Niazi family fashions a unique contraption to bring back the joy in their duke’s life

Duke, the family’s dog, lost much of the sensation in his hind legs after he contracted tick fever.

KARACHI: In the cosy environs of their little home on Khayaban-e-Qasim, the Niazi family told The Express Tribune the story of how they fashioned a unique wheel chair for their dog, Duke, who had lost the use of his hind legs.

“My mother named him Duke because he had a very princely feel about him,” explained Rubaba Niazi, who brought the six-year-old dog into their family when he was a little puppy. The family realised soon after that he had a weak hip but he didn’t need wheelchair support then because he was still young.

“He was so beautiful that we would take him to the beach, people would want to have pictures taken with him. I think he caught the evil eye,” she said.

A few month ago, Duke contracted tick fever after which he became so weak that his hind legs collapsed and he couldn’t even sit up. “Then, because he wasn’t moving around much, the muscles in his paws began to atrophy as well,” explained Rubaba.

“This was when he got maggots,” recalled Eman, Rubaba’s son. “A lot of people assume that when your dog gets maggots, you have no choice but to put him to sleep. That kind of ignorance is cruel. You can even treat your dog for maggots yourself” Eman compared the situation to whenhuman beings contract diseases. “You find a way to save them. You don’t put them to sleep.”



The family, which began constructing the wheel chair early in February, explained that it was Duke’s will to live that got him through. “I kept redesigning the wheel chair because I wanted to get it just right for him,” said Rubaba. The wheel chair has been built in a way that it allows Duke to move on his paws with his hind legs freely suspended in a very comfortable strap at the back. “When he started using it, it was like he had come back to life. He began to run. It has only been four days since he has been using the wheel chair regularly, but has made the connection between evening time and his wheel chair. A smile appears on his face whenever we put him in it.”

“The real magnitude of how useful an invention like this can be for pet-lovers struck me when we showed the wheel chair to our vet, Dr Peerzada, who had been treating Duke. He explained that quite a few animal owners in Karachi needed this.”

Rubaba went on to speak about how Duke was a thorough gentleman, in the true sense of the word. “Chelsea (one of the two other female dogs owned by the family) has had a litter twice now but her personality is more like that of the Alpha male of the pack - haughty and indifferent.” Chelsea gives birth and then she feels that her job is done. Her babies would go and cuddle with Duke who would act like a father-figure towards them even though they weren’t his, Rubaba shared fondly.

“I just want the people who hear about this story and who have an ailing pet to know that they must not lose hope,” she added. “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2013.