Meant To Be: Toddler With No Hands Brings Home Perfect Puppy With Missing Paw.

Vanessa McLeod was halfway through her pregnancy when doctors discovered that her daughter’s arms and hands had not formed properly.

They urged her to terminate the pregnancy, but she refused. Now, the Canadian mom says she can’t imagine life without 2-year-old Ivy! She’s hoping their wonderful story will help knock down cultural stigmas around limb differences.

Ivy is a happy, energetic toddler who has no idea she looks a little different than other people. Her mom knows this won’t last; eventually, the little girl will have questions about why she has no hands and others do. But for now, she’s found ways to adapt to her challenges with gusto.

“Her favorite thing to do is color, and she just uses her toes to hold the markers, so she has just learned to do things differently,” Vanessa said.

Vanessa thought adopting a dog with special needs might be a good way to show Ivy that limb differences are a normal part of life, so their family started looking for puppies who fit the bill. By a stroke of fate, they located one right away!

Lucky is a mixed breed puppy who was born right in their county. She’s missing most of her right leg, making her a perfect companion for the growing toddler.

“You know you were born that way but different is beautiful, and this puppy was also born that way and that is also a beautiful thing and I just think it would be a magical bond,” Vanessa said.

“Missing her front paw so it just feels like fate,” she added.

They adopted Lucky, and together, they’re already speaking out to encourage others not to view disabilities as “sad or something to be pitied.”

The mom said she wishes the doctors who had urged her to end the pregnancy knew that different is beautiful.

“I wish you (they) would have told me that we would find support within the limb difference community, within the disability community,” she wrote on Facebook.

This adorable partnership certainly does seem like it was meant to be! Lucky and Ivy are both thriving with limb differences, and together, they can show the world that different is beautiful.

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