The fearless, disabled ‘Kangaroo Dog’

kangaroo dog

This 2-year-old Chihuahua mix named Victory from Dearborn Michigan has a congenital birth defect that prevents her from fully extending her front legs. She was rescued stray dog who was found running around on the streets in Michigan.

 

Luckily the Dearborn Animal Shelter was able to raise $10k, according to the Detroit Free Press. They arranged the treatment she needed through their Hope’s Heroes program for animals that have special needs. In a release, Dearborn Animal Shelter said OrthoPets of Denver custom-built and donated Victory’s prosthetics. First, she had a sled. Now, she has a four-wheel cart. In a third stage she’ll get a prosthetic with fewer wheels to increase mobility.

victory kangaroo

It’s amazing how these wonderful people from the shelter were able to raise the money to help Victory walk again.  In case you were wondering, Victory was given her name because of her daily optimism. She has been briefly afraid of her devices when she first started using them, but seems to have mastered getting around with on her new wheels. And she can travel quite fast, said Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter Executive Director Elaine Greene, who adopted the pup.

“She is pretty fearless and took quickly to the wheels,” Greene said in a release. “She sometimes needs a leash to slow her down when we take her outside.” Adopting a special needs animal is not for everybody (treatment can be cost-prohibitive), but can be an amazing opportunity victory-kangaroo-dogfor some, according to Sandra Boulton, the shelter’s PR director. “Those who have adopted special needs animals from our Shelter often describe the experience as more rewarding for them than they could ever have imagined,” she told The Huffington Post. “They are inspired by the animal’s courage, by its unending devotion and ability to adapt.

 

 

Here’s more from the Detroit Free Press:
The Chihuahua mix – named Victory by staff at the shelter – has deformed front legs that give her the appearance of a kangaroo. A fund-raising campaign to buy devices to help her mobility exceeded its goal by more than threefold – and drew international attention.

“The fact that she has this disability and she pushes right through it I think is a victory,” said Elaine Greene, executive director of Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter, the nonprofit group that operates the shelter.

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Victory is about 1 year old. Greene said she had no wounds or calluses on her elbows when a man, whose daughter saw her in the street, brought her to the shelter Feb. 2, indicating that whoever owned her last took good care of her.

Other than her shortened front legs, she is in good health. She has a sweet demeanor and prefers feline companions.

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