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Home Depot Employees Build Custom Wagon for Dog with Cancer

APRIL 20, 2015 UPDATE: Ike has lost his battle with cancer, according to Dr. Marty Becker. Risa Feldman told him Ike crossed the Rainbow Bridge on April 14. “I laid him down to sleep, over the ocean on a hilltop,” she said, “among some special friends at sunset. He was so content, but ready to go.”

Ernesto Moran and Justin Wadman truly deserve Home Depot Employees of the Year awards.

When Risa Feldman went to the Home Depot in Hawthorne, Calif., and asked Moran for advice on how to improve the cart for her 15-year-old dog, Ike, who has difficulty walking due to bone cancer in a rear leg, Moran didn’t just explain what to do. He and Wadman voluntarily built a new “Ike’s Trike” wagon themselves.

“I showed him the cart that I was trying to use and I asked him, ‘What can I do to change this cart and build it so that it’s longer or his size?'” Feldman told KABC. “He just shook his head and said, ‘Let me give it some thought and I’ll call you later.'”

Feldman has had Ike ever since he was 3 years old. He may only have a few months left to live, so Feldman is making his final days as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. She said he especially enjoys people watching at Manhattan Beach, where they live.

“It’s his favorite thing to do,” Feldman told ABC News. “He’ll lay there in the sun.”

Ike still enjoys walks along the beach, with the help of a harness or cart. Unlike his previous cart, Ike’s Trike was built to the dog’s size, and one end unfolds into a ramp to make it easy for him to get on board.

Moran and Wadman also built a ramp to make it easier for Ike to climb into Feldman’s car.

Ike was presented with his Ike’s Trike yesterday.

“I offered to build this for her and let her know that it’s something that Home Depot offers — giving back to our customers,” Moran told KABC.

Feldman said Ike immediately felt right at home in his pawesome new ride.

“I just wanted people to know that there are still people out there who do good things,” she told KABC.

Photos via Twitter, Twitter

Dachshund Gets Medal of Valor for Saving Saint Bernard

Two weeks ago, a 180-pound Saint Bernard named Jazzy escaped from her Belen, N.M., yard and ended up stuck in a ditch filled with mud for nearly 18 hours.

Jazzy is probably alive today thanks to her buddy Razor, a Dachshund who’s barely a foot tall.

“I went to feed [Razor], and he was kind of going crazy, trying to get my attention,” Tim Chavez, dog dad of Jazzy and Razor, told KRQE Feb. 18. He said his neighbor also noticed that Razor “was kind of running amok, and just causing a scene and trying to get his attention.”

Just as Lassie once led rescuers to Timmy in the well, Razor ran to the ditch. After a call to 911, eight Belen police officers and firefighters arrived and pulled Jazzy out, using a board and straps as they would for a human. She wasn’t seriously hurt.

“It’s never happened in my career, and in this business, we see a lot of things,” Belen Fire Chief Manny Garcia told KRQE. “We’re used to rescuing humans, and when it comes to somebody’s pet, it’s just like a family member.”

Chavez said he is grateful to have Jazzy back. “You don’t really realize how attached you are to your pets until something like this happens,” he told KRQE.

During the Baleen city council meeting last night, Razor was honored with a Medal of Valor for his “unknowingly valiant effort.” He was also presented with a rawhide bone that was almost as big as he is.

Capt. Joe Saiz of the Baleen fire department told KOAT he was inspired by Razor.

“Everybody should be doing stuff like this,” Saiz said. “If everybody gives a little, it’s going to make this world a better place.”

Another of Chavez’s dogs, a brown-and-white Pit Bull named Layla, escaped from the yard with Jazzy, but hasn’t yet been found. Razor, get help!

Photos via YouTube

Homeless Woman Walks 3 Miles in Storm to Take Abandoned Dog to Shelter

MARCH 6, 2015 UPDATE: As of this morning, over $2,300 has been raised via the Help Lisa Snyder, Joey’s Friend online fund to pay for repairs to Snyder’s van. Rami Packer, owner of Butch’s Auto Repair in San Pedro, heard about the good Samaritan and offered to repair her van.

“Dear wonderful people, thank you!!!” Snyder wrote yesterday. “You’ve brought joy, comfort and relief to me in my situation, and I want to point to every one of you and tell the skeptics and fear-mongers of the world, look! There’s the REST of the truth! … I will not forget you, not even all you people named ‘Anonymous’!”

“My name is Joey. I am looking for a home. Please take care of me!!” read a handwritten note attached to the collar of a Pointer mix who’d been tied to a light post Sunday in a San Pedro, Calif., park.

Lisa Snyder, who has been living in her van with three rescue cats in the parking lot of Point Fermin Park, decided to take care of Joey. She grabbed hold of his leash after he broke free from the light post.

“He was scared,” Snyder told CBS Los Angeles. “He was snapping. And growling. And trying to get away from people. He was just scared.”

She walked Joey around the park, trying to find someone who would take him.

“At first, I asked a lot of people, ‘Would you like a dog?’ And of course, nobody would like a dog,” she said. “So, then I thought, Well, what am I gonna do?”

Since her cats are not dog friendly, Snyder decided to walk Joey to the nearest animal shelter. It was cold and raining, and Snyder has to use a cane, but she managed to walk Joey to the Harbor Animal Care Center, three miles away.

“I got to thinking, If I had left him out here with all that wind coming off the bluff and all that pouring rain and no shelter over there at all, he would have ended up sick, maybe dead,” she said.

Joey, who is microchipped, is on a 10-day hold at the shelter. If his owner — who, it seems, should face charges for abandoning the dog — doesn’t claim him, Joey will be available for a new forever home March 13. With a strong emphasis on “forever.”

“I hope he finds a good family. A forever home. He needs one. He deserves one. He’s a good dog,” Snyder said.

An online fund was created yesterday to raise money to repair Snyder’s van, which does not run. The goal is $500; as of this morning, $225 has been donated.

“Lisa lives out of her van since she fell on hard times and could use help to repair her vehicle,” wrote Lorna Lee Locke Salem, who started the fundraiser.

“She opened her heart. Let’s open ours and help her.”

Photo via gofundme.com

Blind 11-Year-Old Lab Survives 2 Weeks Lost in Alaska

Madera, a blind, 11-year-old black Lab who got lost in Alaska Feb. 6, was saved by the bell.

Constantine Khrulev was riding his bike Thursday, accompanied by his dog — who was wearing the bell on his collar — when he heard another dog whining. He found Madera under a tree about 100 yards from the trail.

Madera had gone missing from her Ester home two weeks earlier after the wife of her dog dad, Ed Davis, let her out of the house to do her business.

Usually Madera came back inside as soon as she was finished. But as the temperature dipped to 40 degrees below zero, Madera was nowhere to be found.

Davis was out of town at the time, working at the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. He wasn’t optimistic about finding Madera alive when he returned home this week.

“My best hope was to walk those trails and look for a track that might be hers,” Davis told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. “My best hope was to find a frozen dog.”

Madera had ended up in the woods only half a mile from her home. The senior pooch somehow managed to survive nearly two weeks in sub-zero weather.

When Khrulev found Madera, he brought her to a neighbor of the Davis family. Madera, who lost her eyesight due to an autoimmune disease, shed about 14 pounds during her ordeal, but was in good condition considering the circumstances.

“Maybe Madera went on a vision quest,” wrote Sharon Alden in a comment on the News-Miner article. “I saw Ed and Madera this week and she’s the same sweet dog with a great spirit and a now-trim waistline. I’m so amazed that this had a happy ending.”

Davis offered Khrulev a $100 reward, but Khrulev refused it and asked him to donate it to the Fairbanks Animal Shelter Fund. Impressed, Davis increased the donation to $250.

The News-Miner article doesn’t mention it, but I bet Davis will get Madera a bell of her own.

Photo via Facebook

Devoted Dog Dad Who Cradled Schoep in Lake Gets a New Pup

You probably remember this photo if you were one of the millions who saw it when it went viral three years ago. Snapped by photographer Hannah Stone Hudson, it poignantly captured John Unger of Bayfield, Wisc., cradling his dog Schoep in Lake Superior.

Schoep, 18, had arthritis, and the lake’s warm water was soothing. Sometimes Unger would sit there for hours, holding him.

Unger found Schoep, who’d been abused, in a shelter back in 1995. Unger was suffering from depression at the time.

“He was my life,” Unger told KARE. “He saved me that night and I could only do my very best for him after that.”

Thanks to the photograph, donations for Schoep’s veterinary care poured in, allowing him to live a remarkable 20 years. He died in July 2013, cradled in Unger’s arms.

“It was really tough after Schoep left and I didn’t know what to do with my time,” Unger told KARE. “It was re-learning how to live, and once I learned that and once I got through the toughness of his love, that’s when I started searching [for a dog] again.”

He said Schoep remains in his thoughts. “I talk to him still. Thank him for everything,” he told KARE.

On Monday, Unger became “whole again,” he wrote on the Schoep and John Facebook page.

He adopted Bear, a year-old Akita/Shepherd/Lab mix who’d been surrendered to the Northwoods Humane Society.

“Ladies and Gentlemen – This Is BEAR!” Unger wrote. “The journey continues with the addition of Bear into my home, heart, soul and OUR lives!”

Bear is one very lucky dog. Here’s wishing the two many happy years together.

You can send a welcome note to John and Bear at P.O. Box 434, Bayfield, WI 54814.

The photo of Unger cradling Schoep can be purchased from Stonehouse Photo.

Photos via Facebook

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