Buster the Bassett Gets A Wheelchair!
One of the people on my staff mentioned this to me earlier today and I LOVE the story.
Faith and I adopted our mutt shortly after moving to Wichita, Kansas, in 2001. We named him Ollie; the name was because we wanted our "firstborn" to be named after my father (my dad's nickname is Ollie because he loves Laurel & Hardy). Ollie was a resident at the Kansas Humane Society when we spotted him almost exactly 11 years ago.
Now, Ollie is starting to get up there in age. In fact, we almost had to put him down in early November because he had three fused vertebrae and incredibly bad joints; he had a lot of trouble standing and walking. Then, my wife met Ollie's "guardian angel" at a YWCA Luncheon at DeVos Place literally two days before he was scheduled to be put to sleep.
I'm happy to tell you that Ollie is still alive and with us, and he's moving pretty well for a dog who couldn't walk four months ago. That said, we're sure he'll need help as he ages. We know pet parents who have wheelchairs for their dogs and have thought about getting one for Ollie. Here's the story:
A guy in Florida adopted a basset hound that he named Buster. Buster had a bad back, but Tom adopted him anyway and created a sling for Buster's hind-end to help him walk. Then, Tom discovered a place called "For Paws Hospice," which provides long-term loans of pet wheelchairs to owners with pets who need them. Harlan Weikle, a co-founder of the hospice, explains that there is constant need "when the pet and pet owners no longer need them, we put it back on our list and we find another match for it. And it just keeps going on."
Buster is now in wheels; he was recently fitted for a wheelchair, which allowed him to walk on his own towards Tom as he called him from across the room... FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!
Do we have any organization like "Four Paws Hospice" in West Michigan?
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