Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

Two months ago, an­i­mal ac­tivist Wendy Ramirez was dri­ving along Wendy Fitzwilliam Boule­vard, Diego Mar­tin, when she saw a man at­tempt­ing to help an in­jured dog, so she stopped and as­sist­ed.

Up­on fur­ther in­spec­tion, Ramirez re­alised that the dog, named Ralph, was se­ri­ous­ly dam­aged, so she took him to a vet­eri­nary clin­ic in west Trinidad.

“It was de­ter­mined that he had a se­vere spine in­jury re­sult­ing in paral­y­sis of the hind legs,” K9 care provider Carey An­nands­ingh said.

An­nands­ingh said eight-year-old Ralph was down, but he was not out and start­ed pulling him­self for­ward with his front legs short­ly af­ter the ac­ci­dent.

Short­ly af­ter his in­jury, Ramirez no­ticed that he was hap­py to drag him­self around. “He’s not let­ting that stop him; he wants to go,” she said.

Ralph has a drag bag, and two an­i­mal res­cue non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions–the Mustapha Project and Tardieu’s Kit­ten and Pup­py Sanc­tu­ary–do­nat­ed two wheel­chairs.

“He has been liv­ing a full life now that he has his wheel­chair. Now that he’s mo­bile, this lil guy is just hav­ing a good time. He’s to­tal­ly awe­some, and you will re­alise that once you see him on the go,” An­nands­ingh said.

But with over $10,000 al­ready spent on Ralph’s care and lim­it­ed space at clin­ics or shel­ters to house him, this de­ter­mined mixed-breed dog needs a home. “Al­most all res­cue groups, al­most all shel­ters, and sanc­tu­ar­ies are burst­ing at the seams; it means that in cas­es like Ralph, there is no op­tion ex­cept to pay for board­ing at a pri­vate fa­cil­i­ty,” she ex­plained.

An­nands­ingh, who is al­so the founder of a small fam­i­ly an­i­mal res­cue in Diego Mar­tin, called Fairview Res­cue, said that con­tributes sig­nif­i­cant­ly to some of the as­so­ci­at­ed fees.

She de­scribed Ralph as “very strong-willed, hap­py, and easy to love.”

And added, “I think that is why Ralph has just cre­at­ed this au­ra around him, and he’s had so much in­ter­est.”

How­ev­er, to care for Ralph, some­one will have to reg­u­lar­ly in­spect any wounds that might form from his unique move­ments as some may re­quire med­ical at­ten­tion. His chair would need to be re­placed,  or at least parts of it would need to be changed ever so of­ten.

“Oth­er than that, he is a neutered, vac­ci­nat­ed dog that, just like all oth­ers, needs good food, wa­ter, shel­ter, as well as ex­er­cise, di­rec­tion, and af­fec­tion,” she said. Any­one will­ing to adopt Ralph can call Fairview Res­cue at 734-6067 to be in­ter­viewed. An­nands­ingh sad she has “a very strict screen­ing pro­gramme.”

An­nands­ingh called on own­ers to take per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and neuter or spay their pets, as well as keep them in an en­closed area and stay healthy.