lets start at the beginning

Day One
Tubby was her name. She showed up at my in-law's farm weeks ago. My husband would come home from work and tell me about her everyday. "She's so fat she looks like a bear" he said, "She even has fat on her head!" (I should warn you I have an admittedly enormous soft spot for dogs). This one was a black lab, and from the stories I was hearing an extremely cute one. M. told me that she had a mark around her neck like she had worn a collar but she didn't have it on anymore. (Unfortunately, it is very common out here for people to dump their dogs or leave them behind when they don't want them anymore) At first the in-laws wanted to keep her, and then they didn't, and then they did, meanwhile we offered to take her and find her a good home (the farm is not the safest place for domestic animals, or any animals for that matter, but that's another story) But then one morning she was gone! Everyone was sure she had just been passing through.
A few days later I went out to the farm for lunch. I was inside when m. came to the door and told me to look outside. There she was sitting in the driveway. Tubby was a beautiful, big, black lab. She was so overweight she did look like a bear. I walked outside and she limped towards me with an obviously broken leg. I felt terrible. Her right hind leg was hanging limp and swinging side to side. "Looks like she's got a broken leg" someone said. She was covered in ticks and not looking too good. "I bet she got hit by a car and has been laying in a ditch", m. said. Then the most bizarre thing happened, everyone turned around and walked back inside. Everyone except for my wonderful m. He helped pick all of the ticks off of her and I stomped on them (gross). She was the sweetest thing, even with a broken leg she was all wiggles. I knew I had to do something to help her. We left her outside and told her to stick around while we ate lunch. I couldn't stop thinking about how I could help her. Unfortunately I stink at saving money and I didn't have much extra. At one point during lunch I looked out the window and met eyes with her and I knew I had to help her no matter what. We couldn't bring her back to our house that night so I promised to come and get her the next morning...