This is Gunnar. Cancer survivor. Two separate hip replacements. And now, diagnosed with DM. With help from people all over the country, we personally visited him last evening and got him into a new wheelchair. Before we tell you how so many people made this possible, you need to know a little bit about the rough life that Gunnar has led, and why it was so important for us to help him.

Gunnar is an 8 year old Bernese Mountain Dog. He’s fought medical problems since he was only a few months old. When he was about a year old, he had two separate titanium hip replacement surgeries. He’s also a cancer survivor. Last year he had part of his lung removed to stop the cancer. Now he’s been diagnosed with Degenerative Myelopathy (DM), a nerve disease that results in paralysis. He can no longer stand or walk on his own. That’s a huge problem when he weighs 135 pounds. Not only for him, but for his humans to support his weight when he needs to stand, walk, eat, or do his business.

Gunnar’s humans have always given him the best of medical care, but now they needed help finding him a wheelchair, so Donald Perry, Manager of the Mansfield, Ohio Pet Valu – US store put them in touch with Rescued Rollers. This is where so many wonderful people enter the story.

We did not have a donated cart in stock to fit this 135 pound boy, but we knew he needed one, so we put a call out to our followers asking for help. In less than an hour, our friends at Gunnar’s wheels in Wisconsin stepped up and said they would find us a cart. One of their extra-large loaner carts was on its way back from Texas. They forwarded it to us in Ohio as soon as it arrived. In the meantime, we also had a large set of doggie boots arrive from Falco and his mom Colleen in North Carolina, one of our previous cart recipients.

Last evening we went to meet this gentle giant, and get him mobile. As you can see from the pictures and the video in the comments, he is doing pretty good. His sister Sadie supervised us and approved of the new wheels. She also approved of the Frisbee we left enough to take off with it across the yard before Gunnar could try it out for himself. 😛

We could not help so many dogs and their families without the cooperation of so many people. For Gunnar alone, we had Pet Valu in Ohio help, Gunnar’s Wheels in Wisconsin, the chair donor in Texas, the donor of the boots in North Carolina, and of course Rescued Rollers in Ohio, not to mention the many people who have donated money in order to cover parts or shipping expenses.

Every donation, whether dollars, pet wheelchairs or other items help dogs like Gunnar to have a quality of life that they deserve. Thank you for all of your support. You are a part of this. You should feel good about helping these dogs. Just because they have special needs doesn’t mean they are broken. They are just different, not less.

And just in case you’re wondering, Gunnar was a sweetheart. He was very tolerant of the fit and adjusting that we had to do, and he was smiling by the time we left. He’s a happy dog with so much life left to live. You can see it in his eyes. There is a video of his wheelchair test-run: