Langley Advance

Friday, September 15, 2006 11:27 AM

Animal shelter: Restoring the dog'smobility

An injured bull dog has charmed the staff at the Langley Animal Shelter.

by Matthew Claxton

Patches, one of the newest dogs at the Langley Animal Protection Society's shelter, doesn't know she is at the centre of a mystery.

The friendly female American bull dog was found on Sept. 7 in a semi-rural area of central Langley. She had no identification tags, but she couldn't have been lost for long.

Patches doesn't have the use of her back legs.

"She doesn't appear to be in any pain," said animal shelter manager Sean Baker. "She can still wag her tail, which is odd, but she can't use her back legs."

Named Patches by shelter staff, she still scoots around, pulling her back legs behind her across tile, linoleum or grass outside.

She'll move as fast as she can if she sees someone holding a treat, or thinks she can get scratched behind the ears.

When she needs to move farther, the staff pull her in a wagon, or support her hindquarters with a towel and she runs along on her front legs.

Patches appears to suffer from a slipped disk in her back, which has damaged her spinal cord in some way. The final diagnosis will have to wait for a visit to a specialist vet in Burnaby.

The cause of the spinal injury appears to be trauma, but that could mean anything from a bad fall to being struck by a car.

Baker said there's no sign of any other injuries to Patches, and she seems to have been in good health and walking on all four legs until sometime in the past few weeks.

She doesn't have any scars, bruises or cuts that might be signs of abuse, and she is very friendly and loving to everyone she has met so far.

That almost completely rules out the notion that her owners hurt her, and Baker said the SPCA hasn't been contacted.

How she got separated from her owner in her current state is a mystery, and the shelter would love to hear from them.

In the meantime, Patches can look forward to better mobility in the future.

The shelter has contacted an American firm called Doggon' Wheels, which builds wheelchairs for dogs who have lost the use of their rear legs.

It will cost the shelter about $800 for a chair to fit a dog of Patches' size. That's on top of the $80 for X-rays and the $150 for a visit to a specialist.

Fortunately, a local family has come forward to help out.

The family, which adopted a dog a few years ago from the shelter, dropped by and were charmed by the friendly dog.

They have generously donated $600 to help out, even though they can't adopt Patches themselves, Baker said.

Last Thursday, the shelter passed the one-week period it holds dogs while it waits for their owners to arrive, and it is now looking for a good home to adopt Patches.

Baker warns that the shelter staff are going to be picky about potential owners - they don't want someone to come down and pick her up just because of sympathy.

"It's a big commitment," Baker said. "We want someone who actually wants to take this on."

The staff and volunteers at the shelter have been showering Patches with attention since she arrived.

"We'd like to be able to help her," Baker said.

"She's a pretty cool dog."