Handicapped Pets - For Elderly, Disabled, Special Needs, and Injured Pets

Dog Wheelchairs - 4th Graders raise money to buy wheelchair for injured pets

For the second year in a row, Kathy Barton, 4^th grade teacher in Velma, OK, brought her dog Hope into class. The twenty two 10 and 11 year old boys and girls kids loved playing with the fluffy white Australian Shepherd.

“Anybody notice anything different about him?” Kathy asked the first time she brought Hope into class. Several children looked puzzled.

“She’s blind.” Kathy said.

One student waved his hand in front of the dog’s nose. A pink tongue shot out and licked the boy’s fingers as if the dog could see perfectly well.

For the second year in a row, Kathy’s 4^th grade class was learning about handicapped pets; blind dogs, pets with cancer, and animals that need wheelchairs, harnesses, slings, pet diapers, and other handicapped pet equipment. Kathy Barton works closely with HandicappedPets.com, the leading website for products, services, and support for handicapped pets. She is teaching that pets (as well as people) with handicaps can lead happy, healthy lives and are treasured companions.

Soon this class, like last year’s would be planning bake sales, coke floats, and fund raisers to benefit their chosen special pet. Last year they raised enough money to help Johanna, a dog that had been injured by a gang of teens. They paid to fly the dog to her new home in Maine and purchased a wheelchair for her. This year, the class helped Scooter, a Chihuahua they found on the HandicappedPets.com website that was born without front legs or feet, but is otherwise completely healthy. They also made contributions to several handicapped pets organizations and put together ‘care packages’ for some of the animals pictured in the gallery section of HandicappedPets.com. Soon, they’ll be purchasing another wheelchair for a Handicapped Pomeranian in New York.

HandicappedPets.com is a complete resource for caretakers of elderly, disabled, and handicapped pets and includes products like wheelchairs for pets, pet diapers, special beds for incontinent pets, slings, orthopedic braces, and more. Also on the site are discussion areas, photo galleries, classified ads, articles, and other services and support for families and friends of handicapped pets.

Kathy Barton, along with thousands of teachers and caretakers around the country, work with HandicappedPets.com to create awareness that animals with disabilities can have quality lives and be an important part of a loving, caring family.