Part deux, if you missed Bolo’s Rescue Tail part one, its here.

Bolo’s rescue tail was touch and go for this poor boy that a I barely knew. Days passed by with updates from the vet clinic that they were doing everything they could. Finally, the call came that he was ready to go ‘home’. And just where was that exactly? His family had pretty much pitched him to the curb and had written him off completely.

And what was the catch? He was 100% paralyzed. Um, what? He didn’t know me, and had managed to avoid me and Nam Ngiaw for the month he had lived in my village. Now he was my responsibility? My dog? What could – would I do?

It was all pretty much a blur after that. I picked him up and brought him home to meet Nammie and settle him into what would be his place for the next year of his life: on a yoga mat under the staircase. To say I had no idea of what to do with this poor boy would be putting it mildly. Back then the web wasn’t quite what it is now, so I was somewhat limited in my access to information on DIY therapy for paralyzed dogs.

I spent the next few weeks researching, and learning how to perform physio therapy and anything else I could think of at the time, even visualization. Yes, I was desperate enough to try anything – and everything. Hey, don’t knock it til you try it! I feel it had amazing benefits: in not only Bolo’s physical being, but his metaphysical connection to life itself.

I have to say though, it didn’t take long for me to fall head over heels for Bolo. This poor boy had been so inhumanely discarded, yet he put his trust in me 100%. I was his new mama and we both felt it. He was so gentle and gazed into my eyes as I put him through non-stop therapy regimens, carting him all over town. He was just remarkable.

 Many more weeks passed by and his treatments expanded to include acupuncture, along with nerve medications, among others. I can’t lie, it was a tough slog, therapy three times a day no matter what I was going through personally. I made it happen. He had feeling in between his toes, but still no movement anywhere in his body.

This always kept me going, I remained positive waiting for the day I hoped would come, and some months later it was forthcoming. I heard about a vet that had a hydro therapy pool.

Watch this space for part 3…