at work, always.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romeo still needs corrective surgery for his bow leg from the first fall, and another to remove \u201ca couple of screws and a plate\u201d from the other leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s doing well; it\u2019s been a journey, but he\u2019s a sweet little boy, and people just love him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Givealittle page has raised more than $2500 so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heartbroken, she made arrangements to buy another Italian greyhound \u201cto be the fun, cool friend I need as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[69894,9526,14645,16574,3246,3241,38501,46300,44933,6119,1668,79635,42,2198,1340,5836,43,19525,26979,3240,4482,18833,40,38,41,39,12628,17307,52635,1316,1354],"class_list":["post-176762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-20k","tag-another","tag-beloved","tag-bill","tag-both","tag-bought","tag-breaks","tag-broke","tag-dealt","tag-faces","tag-front","tag-greyhound","tag-headlines","tag-italian","tag-legs","tag-lost","tag-news","tag-pensioner","tag-puppy","tag-recently","tag-replace","tag-round","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tragedy","tag-vet","tag-whangaparoa","tag-when","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}