Dog News

Home Depot Employees Pay for & Build Disabled Dog’s Wheelchair

by Melanie

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7.12.14 - Home Depot Employees Pay for & Build Disabled Dog’s Wheelchair

Rebecca Pierce and her rat terrier, Wally, are two of a kind. He means everything to Rebecca, so when she came back from a trip out of town and went to pick him up from her vet’s kennel service to find out something had gone wrong, she was crushed. But the kindness of the employees of Home Depot helped change that!

Upon arriving at the kennels, Rebecca was immediately taken into an exam room and had no clue what she was about to be facing.

“They brought him in and I saw he couldn’t use his two back legs,” she said.

The kennel staff had to inform her they were also clueless as to what had gone wrong with Wally’s legs.  The suspected cause of his paralysis was a herniated disc in his spine.  Both Wally and Rebecca were left feeling helpless while the vets tried to figure out what had happened.

“He looked like a seal.  He was using his front paws to get around.  He’d either be sitting side-saddle or dragging his legs behind him,” said Rebecca.

Even though the vet staff was stumped, Wally’s spirit never dampened.  He still remained his sweet little self.  Rebecca got to work on some sort of temporary solution to Wally’s mobility issue.  As with most people today, she hit the internet and began researching what her options were.

“I saw people on YouTube making dog wheelchairs.  I thought, he’s still in good spirits.  He’s still happy.  He’s eating, he’s drinking.  I bet I could make one of those,” she said.

After seeing the videos and getting her plans in order, Rebecca went to her local Home Depot with Wally in her arms.  That’s where they met Wally’s guardian angels.

Store employees Debbie Klaczynski and Greg Worrell, both in their bright orange aprons spent two hours helping to build Wally the best wheelchair he could possibly have.

“Rebecca was really down.  It was just, her day was done.  This is her dog, all she had.  It’s her love.  Anything we could do to make it better, made our experience that much more,” Gregg said.

After the project was complete, Rebecca and Wally, with his brand new set of wheels went to the registers to pay.  This is where they were informed that management had insisted on covering all costs.

“She’s going to have an incredible amount of bills with this guy.  This was an easy fix for us,” said Debbie.

Two weeks have passed now, and Wally is doing better.  He seeing a dog chiropractor for treatments and adjustments.  Slowly but surely, Wally is regaining strength in his hind legs.  However, for the time being, Wally is getting around just fine in his shiny new wheels.