Dog with Bone Cancer Survives and Competes in Flyball Championship With 3 Legs!

Practice, practice, practice. Every sport requires it. And so does flyball.

"Flyball is really kind of an extreme game of fetch for dogs. It's a relay race for dogs," says dog owner Jennifer Rohling.

Like every sport, flyball also has winners. You can call them four-legged champs or canine celebrities.

Jagger is one of those champions. Named in honor of Mick of the Rolling Stones, Jagger is a big star in flyball. In fact, she's in the Clyde Moore Memorial Hall of Fame, which honors flyball's best.

In the 40-year history of flyball, Jagger ranks as one of the top 15 dogs to ever play the game. Jagger is also an English shepherd playing in a sport better suited to Border Collies. Jagger's story goes beyond being a good dog that's good at a doggy game.

Her story is an inspirational one. She lost her back leg to cancer. Rohling, Jagger's owner, remembers how it began.

"When Jagger was about nine-years-old I noticed she had a little lump in her toe that would come and go. They determined it was synovial sarcoma which is a type of cancer. Unfortunately, they said her only way to survive was to have her whole leg amputated. It was very devastating. Beyond all that, she's my soul mate and my friend and I was worried about her."

Rohling says Jagger may have lost a leg to cancer, but she didn't lose her heart.

"Probably about eight weeks after her surgery we were here at practice and she really wanted to get out there and play, and we let her go up to the box and she hit the box and got the ball. And so we backed her up a little and tried a couple jumps and she proved that she could still do it."

By now you've guessed that Jagger is back competing in the veteran's class and, well, she hasn't lost a step.

And the results haven't changed.

So that's the story of Jagger, a flyball champ with lots of rock, lots of roll. It definitely has a fairy tale ending. Here's hoping, Jagger lives happily ever after.