After being hit by a car, a dog called Toozik lost the use of his back legs. Thanks to the care of Russian vets, two wheels have given him a new lease of life, and that life has now taken him to America.
About six months ago, Toozik was run over by a car and then left there alone on the road. Some eyewitnesses to the incident took the dog with them and brought him to a St. Petersburg clinic, where the dog underwent a serious operation, Aleksandr Gladkov from the Rzhevka animal shelter told RT.
The dog survived, but after the operation, his hind legs did not move. He was then taken to a shelter, where a pair of wheels was used to support his back instead of his disabled limbs.
"He ate well, came to his senses, became cheerful, and finally got interested in lady dogs, chasing them vigorously on a dog's wheelchair," Gladkov recalls.
The only problem left for Toozik – no place to call "home". That’s until Joyce Darrell and her husband Michael stepped in. The American couple agreed to shelter the dog and try and find a new family for him.
Joyce and Michael run an organization called “Pets with Disabilities”, which they started about ten years ago when their dog, Duke, suffered a severed spinal chord.
The amount of animals they’ve rehabilitated numbers in the hundreds. Many of them have new homes now.
"When it comes to animals with disabilities, I think all dogs and all living creatures have purposes," Joyce says.
It took months to make all the arrangements, but now Toozik has traveled across the Atlantic to Virginia to meet the Darrells. They say someone has already offered to adopt him.