Emma the hairlip dog was born 4 August 2008 in Oklahoma.
She was unable even to suckle, and could not have survived without radical intervention in her behalf. The usual rule with such pups was to euthanize them at once.
Despite her infirmity and deformity, Emma was immediately adopted by Dena Lambkin, who knew she was taking on an animal that would need costly surgery almost immediately, indeed, upon her second day of life.
She was twenty hours old and weighed 3.4 ounces when Dena first saw her. Dena snapped the baby pictures (above) showing the cleft pallate before surgical correction.
The photos at the right are of Emma at five weeks, after the successful surgery was healed.
Emma's father was one of those "out the side of the mouth" tongue-thrust dogs who probably should never have been bred.
Emma tragically grew up to be one of those dogs whose owner puts her in absurd frilly pink dresses having mistaken her for a dolly instead of a dog that has a right to dog interests.
But what the hell, life's full of love, and that's a whole lot better than being brained as an unwanted newborn which is what happens to most dogs with her condition.
Emma the hairlip dog was born 4 August 2008 in Oklahoma.