By Jason J. Marchi, Courier
Correspondent:
Mark Twain left a
provision in his will for the care of his beloved cats following his demise.
That’s something East Haven resident Mark Gagliardi might consider doing for
his beloved dog Junior, since the crippled chow mix came to him through a
fortuitous chain of events that makes the dog one very special family member.
“I’ve always loved
dogs,” Mark says.
His first was a springer spaniel named Gaggy
(after the family’s last name) whom he got as a puppy when Mark was just eight.
Many dogs ensued over the following decades leading up to January 1997 when an
adult chow came into his life following a hit-and-run accident on Whitney Avenue in New Haven.
Left for dead, Mark
and his entire family pitched in to save the dog’s life, including more than
$7,000 in veterinary bills.
“They offered us
little hope…saying a million dollars couldn’t save this dog,” states Donna
Gagliardi, Mark’s sister.
A few hours later
the vet’s office called to say the dog, which the family had named Whitney, had
wagged her tail and they’d begun treating her more aggressively with this sign
of hope.
Unable to find her
owner, Mark took Whitney home a few days after surgery to complete her recovery
and Whitney officially became his.
“A month or so later
we noticed that Whitney seemed to be putting on weight. Shortly thereafter she
gave birth to five puppies,” Mark says. “No one, including the doctors at the
hospital, knew she was pregnant when she was hit by the car and went through
her surgery.”
After Whitney’s
story appeared in the New Haven Register, Mark received more than 100 phone
calls and all the pups ended up in good homes.
“My family put the
prospective owners through quite an interview process before letting the dogs
go,” Mark notes.
After a full decade
of companionship in which Mark and Whitney rarely parted company, the dog’s
health took a turn for the worse, and what appeared at first to be an infection
was diagnosed as cancer. Whitney died in August.
“The family incurred
another $7,000 worth of vet bills hoping she could be saved but she didn’t make
it,” Mark says.
This last round of
vet’s bills is something Mark didn’t need, since he is now on disability
insurance. Still, he felt he owed it to Whitney to give her the best medical
care since she had been such a loving and devoted companion.
That love for
Whitney left a void in Mark’s life he never expected to fill again—that is
until his sister Debbie was looking through photographs of dogs at animal
shelters and ran across one dog that was the spitting image of Whitney.
That dog, named
Junior, turned out to be in a New York City no-kill ASPCA shelter for more than
a year when Mark went down to see him.
“They didn’t tell me
before hand that Junior can’t walk,” Mark says. “He has neuropathy [a
degenerative never disease] and lost the use of his hind legs.”
Handicap aside,
Junior looked like Whitney’s twin, and that was just too much for Mark to
resist. Junior went home with Mark to become his new companion. Each day Mark
lifts Junior into a doggy wheelchair so they can take walks along the sidewalks
of East Haven together.
“Having a dog like
Junior requires a lot of dedication,” Mark explains. “When he is not attached
to his cart, which he uses only for outdoor walks two or three times a day, he
lies on his doggy bed.”
Mark then has to
turn Junior regularly to prevent bedsores, and he gives the dog’s crippled legs
regular messages to help with blood circulation.
While Mark now has
his work cut out for him, he says he’d adopt an animal from a shelter again,
and without hesitation.
“I tell everybody if
you are going to adopt go to a shelter first so these beautiful animals don’t
have to be destroyed. There are so many of them.”
Pictured: While
living on a disability fixed income himself, Mark Gagliardi provides the
constant care that Junior, a chow mix, needs because of the dog’s physical
handicap. Mark holds a photo of Junior’s predecessor, Whitney, and Junior’s
doggy wheelchair is on the left.
Photo by Jason J. Marchi
To nominate a person
of the week, email Jason Marchi at j.marchi@shorepublishing.com or call 203-245-1877
x 6166.