Ninia’s Road to Recovery
Ninia after surgery, her New Wheelchair with Dick and the heroic team at the Fletcher’s Vet Clinic in Arkansas that saved her life!
She was found roaming free dragging her leg that had been broken. Obviously she had been hit by a car. Left abandoned to die on the roadside, a good Samaritan found her and took her to Fletcher’s Vet Clinic in Hot Springs Arkansas. Dr. Tina Fletcher, DVM did not want to put this little girl down and wanted to give her a chance with surgery. Dr. Fletcher, took off the broken leg in hopes that she could manage on the remaining leg. Her other hip was damaged too but surgery will not help it. Thats when Paws and Claws rescue stepped in. A kind hearted soul Judy Walters saw Ninia and wanted to find her a forever home. The problem faced with a special needs dog is that potential adopters don’t want a “Handicapped Dog”. After being at the vets for over a month things where not looking too good for Ninia.
This is where the Handicapped Pets Foundation got involved. Our executive director Dick Dellarciprete wanted to help a special dog and had been looking at shelters and rescue groups nation wide. Judy received his email asking about a special needs dog and she immediately thought of Ninia and contacted Dick. Once Dick saw the photos and heard her sad story he knew that this was the dog whose life needed to be saved. The foundation donated a Walkin Wheels Wheelchair to help Ninia get around on long walks. The Handicapped Pets Foundation is fortunate to have a celebrated Boston TV Legend Rex Trailer (www.rextrailer.tv) help with Ninia, her visits and media outreach. She is now our spokespet and can be seen with Dick at various events and fundraisers enjoying her new life and “job” letting people know there is hope and help for their beloved pet.
Her life is great now, and to think this poor dog would have been euthanized, had the fantastic people at the Vet, Paws and Claws rescue and ultimately Dick and the Handicapped Pets Foundation not stepped in. This is but one example of a life that did not need to be taken. Thousands more need to be saved.
Today over 117,000 pets are euthanized or forfeited every week in the United States with the current economy things are getting worse. The reasons behind this high number may surprise you. Thousands of pets are put to sleep by reluctant pet owners, who are faced with financial challenges that prohibit them from rendering emergency and necessary medical care for their animals. Veterinary care can be very costly often requiring hundreds, or thousands of dollars. Unexpected veterinary bills have caused many pet owners, struggling to make ends meet, to make painful decisions involving the life of their pet. Pet insurance cannot solve this problem as it is generally expensive and offers only limited coverage.
While pets and their human caretakers rely on us, we rely on the generosity and support of our donors. We ask for your help in fulfilling the promise of our society in caring for animals that otherwise would go without treatment, or worse.
Video Transcript:
Hi, I’m Nancy from HandicappedPets.com and I work in the wheelchair department, and I’m going to show you how to fit the dog to a wheelchair. And here’s our dog Ninia, she’s our mascot for Handicapped Pets, and the owner is Dick, and he’s the executive director of the Handicapped Pets Foundation. And I first want to point out that Ninia has shaved right here, just went through an operation, amputation, so her right leg is gone and she had a pain patch here. First thing I’m going to show you is when you get your wheelchair in the mail, it’s going to look like this. You’re going to have the wheels and the harnesses. So the first thing I want to show you is how you adjust the wheelchair. And the width is adjusted by these pegs, simply push them in and adjust the width where you think it should be. The width is indicated where we need about an inch on each side of the hip area. Then I’m going to show you how to undo the leg to put the strut, the wheel strut, in. So we’re going to push it down so that the notch is in the center of these two, and then simply tighten it up like this. Nice and sturdy. Both sides, it’s important that you know that the notch is on the inside of the knuckle and not on the bottom when you’re putting this together. Tighten it up. And then we’re going to adjust the legs the same way. Now when the button comes over inside the knuckle, you’re going to need to have a pen nearby to take it out of the knuckle. See? It’s right here now. And we can do that on both sides. The next thing you’re going to do is you’re going to know which wheel you’re going to want, and I’ll go through the measurements in just a minute, but I just want to show you how easy it is to snap the wheel into the wheelchair. And then the way it’s adjusted is the legs, and I’ll go through that too…
[Transcript to be completed by post-launch support team]