Nuffnang

Saturday, September 20, 2008

For the love of a dog

In the midst of tragic news of hurricanes, floods, tainted milk and collapse of giant financial institutions, it is heartening to read some good news. The Star, a local Malaysian paper, published this article "Meet spunky Snoopy, the handicapped dog in a wheelchair" yesterday on the third page (I suppose the editors thought we all needed to be cheered up).

Snoopy, a terrier mix was injured in an accident when he was a puppy and was brought to a vet. He was still able to walk but had a stiff hind leg. Snoopy stayed at the vet clinic for 4 years before Marjan Sipsma adopted him. Marjan, a dog lover has four other dogs.

Spinal complications later resulted in Snoopy being unable to walk. Marjan was determined to give Snoopy a chance to live life fully. She ordered a squad car wheelchair (RM1500, approximately USD500) and shoes (RM150, approximately USD50) from America for Snoopy . The plucky dog is now able to walk with aid of the wheelchair, thanks to his human who loved him unconditionally. In fact, he even charged at another dog who started charging at Snoopy and his siblings. (read about this amusing tale in the article). Marjan said "I don’t quite know how dogs think, but to Snoopy, I think he believes he’s still alpha male. I don’t think he knows he’s paralysed,”

What an encouraging story. A little dog who overcomes his limitations, with help from his human who refused to give up!

16 comments:

Lorenza said...

Hi, Kess!
Thanks for sharing this story!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

Amber-Mae said...

What a wonderful touching story this is! My hoomans don't buy newspapers anymore nowadays so didn't come across this article.

This dog reminds me of my kitty sista, Tinkerbell. She is paraplegic too which was also caused by a car accident. She was only a palm size then & the car broke her spine & one of her rib. She was originally from Brunei but my hoomans flew her back here. She used to urine out blood almost every week becoz there was some internal damage done in her. So everytime she has to take some special injection to stop it but the affect can last up to two weeks or so & she will have to go back & get more jabs. She was a LOT of work & cost more than a few thousand ringgit already! I think she's the MOST expensive cat in the world not the pedigree ones. BOL! So anyway, many vets told my hoomans to put her down becoz they had no hope in her at all but my hoomans refused & cried a million tears each time they hear the Doctors say that but when they looked into Tinker's eyes, she was like saying, she's not ready to go yet. Her eyes were still bright but she was in pain each time she bled. After two years of unconditional love & treatment (my hoomans just give cranberry juice everyday as it's gfood for the bladder & some vitamins too. Tinker takes them like a pro coz she's so used to it! She never struggles) she had less & less bleeding. Three years later, she was brought for spaying. My hoomans never wanted to spay her becoz they were worried it would cause more complications or bleeding or worse, death. But they still went for it anyway & after it was done, she was fine & was back to herself a week later. We also found out that, there was NO MORE BLEEDING from her! Isn't that just wonderful?

My hoomans never gave up on her altho yes, sometimes she can be a little annoying. There was one time when my hoomans wanted to give her away becoz they couldn't bring all the cats back from Brunei. They had four at that time including Tinker. The rest were adopted but everybody rejected Tinker becoz she's handicapped & has problems. If they did not bring her back to Malaysia, she would have been put down immediately eventho healthy. Yes, she's very healthy despite all that.

But guess what? It's been 5 years already since she's been with us & she is still going strong! I guess she has 7 lives left or something. Hehehe! She's still annoying as ever & actually she is the healthiest & the strongest cat among the rest but just paraplegic, that's all. My Mommy changes her pampers everyday becoz she can't control her bladder. She used to drag herself around alot when she was younger but now she's regaining some strength in her back legs & her kicks are strong but still slips & fall. But she can run freaking fast becoz her front legs are packed with muscles! Haha! I think I should post a story about her one day. No one knows about her yet becoz I've not spoken about her much...

Butt wiggles,
Solid Gold Dancer

Anonymous said...

Hi Kess,

Thanks for sharing the lovely story. It's heartening to know of people who love their dogs so well:)

Kess, you are sweet and your heart is so full of love. I admire you. And I admire Amber-mae and her family too, for taking care of Tinkerbell.

Licks n Wags,
Oorvi

Princess Patches said...

What a great story! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Aire-hugs,
Poppy, Penny & Patches

Kess And Her Mama said...

Amber, You should definitely post about Tinkerbell. It is inspiring and we could all hear some good news to cheer us up!


Oorvi, Thanks so much for your compliment. :-) It's nice to be appreciated.

JAZZ AND DIXIE said...

Hi Kess,
Stories like this one give us hope. Its great to hear of such love and kindness of humans towards their pets.
Lix
J&D

Georgeous said...

Thank Dog for people like Marjam! There's definately a place in heaven for her! A big round of aPaws!!
Love George

Pee.Es: There's an award on my site for you!

Molly the Airedale said...

What a wonderful story! Thanks so much for sharing it, Kess!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

Urban Smoothie Read said...

that is a really touching story...

i said...

What a touching story! We always love to hear happy endings.

We have an award for you!

Scotch said...

The world really needs more people like her...

♥Mona + Prissy + Angel Weenie♥ said...

Hey Kess,

Thanks for sharing th story with us. What an amazing dog. We are just stoppong by to say hello. Thanks for thinking about us during the hurricane. We have been reading blogs all day.

Love ya lots...Mona

Mr. T-Bone Beasley said...

Kess!

That is such an awesome story! Even the little dudes are stonger than some of the big dudes!

I'm a big dude and would totally have cried like a big baby!

Go little dudes!

Sorry I haven't been around to check on you and all, but you know...humans, blah, blah, blah...

Slurp!
Mr. T-Bone Beasley

Cocoa the Beagle said...

Hi Kess! We have an award for you! C'mom over!

Wags,
Cocoa and Barley

Kathryn and Ari said...

That's so wonderful! There's a dog like Snoopy at our dog park: he can't run around with the other dogs, but he likes to be near them and bark when they play.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kess,

Where are you? Mr. Kess the Beagle, you are being missed!

(Look who's talking...Ms. Oorvi, the non-daily blogger - I guess both of us have our humans to thank for this - right?!)

I just wanted to invite you over for a new Voting Machine that I got these two to manufacture:)

Come over when you are back:)

Licks n Wags,
Oorvi

Thanks for signing my guest book.