A Family of Special-Needs Dogs & Cats

 

Ken Pope

Welcome!

This site tells about a family of special-needs dogs and cats who came to live in our home (and a few who have added so much to our therapy office).

Note: I could not have written this without one of the cats giving me special help on my computer.

Along the left side of the screen you'll see a navigation bar. Choose any of those links under "Topics on this Site," and you'll see the photographs and stories of Gracie, Charlie, Emma, Snow, Winter, Sirius, Milagro, Frankie, Jacob, Huckleberry, Lincoln, Ember, Gabriel, Harmony, Sarah, Louie, Ursa, Gideon, June, Leon, Annie, Rachel, Phoenix, Stormey, Ariel, Wendy, Homer, Pumpkin, Aurora, Lilian, Linus, Harry, Abby, Blue, Moon, and Flutie.

But here are some updates:

Calypso was born with eyes swollen several times normal size, inflamed and threatening to burst. They had to be surgically removed. Here he is resting his head on Dharma (a dog with an atypical seizure disorder) while recovering from the surgery. He now races around the house joyfully, finding each of the cats and dogs, and nuzzling up to them to cuddle or play. And, with the tables turned, here is Calypso cradling Annie, an old blind dog with a history of abuse, after her surgery.

Aurora, who'd been left doused with gasoline and her spine damaged so that her back legs were useless, now gets around fine in her red cart.

Gracie came from a California shelter literally hours before she was scheduled to be put down. Severe abuse had made her aggressive and she'd stayed the allotted number of days without anyone expressing an interest in adopting her. Over the years she's become friendly and affectionate. She even sings.

Phoenix was rescued from Ground Zero. She survived but had asthma, eye and ear damage, and other problems from the explosion and aftermath. She was terrified and, like Gracie, would attack anyone who came near, but came to trust others again and rediscovered her purr.

A NJ shelter contacted us about Harmony, who turned out to have an extremely rare muscle disorder for which there is no known treatment. We're working with the neurology and cardiology departments at Tufts Vet School on an experimental treatment using carbemazepine, and she's doing exceptionally well. Here is Harmony in the lion's lap.

Here's Betty, found at around one week old, blind, abandoned, near death.

Annie was an old dog, blind and deaf, rescued near death (from abuse, including a broken jaw) by a MA animal-control administrator. Although Annie met none of the contractual criteria for "saving," the administrator didn't have the heart to put her down because of her spirit, and asked if we'd consider adopting her. Her medical problems are controlled by insulin and other drugs, and she is now full of life and play. Here is Annie with Emma & Sarah.

Westwind had 30% chance of making it to her 1st birthday because she was born with dysautonomia and megaesophagus, but she's now 18 months old. She has to eat & drink standing up and we carry her upright for 30 minutes after each meal. Here Westwind is cuddling with Faith, Jonah, & Winter.

We lost Abby and Harry, a brother and sister who had the feline leukemia virus and lymphoma.

It's possible that you were looking for another web site in this series. Here are links to those 3 sites:

Please follow this link to the site providing information and resources for companion, assistance, and special-needs animals.

Please follow this link to the site providing full-text articles in psychology (from journals such as American Psychologist, Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, etc.) and other resources in psychology.

Please follow this link to the site with information and resources regarding accessibility and disability.

This site was designed to be accessible for people with disabilities and user-friendly for all visitors, regardless of which version of which operating system, browser, or assistive technologies you may be using. All pages in this site are in compliance with all levels of the W3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as well as Bobby full AAA approval level and the US Government Section 508 guidelines. All pages validate as XHTML 1.0 and use logical, structured markup as required. None of the pages uses java, java script, frames, pdf, or third-party plug-ins.

To find out about the accessibility feature of this site and how the work, please follow this link to using this site and its accessibility features or choose the "using this site" button on the navigation bar.

Thanks for Visiting!

Thanks for visiting this site. You can use the navigation bar on the left side of each page to travel to each section. If you'd like information and resources for companion animals, assistance or service animals, and special needs animals, please visit catanddoghelp.com.

Again: Welcome!

 

Bobby AAA Approval Icon   Section 508 Approval   Valid CSS Icon   Valid XHTML icon

 

[Back to Top]