Spirit, the little Yorkie with paralyzed front legs who came to us in late August, got her wheelchair today … and she was off and rolling! (See original post on Spirit here.) Lori and Chad Holbein, owners of Doggon’ Wheels, came out to the ranch two weeks ago to measure Spirit for her wheels. Today they returned with the new wheelchair. I took the photo of Chad and Lori fitting her in our welcome center this afternoon.
Not only did Lori and Chad come out twice to personally take care of Spirit, but bless their hearts, they even donated the wheelchair! Thank you! We were just so touched by that generous gift.
Sitting atop her new wheels, Spirit didn’t know what to do at first … it had been a long, long time since she had done anything other than hop with her back legs and then fall flat on her face. But then we brought Oscar the miniature Dachshund into the welcome center and set him on the floor … and she scooted off to check him out. That was the first sign she could use the chair. Then she got perplexed and seemed to lose focus and interest. She began crossing her back legs, which limited her ability to push off and propel herself forward.
The answer? A cat! We picked up Spirit in her chair and carried her out to Lena’s Barn, where Smudge the barn cat helpfully appeared. That motivated Spirit all over again, and she took off after Smudge, but only briefly. The ground in the barn aisle is kind of rough and hard to wheel around in. We couldn’t tell whether she had given up because of difficulty using the chair or the ground itself.
Hence we were still trying to determine how well she could really function in the chair, so I suggested we take her into the cat house, which has a smooth linoleum floor. A few minutes later, we set Spirit down on the cat house floor. Her eyes got really big at the sight of all those cats, and off she went! She wheeled from one end to the other, checking out the cats and letting them know who’s boss (or so she thought).
That answered the question … yes, she can really use that chair and has full mobility. Of course, it will take time for her to learn how to back up and turn. (She puts on a little too much left rudder!) But even in her first hour this afternoon using the chair, she had started backing up.
To show you this little girl cruising in her new wheels, I shot some video this evening of Spirit on our back patio. Bear in mind that when I took this video, she had been in her chair for an elapsed time of maybe 15 minutes. I think we’re off to the races with her!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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