Pima Animal Care Center dog starts to roll with new mobility cart

Roo is about a year old, but she is just learning to walk.

That’s because the tiny Chihuahua was born without her two front legs.

Last month, she and about 40 other small-breed dogs were rescued from a hoarding situation after Pima Animal Care Center received a tip that the animals were at risk.

Roo was immediately placed in foster care instead of the shelter. “We wanted to give her a little extra TLC,” said Karen Hollish, PACC’s director of development and marketing.

Joanne Carrillo, a staff member in PACC’s new Pet Support Center, a phone bank dedicated to helping people keep their pets, immediately offered to take Roo home.

Roo, who earned her name because she stands on her hind legs, is becoming more outgoing, Hollish said. “Her personality is coming out more and more each day. She’s super in love with her foster mom.”

Carrillo, who often brings the little dog with her to work, says that fostering a special-needs pet is very rewarding.

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It became clear, however, Roo needed more medical care than PACC could provide.

Roo’s little wheelchair — as well as the costly hip surgery she will need once she is fully comfortable using her cart — was made possible by community donations to the shelter’s nonprofit partner, the Friends of PACC.

The John M. Simpson Foundation offered to match up to $5,000 in donations. The community overall donated nearly $10,000, which will make it easier to help other animals in extreme situations, Hollish said.

Roo wears her new cart for about two hours a day, with Carrillo guiding her therapy.

“It will take about six weeks until she really gets rolling,” Hollish said, noting that walking with the cart demands Roo use an entirely different muscle group than standing.

Her eventual hip surgery, needed to repair an injury, will be performed by orthopedic specialists from Veterinary Specialty Center of Tucson,” Hollish said.

Roo is not yet up for adoption, but there are other special needs animals that need extra care. There are also more than 400 adoptable dogs and 300 cats at PACC’s shelter, 4000 N. Silverbell Road, and its offsite PetSmart adoption locations.