The Marvin Fund has donated a HandicappedPets.com wheelchair to a Boxer with stroke-induced paraplegia in his rear legs. It was the seventh donation of one of its pet wheelchairs, according to Deborah Winters, co-owner of the company.
The Marvin Fund is named for the 8-year-old handicapped black Lab of Ernest Finocchio, DVM, president of the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Its pending cart donation was publicized on Handicappedpets.com, and more than 150 requests for the donation were received, according to Winters. “We were shocked,” she says.
Twelve-year-old Boxer Nico’s physical therapist Ann Beth Chinchillo, PT, CCRP, from Mass., was chosen, and the dog took his first steps with the cart on Aug. 9, 2007.
The Marvin Fund, which offers financial aid for the care of animals whose owners are elderly, disabled or otherwise unable to afford veterinary bills, has donated two other HandicappedPets’ carts, Finocchio says.
A fourth grade teacher from Ohio was the impetus for the first donation, Winters says. The teacher and her classroom raise money for a wheelchair donation, or two, each year as part of a curriculum about caring for pets.
For more information about HandicappedPets.com, visit the website at www.handicappedpets.com.