FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A puppy who suffered severe abuse and was left paralyzed is being rehabilitated thanks to the efforts of a physical therapist and a local pet rescue group.
Good Karma Pet Rescue were first introduced to Goldie when a person found her in a park.
“She’d been dumped in a park, and a good Samaritan contacted our rescue,” April Lowe, a foster parent with Good Karma Pet Rescue, said.
7News cameras captured Goldie struggling to walk. Her previous owners neglected her and nearly starved her to death.
“Every day is another assessment, so every day, she comes in,” Kyle Krupa, a physical therapist at Athletix Rehab Recovery, said. “I want to see can she hold her weight a little bit longer than she could the previous session? Does she get fatigued as easy as she did before? Is she able to roll over? These short, little milestones, you have to create the milestones.”
When she was found, Goldie was covered in sores and unable to walk from being kept inside a small wire cage her whole life. On top of the mistreatment, the pup was left paralyzed, and the list of issues were endless.
“When I see her voluntarily move her own legs, that’s telling me, ‘Yes, there is something that can be done here,'” Krupa said. “Yes, we can get her bearing her own weight again, and we just need to feed her appropriately.”
Goldie’s spine is deformed and because of an at-home amputation, her tail was also left badly mutilated.
“You’re talking about a dog that has never interacted with any other dogs before and has never been mentally or cognitively engaged before,” Krupa said. “This dog was locked up her entire life and never was challenged like that, so once you’re able to create these challenges and see her actually put it together, that’s a huge step forward in the right direction.”
“I felt like with [Krupa’s] expertise, we really had a great shot at trying to get her as close to 100% as we could,” Lowe said.
However, once the pet rescue group found Goldie, they knew the recovery would be long and difficult, and she is being fostered by a volunteer.
Although Goldie has suffered, they hope her story proves that saving a mistreated animal is always worth it.
“She’s so loving and so appreciative, and she’s just a happy, spunky little dog,” Lowe said. “There’s been a lot of tears, but they’re happy tears because she’s having so many firsts, you know? She finally stood up. She’s chasing my dogs, so we have a lot of celebration.”
Despite the extra work and rehabilitation Goldie will need, her helpers are confident she will be close to a 100% recovery.
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