Maty Kerstetter-Ouchida
Maty was the first round winner
Nickname: Maty Mae
Breed: Australian Shepherd x Golden Retriever mix
Hometown: Bend. Oregon. United States
Date of Birth: November 2000
Siblings: Mesa, ‘brother,’ a red merle Australian Shepherd.
Parents: Lynne Ouchida and Troy Kerstetter Maty’s parents have a combined 40 years in animal welfare. They have dedicated their lives to saving precious lives and highlighting the message that every animal has potential.
Disability: Left rear leg amputation
Votes: 6549
Maty has experience in front of the camera
Favorite hobbies:
Frisbee/disc dog competitions, traveling (love dog friendly hotels), walks & hikes, humane education school visits, learning new tricks.
Tricks or funny things:
Silly Pet Tricks are Maty’s forte. Maty shows people how she prays every night for a new leg when you ask her to ‘say your prayers.’
Her other specialty is a birthday celebration trick: Maty sings to “happy birthday” played on the harmonica. She can blows out a candle, opens a present (a frisbee, of course) etc.
Other crowd pleasers are talk, whisper, hug, snuggle, leave-it, take-it and turns and walks backwards through the legs. Maty loves to weave between our legs, jumps over our back and legs, and on a good day she can ‘fly’ into our arms.
Maty uses silly pet tricks in her humane education presentations to thousands of youth every year. She correlates what basics children learn in school to her dog training class learning sit, down, stay, leave it, etc. Maty also demonstrates communicating without speech by responding to hand signals. Did we mention she has begging down to an art? Paw the leg, head-in-the-lap, look with begging eyes while pointing to the treats? The most difficult trick for Maty was ‘rollover,’ since she is missing the weight and momentum of a rear left leg, but she did it!
Maty barely misses her leg
How Maty lost her leg:
Long story short. At 7 weeks of age, Maty was exposed to parvovirus. During her quarantine, she became lethargic and stopped bearing weight on her left leg.
Maty survived parvovirus exposure, but a vet x-rayed the knee and said she needed a very expensive surgery for a knee fracture that the Humane Society could not afford.
At an offsite adoption, a shelter volunteer found a nursing home director interested in adopting Maty to be a resident therapy dog. Maty’s “fracture in her knee” soon turned into pockets of infection throughout her body. She seemed to be suffering and was nearly euthanized.
Her big brown eyes and thumping puppy tail saved her life…she showed such an incredible will to live that she was given a second chance. The ‘fracture’ turned out to be an infection that ravaged her body at 7.5 weeks of age.
A second veterinarian said it was not a break, it was an infection that had now destroyed the tendons and ligaments in her knee, and the necrotic skin allowed us to see inside to her knee joint. At 8 weeks of age, Maty had her left rear leg amputated.
Picture Perfect
Why Maty should be Scrap:
MATY IS A SURVIVOR: She survived abandonment, exposure to parvovirus, systemic staph infection and amputation all before 8 weeks of age.
MATY IS AN INSPIRATION: She demonstrates the ABILITIES of a disabled dog to school children. She convinces parents of injured pets that their beloved companion can live a happy and fulfilling life after amputation. She is the first and only 3-legged dog to qualify and compete in two Skyhoundz World Canine Disc Championship against 4-legged world class competitors.
MATY IS ADVENTEROUS: By the time Maty was 2 years old, she had completed agility training, learned to swim, ran her first skijoring race, placed in the top in disc dog competitions, became an official cat tester, therapy dog and humane education dog.
MATY IS PHOTOGENIC: It may be the dark eyeliner encircling her big brown eyes, or her beautiful, rich colors; whatever it is, Maty seems to touch everyone who meets her. She has graced the cover of a magazine, featured in books, national magazines, on Animal Planet two times, and has won a ‘beauty’ contest.
MATY IS WELL-TRAINED and the CAMERA IS HER BEST FRIEND: Maty knows basic commands of sit, down, stay, shake, high-five, roll-over, and many more. She performs by voice command up-close or far away and by hand signal. Maty knows the endearing behaviors of hug and kiss by command. Maty learns new tricks quickly. Since 8 weeks of age, Maty has performed in front of large crowds, visited people in critical care with ‘halos,’ worked in front of production crews with hand-held video cameras to large video jibs moving all around her and with fuzzy microphones teasing her above her head.
MATY IS READY: Visiting new places, meeting new people, experiencing new adventures and taking on new challenges IS Maty’s life.
Maty the Social Worker
Videos:
Press Links:
Animal Planet:
The Gazette:
The Bend Bulletin:
The Humane Society:
People Pets:
Click to follow Maty on Twitter
Maty is another fine example of the level of compassion and love that animals in this case dogs can give. I’ll never understand how anyone “human” with a heart or ounce of self-respect or compassion could ever hurt an animal. They are such fine examples of love, bravery, and loyalty. You go Maty your my hero & your beautiful.