Meet Zeus. He is an adorable dog who had a home until he was about 6 months old. He began to limp, so his owners decided they didn’t want a “defective dog” and took him to a high kill rate shelter.
By the time his new owners got to the shelter, they knew they had to get him out, and get him out fast. There was no way that a paralyzed dog was going to last long in this shelter.
Zeus is pretty lucky that he was found by his new owners. An animal that is paralyzed isn’t necessarily going to be adopted quickly and knowing he was at a high kill rate shelter, they just couldn’t let him stay there.
Zeus couldn’t move, so there wasn’t really a point in keeping him in a crate. So they put him in a playpen, with a nice cozy blanket next to their desk, while they figured out what to do next.
By the next day, they had rescued Zeus from the shelter, taken him out of his play pen, and into the pool with a life jacket and all! One of his owners, Dawn, can be seen above with him in the pool.
One of Zeus’ owners recalls when they put him in the pool, “Zeus couldn’t do anything”. He couldn’t swim, couldn’t move, and had to be supported in every way.
Because Zeus couldn’t move in the pool, they decided to support him the best they could. One person took the front end, while the other took the back end. They moved his legs for him, to teach him how to swim.
They continued to take Zeus into the pool day after day.
After doing this for a period of time, Zeus began to build muscle where he needed it and learned to swim.
Every time he got out of the pool, they would dry him off with a towel, and put him on the ground to see if he would crawl.
At first he wouldn’t budge, but after a while, he started to crawl a little bit. It started with more of an army crawl where he would push with his back paws and pull a little bit with his front paws.
He continued to get stronger and stronger, until he could eventually crawl enough so he could get where he needed to go. They continued to give him exercise in the pool to help him build his muscles.
They continued this through October until their pool got too cold. A friend of theirs offered their pool for them to use, and even heated it for Zeus making his rehabilitation possible.
They continued Zeus’ training through the winter with the help of an indoor pool. In March, they were able to get Zeus into his very own wheelchair. They went with a company called Eddie’s Wheels.
They decided to put a call out on Facebook for donations so they could get Zeus his wheelchair. Within 3 days, they had such a great response, they had all the money they needed in order to purchase his new wheelchair.
Once they got the chair, they picked up Zeus, put him in it and strapped all the necessary harnesses to him.
They turned around to grab the last piece of the wheelchair, and Zeus was already walking across the living room!
They were amazed at how quickly Zeus got used to the wheelchair. He surprised everyone with his ambition and motivation.
Even with all of Zeus’ achievements, there were some setbacks. Because he was just a puppy when he was rescued, he had a lot of growing to do. With the growing, his muscle stretched which caused him to lose some strength. Rather than crawling like before, he was back to the doing the army crawl.
In good old Zeus fashion though, he did not let these setbacks frustrate him. He just kept on going. The people around him seemed more upset by these setbacks than Zeus did.
He bounced back quickly though, and was able to get around again with the use of his wheelchair.
After the first setback and regaining his strength, he began to walk a little bit on his own. He couldn’t walk far distances, but any progress he made was fantastic.
But then he hit another setback. This setback definitely affected the owners, but this time it did bother Zeus as well.
He would get mad. He’d bark, whine, and cry. But he never once quite. He’d eventually get up and crawl to where he needed to go.
He got over this setback though, and continued to learn how to walk, amazing every single person around him with his never say never attitude.
He is now walking up stairs and continues to improve every day.
Zeus has almost in a sense become a mascot for St. Francis. He goes to show that you don’t have to have a perfect pet in order to be inspired by them.
It’s good to know that there are really good people out there, that have the compassion and take the time that is needed to give these animals the best possible life.
More info: St. Francis
This is such an amazing story, showing that this animal was never going to give up. It’s amazing what living creatures can do with a little bit of love and support. While Zeus had some setbacks, he never gave up and always kept pushing forward.
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