We also made a cart for a Pot-bellied pig this year. They contacted us to make him wheels, and he did have the miracle of healing. In fact, the day that we delivered his cart, he started using his back legs right in front of our eyes. He went from being completely down to using the cart like a walker.

Halo amiable viewers, and welcome to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. On today's program we present the concluding episode in our two-part series on Eddie's Wheels, a company co-founded by Eddie and Leslie Grinnell that’s dedicated to enhancing the lives of disabled animals and their caregivers.

By manufacturing wheelchairs, the Grinnells have enabled thousands of beloved animal companions to live with greater joy, dignity and freedom. When their own canine friend suddenly became paralyzed at the age of 10, Eddie Grinnell, a mechanical engineer, designed and built their first dog wheelchair, and the results were beyond the couple’s wildest expectations.

I remember she dragged her legs behind her, and that cart didn't have stirrups, so she ended up with wounds on her feet. And I would be bandaging her legs and feet trying to deal with these wounds. And after about three months, she starting picking her feet up again, and using the cart like a walker. And I called my vet, and I said, “She's getting her feet down flat, she's using her legs, she's getting muscle mass again,” because all of her musculature had withered away.

So, I asked the vet, “What's going on here?” And she said, "Well, there is a phenomenon we call ‘spinal walking.’ The body does have the ability to compensate for neurological injuries.” And I suspect that it's something like the Chinese meridian system in acupuncture, where you can find other neural pathways to go around that short circuit in the spine. She never ran again, but she walked.

Over the past 10 years, Eddie's Wheels has provided thousands of wheelchairs to dogs and other animals suffering from paralysis, injuries or degenerative diseases, and the Grinnells are inspired by the attitude of these animals.

What we learn from animals is that they have no self-consciousness. They’re not proud. They’re not thinking about what people are going to think of them. And when we set a dog up in a cart, they turn around, they look at the wheels and they say, “Hmm, look at that, that's standing me up. Hmm, my back end is up where it belongs. Okay.”

And sometimes I have to give them a cue, sometimes I have to pull them forward and then (they realize), “Oh, those wheels are following me.” And then they take off. We call it the “five-second learning curve.” And then they’re outside, down the ramp and ready to go. And, I think they’re so inspiring because they don’t feel sorry for themselves, and they say, “Yes, thanks for the cart, thanks for the upgrade, thanks for this.” They just keep going.

Leslie and Eddie are the caregivers of four happy, vibrant dogs. Let's first meet Sweet Pea and Daisy.

Okay, so this is my dog family, this is Sweet Pea, and she is a 10-year-old Pit Bull that we rescued through the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in New York City. We adopted her when no one else would come forward to adopt an incontinent, paralyzed Pit Bull. Her volunteers came to us and said, “We really don’t want to see Sweet Pea euthanized.” And I knew her, and I said, “No, that can’t happen.” So she came here and we adopted her and she is just a great dog. And we love her dearly.

This is Daisy. She has been our mascot since 2001. And Daisy was very challenging because she always spoke Spanish when I got her. So I had to learn how to speak Spanish. This is Daisy’s cart. Daisy started out totally paralyzed with four herniated disks. And, and she is now 16 years old, and she’s been using wheels for 10 years. She’s getting very old now, she is toothless, but she is still in good health, and she certainly gets around just fine in her cart.

Willa and Webster are recently adopted family members, and are also doing quite well under the Grinnells’ loving care.

Willa and Webster, who are Chihuahua- Dachshund mixes, are 18 months old now, and I adopted them almost a year ago. They were born with no front-legs. And we are the only company in the world that makes a two-wheeled cart for dogs with front-leg disabilities, and we decided to adopt these two in order to learn more about the special challenges of dogs with front-leg disabilities.

We feel like we could give better customer service to our clientele because the front-wheel cart is more challenging than a rear-wheel cart. The great gift that Willa and Webster have given me is that when they came to me as puppies they were seven months old, they had absolutely no self-consciousness about their disabilities. They bounced around like little kangaroos on their back legs.

Thanks to their experience with Willa and Webster, the Grinnells have been able to perfect their front-wheel carts, which are especially beneficial for dogs who have lost one of their front-legs as well.

So what’s really great about the front-wheel carts is we do a lot of tripods and amputees in front-wheel carts; dogs that have been compensating for an amputation will end up with shoulder, neck, elbow and carpal problems.

They’ll end up with arthritis in the spine and then the back legs from being three-legged dogs. It’s a common myth that “Oh, dogs don’t need four legs, they get along fine on three.” No, they don’t really; as they get older they develop arthritis, they have ligament and tendon problems.

So if we can put a three-legged dog in a cart, we can preserve their overall health and the health of their joints and spines. We can give them more freedom, they can go for longer walks, they can stay in good shape.

Because canines differ in their disabilities, weight, size and proportions, the wheelchairs are custom designed and hand crafted for individual clients. Leslie Grinnell now explains the process of how the carts are ordered, designed and assembled at Eddie’s Wheels.

So what usually happens is, people find us on the Internet, when they are faced with the prospect of caring for their disabled animal. And there’s a measurement form there, that they can fill out. And then when we are satisfied that everything’s accurate, we talk about what the disabilities are and how best to address those disabilities. So then we have a piece of paper that is the work order and we bring it down to Ed, and he is the person who designs the frame, and specifications of the cart.

So let’s now meet Eddie, the founder of Eddie’s Wheels!

Hi!

Okay, so this is Eddie, He’s the engineer. And, this is his office where he draws everything and designs all the carts. And what are you working on now, Eddie?

A forty-three pound, Pit Bull needs a front-wheel cart, he has got one front-leg missing.

So, Eddie will make a drawing, and then someone on our crew, we have two people who specialize in front-wheel carts, will, make the cart based on the drawings that he makes today.

I make a full-scale model drawing.

And it’s a lot of work to do this drawing.

It takes about an hour to draw a front-wheel cart.

In addition to carts for dogs, Eddie’s Wheels has made wheelchairs for cats, goats, pigs, rabbits and even raccoons, and recently they’ve expanded their area of expertise by making a cart for Spin, a young lamb.

We are working with a growing sheep right now. Spin the lamb has been in five carts so far. She started out at 12 days old in her first cart. And we have been able to have her come in as she outgrows her carts and my wonderful customers donate some of their carts back to us so we have a deck with different size carts that were built for different dogs.

She belongs to a wonderful veterinarian. And so we have been working very closely with him and his wife to get Spin’s congenital injuries under control so that she can be a sheep. And she is out there in the pasture grazing six to 12 hours a day and having the life of a sheep.

Animal rehabilitation is a fast-growing field that seeks to help animals recover from orthopedic conditions and other ailments through physical therapy. Eddie’s Wheels has designed one intelligent device to help professionals speed up their animal clients’ recovery.

A great deal in animal rehabilitation has been underwater treadmills. But there are some dogs that just don’t like water. So we thought since we have had Dobermans who don’t like water, why not work on land? So you combine a therapy stand and this stand that goes over the treadmill is adjustable and for different size dogs and this allows you to put the dog and create that miracle of posture of a healthy, normal stance.

And then the physical therapist has access to all four legs to do gait training, massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, and work them on a treadmill and it’s about 10% of the price of an underwater treadmill.

Leslie and Eddie feel truly blessed by having the chance to pursue this line of work.

I get thanked every day for coming to work here. We get emails from people who find us who do not even need us just thanking us for being there, knowing us, knowing that we exist. And that if anything happened to their beloved animals this would be an option for them.

Our sincere appreciation Leslie and Eddie Grinnell and staff of Eddie’s Wheels for enriching the lives of our animal companions through your wonderful carts and rehabilitation devices. Your dedication and love provides light and inspiration for us all. We wish you every success in your future, noble endeavors.

For more details on Eddie’s Wheels, please visit:

Thank you for your gentle company today on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News, here on Supreme Master Television. May all beings on Earth be healthy, happy and filled with inner peace.