July 9, 2025 • 29 mins
Season 3 of The Pawsome Companion begins with a deeply personal and refreshingly funny conversation. Travis C. Yates joins host Joanna Herrera from Florida to share how one determined little dog changed the course of his life. Travis is the author of Nobody Told Me My Legs Don’t Work: Journey of a Down Dog – a book that explores disability, healing, and identity through the eyes of his dog. Together, they talk about the lessons pets teach us, how humour and hardship often go hand in hand, and why our four-legged friends have a way of making us better humans. Expect heart, laughs, and maybe a tear or two. #PawsomeCompanion #TravisCYates #DogPodcast #DownDog #DogsWithDisabilities #AuthorInterview #Season3Launch #DogLovers #ResilientPets #PodcastAustralia Produced by Wavebreaker Productions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Pawson Companion, where
pets are part of our family. I'm
your host, Joanna Herrera, the founder of
Coco & Bondai. I'm very excited to
interview experts and pet owners to
share their stories and insights so you
can use them to take care of your babies.
(00:24):
When something is off, you feel it too.
This is Georgia. She loves walksbeach
runs and chasing the neighbour's
sprinkler. But lately, her limb got
worse. Slower mornings, less tail
wagging and no zoomies. Her humans tried
everything. Then they found Rose Hip
Vital Canine, a natural anti-inflammatory
(00:45):
backed by science. Just weeks later,
Georgia was back on her feet. More
comfort, more freedom and more of the dog
they love. Because when your best mate's
in pain, you'll do what it takes. Rose
Hip Vital. For joints, for life, for
love. Visit rosehipvital.com.au to
find out. Hello Travis,
(01:06):
how are you?I'm great, how are you?
Very well, thank you. So thank you for
joining us at the Possum Companion
Podcast, season three.
I want to say a short introduction about
about Travis.
Travis is an Emmy-winning
writer, multimedia artist, and associate
(01:27):
professor of communication. Travis is not
only a creative storyteller and a
compassionate educator, but he and his
wife have also spent over 20
years rescuing and rehoming
animals. His book, Nobody Told
Me My Legs Don't Work, Journey of
Down Dog is a moving trash
(01:49):
to his beloved dog called Jet.
who lost the use of her back leg
due to a spinal stroke.
Told through Jet's eyes, the story
mirrors Travis' own experience with
paralysis and shines a light on
resilience and conditional love and
finding joy in every moment.
(02:10):
Travis, we are honored to have you in our
show. Thank you so
much, honored to be here. Thank you so
much for taking your time, I know that
you are in Florida. So what time is
there, Travis?It's almost
midnight here. Okay.
So I would love to understand a
(02:30):
little bit more who are you, what you do,
and why you wrote this book.
Well, I am a communication professor and
a writer. Okay. And I
wrote this book
really to share the story of our
dog, Keegan. and her just amazing
(02:52):
spirit through the process of
losing her ability to walk,
and our journey to try to
get her back on all four paws,
and what an experience it was, a learning
experience, and how much it taught my
wife and I just about the amazing
spirit of animals. Umm And I
(03:14):
know that you are working rehoming and
rescuing animals. Is that
something that you started doing after
this happened too yet?Or it was
before that?It was
before and during. Okay. We've
since downsized from about
nine rescues to two. Wow.
(03:37):
And we started a a family,
we have a son now, but we're
always on the lookout for any type of
animal that that needs help from
the other daywalk I rescued a baby
bunny that was in the clutches of a cat's
mouth. So we're we're always on the
lookout for animals that that need help.
(03:59):
But it was quite a journey
and and when Keegan had her stroke, um
I think at the time we had
three dogs and maybe
three or four cats in the house.
SoBull house while all of this was
happening. So what happened with,
(04:20):
so the name of the dog is Yet, which is
your dog. It's Keegan, actually,
is the dog that had the spinal stroke.
Okay, so how long was
Keegan when that happened?
So she was seven when this
happened, and
We I came home at lunch to
(04:43):
find her unable to come down the stairs
with the rest of the dogs. And so
we I knew something was was wrong right
away and and ended up taking her to our
our vet at lunch. And by the
time I went back after work, she was
unable to to move her back legs at all.
And, you know, at seven,
(05:05):
she hopefully had a long life ahead of
her, and so that that started our our
journey of of trying to,
you know, to rehab her so she could live
a-- Better life. A long
and healthy life again. Yeah.
So, So when this
happened to you guys, what was the first
(05:26):
thing that you thought, like, in terms
of,getting her recovered, or what are the
things that came to your head straight
away?You know, it all happened
so fast, it's such a blur, and one
of the reasons it was very cathartic to
sit down after all of this had
happened, to write this book and kind of
(05:47):
relive the emotions, because at
the time, it was just, we didn't know
what was happening, and you know,
as it works with with all doctors, animal
doctors and and people doctors, right?
It's a process of elimination of what's
happening. And so it was the
first few weeks was just trial and error
(06:08):
to find out what had happened. And part
of that involved taking her to an
animal neurologist, which at the time we
didn't even know was a thing that
existed. And it was very, all
of it was just so scary and
you know, we we just kept on
keeping on, so to speak, until we were
(06:29):
able to first get a diagnosis, which was
officially a spinal stroke,
where some pieces of of her
cartilage had somehow entered into
her spinal cord and blocked the flow of
blood to the to the back, to her whole
hind side. And so that
(06:50):
was step one, was getting some sort of
diagnosis. And it was just, it was so
scary and it was all, it just kind of
happened so fast, but yet it felt like
it was taking forever at the time.
Everything was moving in slow motion. You
know, you want answers now. And we
just had to wait and be patient and, you
know, she was, you know, stuck at the vet
(07:10):
with all sorts of IVs and, and you know,
they kept having to do blood work and so
it was just,It was
sad to see her like that, and we felt so
helpless. And
once we had an official diagnosis, then I
was able to set about trying to find
you know some way to try to rehab her.
(07:33):
After the diagnosis, one of the doctors
said, you should put her down. She's not
going to have a quality of life, and you
know the humane thing would be to put her
down. Yeah. But I've never been
one to take no for an answer, so that
then set set us off on our amazing
journey to to try to find a
way to rehab her. Yeah, and I know that
(07:55):
having a dog is like having a child,
having a pet. It becomes so part of your
life that it's like how I'm going to do
this to my dog, right?And
also, in the book, you tell a story
of of the dog
and someone else and it reflects your
story as well. Is that okay?It's
(08:17):
like that's what happened in the story of
the book?Or give us a little bit more
context of what is in the book that
you want to tell us as an audience
or people who are reading the book.
Sure, so. you know, ultimately we
did find a doctor who worked with animals
(08:38):
that had spinal cord injuries. Yeah. And
it was about from our home. And
so we, a lot
of trips and a lot of times where we
had to leave her for a few days so she
could do intensive therapy with the with
the doctor. And
Little by little over the span of a
(08:59):
year, we had these baby steps,
literally, as she slowly
began to regain the use of
her back legs. And when we had her home,
we had. two to three
hours of rehab that we would do with her.
So we would drag ourselves out of bed at
five in the morning, and the first thing
we would do is put the coffee on and head
(09:21):
downstairs and do a number of different
rehab exercises that the doctor had
prescribed. And then at the end of the
day, we would finish late at night,
another hour to an hour and a half of of
rehab exercises with her.
And just step by step, little by little,
we started to see improvements.
and eventually these improvements led to
(09:43):
big steps. She was in a wheelchair for a
while so she could get around and then
eventually we were able to to get her out
of the wheelchair and not to
spoil the end of the book because
really the the book is more about the
journey than, you know,
how it ended. But it ended with her
(10:04):
able to walk again, never
quitewith the
stability that she had before the the
stroke, but she was able
to to run around and and
live a happy, healthy life for another
six years until she passed when she was
13. So, it was a
(10:25):
successful journey. So
did you decided to write the book after
that happened to her or through the
process?
afterwards. Okay. We were just so, yeah,
we were so busy with all of of the rehab
that I I don't know when I would have
found time to to write. So then it
(10:45):
was afterwards, long after actually,
because we had a number of
animals in our home at the time and so
life went on with them as well. And so
while we were spending all this time
rehabbing Keegan, we also had a whole
house of rescues that we had to to give
our time and love to as well. And so
(11:06):
there just was no time to to write at
that time. And so
so years later I sat down and said, you
know, I want to tell this story. I want
to tell the story of just her amazing
spirit through it all and the story of
all our other rescues because each one of
them had an amazing story as well.
One of our dogsnamed Jedi, who I
(11:28):
think you were referencing. Yeah.
Yes. So So Jedi's story
coming back to us is is quite amazing.
We We first saw him running down our
street with a broken chain hanging off
him and and so we realized, you know, he
he belonged somewhere and so we we
called for him and and he came to us and
(11:50):
so we we took him in for a few nights and
we asked everyone in our neighborhood, do
you know whothis dog belongs to, and the
mailman eventually found him, the
owners, and so we we took him back, and
then we realized soon after, as
we kind of drove by this house, that the
dog was just always chained to a tree in
the backyard. And so then
(12:12):
a few weeks later, we had this historic
ice storm that came through our
region, and then
lo and behold, this dogbroke
free from his chain again and
showed up back on our doorstep covered in
ice. Ohh And so we
we realized, you know, we can't just turn
(12:33):
this dog back over who's just left
outside in the snow and the ice,
but we also couldn't steal the dog. So we
turned the dog into the Humane Society
and we told them if no one claims him in,
you know, the the amount of time that it
takes, I think a week, we will adopt
The dog. So they called back in the week
(12:55):
and they said, OK, the dog is still here,
but you don't want to adopt him because
he has stage 3 heartworms
out of stage four. Yeah. And we said we
do want to adopt the dog and we
immediately started the dog on heartworm
treatments and.
And it it worked. And so Jedi,
we named him Jedi for the Star Wars
(13:17):
movie Return of the Jedi because he
returned to us when when he needed help
and and this dog was had been
abused. So it was very fearful. If you,
you know, reached down to him too quickly
he would cower or or try to bite you.
So this dog had had some trauma in in his
life. Absolutely. And yet he knew to come
(13:38):
to us. He knew to to know where to find
safety. So it was it was an
amazing rescue, and we had some wonderful
years with him as well. Okay. So you are,
in this book, you are telling a lot of
his stories about how you take care
of those animals and what were their
stories. So what do what would
you say around like resilience
(14:01):
and and those people that are probably
having the same situation with animals
that have any illness or you
know like are having any issues with them
in terms of health?
Yeah, you know, it was interesting
because this had happened when the,
this is before social media when Keegan
(14:21):
had her stroke. And so, you know,
at the time, the message boards was kind
of this form of social media, and we
found some amazing websites that had some
message boards with people that were
having experiences similar to what had
happened with Keegan and her stroke. And
so I kind of gravitated to all the people
that had had success with with rehabbing
(14:43):
them, and I was looking for a theme. And
the theme was staying
positive. Staying positive around your
animal and not not
getting toodown. And so I
took that as, you know, this is this is
the the number one thing we have to do is
stay positive for
her and for our family, and and
(15:06):
that kind of just set us on our
trajectory to then framed
our journey with her rehab of staying
positive, you know, we're going to make
the best of the situation and and try to,
you know, make her as comfortable as
possible at all times. And so
As dire as situations may
be, you know, I I urge people to try
(15:27):
and stay positive and and try to look for
that potential solution. And
unfortunately, you know, we were lucky
and we we found an amazing doctor and,
you know, we were able to to rehab
her her injury. And I know that all
spinal cord injuries are different and
not everybody will have the same results
that we had. But we were prepared either
(15:49):
way if if it didn't work, we wewe were
going to stay positive and we were going
to to find a way to to make life as
normal as possible and and stay positive
and, you know,
animals are so reliant on us
for everything, the domesticated animals.
Yeah. So we owe it to them to do these
(16:10):
things, to stay positive and to exhaust
every potential method that we might have
to try tokeep them healthy and keep them
safe. Yeah, so how many
animals do you have now, Trevis?
So we are down to two. We have two
rescues, one dog and one cat. One came
from a Humane Society shelter and
(16:33):
the other came from an organization that
that does what we used to do. It was,
you know,somebody found an
animal that needed a home, they'd bring
them to us, knowing that we would take
them in and try to re-home them. And so
that's that's where we got our dog
from, was an organization that does that.
(16:55):
And so that, you know,
we were young, and we were able to
to do that to keep up withthe many
animals that we had at the time. And so
life has settled down for us now, but
like I said, we're always on the lookout
to help in some way, shape, or form,
whether it's helping with our time, with
donations, or, you know, as I
(17:16):
said, the reason I wrote the book was to
to get the message out of our journey
with animals and hopefully spread that
positivity to anyone else that might need
it. Yeah. So what are you
currently doing with that book?Are you
selling it online or or how how
do you like
(17:37):
write the voice and share the book and
what you have experienced?Like Have you
done anything about it?
Yes, it is available online. You can find
it in print or digital form, really at
any online bookseller, Amazon. You can
find it on my website as
well. And yeah, I've done some fun
(17:59):
giveaways online, had fun on social
media, that sort of thing. And I'd like
to share, you know, images and
and some inspirational stories on on
social media as well that that
hopefully will lead people to find the
book. Yeah. So have you
like met anyone that have the same
(18:19):
situation or have you got any contact
with someone that have had the same
experience that you havebeen able to
help or?Not yeah, not in
person, but I have met other people
online that that have had similar
situations with their animals. I
posted a a video on
(18:41):
YouTube that shares a little
bit about Keegan's journey and and her
steps to to walking again and
and had some amazing feedback on that,
people that would post and say, oh my
goodness, you know thisThis gives us
hope, that sort of thing, which means a
lot. And I have a small section in the
book about kind of tips and things that
(19:03):
we learned along the way when caring for
a downed dog, which is a dog who's
lost the use of their legs. And so I
hope that anybody that finds this book,
because they're in the same situation, I
hope that they find, you know, a lot of
those tips helpful as well, because we
were, you know, just. flying completely
(19:23):
blind with no idea of what we were doing.
And And like I said, this was you know
before YouTube and social
media finding you know so many answers
that we were looking for that you might
be able to find online now. So
it's important to share some of those
tips in the book as well. Is there any
couple of tips that you can give us now
(19:44):
to those who are watching the the
episode?Sure.
SoWe had a
basement that we sort of transformed into
kind of a special space for Keegan.
When she lost the use of her legs, that
means she lost the use of a lot of
things, her bladder included. So
(20:06):
down dogs can typically be a messy affair
sometimes to no fault of their own just
because they can't controlTheir bowels
and their bladder, yeah. And So what we
did with this space is we got
large clear shower curtains
and then used duct tape to kind of tape
them. into the size of this space that we
(20:28):
needed. And then we used
large, oh, they're kind of like, they
were kind of like puppy training pads
essentially that we would throw over that
that vinyl. It was like a thicker vinyl.
And so she wouldn't kind of poke through
it with her claws. And we had lots of
messes, and and so at the end of the day,
(20:49):
we were able to just, the vinyl protected
our carpet. And then all those pads we
would just throw. We also ran a load of
wash every day that were these pads that
then when she would have accidents on the
floor. And, you know, it was hard at
first because we were like, well what are
we going to do?We have this dog now that
can't control her bowels or her bladder.
(21:10):
Yeah. What in the world do we do?And so
we kind of brainstormed and thought,
well, this is what we came up with. And
that was a lifesaver for our home. So
we could, you know, keep her comfortable
and and keep her near us. So
that was a big, you know, tip right
there, just how to keep everything clean
(21:30):
for for everybody. So you allocate a
particular space in your house to keep
her clean
and give her more like a stability
space for her to stay and for you guys to
always get frustrated as well
too much. Yeah, any other
tip?Yeah,
(21:54):
we used what's called a Kong toy ohh
and you can put little treats or peanut
butter, that sort of thing in there, you
know, when a dog losesthe ability to
walk, then that means they're not mobile,
so they're, unless you are able, if
you're present to move them around, they
either drag themselves or they they can't
move around. And so life gets very boring
(22:14):
for them. And so we were constantly
trying to find things to keep
her stimulated, and so all the various
Kong toys, things of that, chew toys, all
these sorts of things that would, when we
were gone, you know, give her something
to do becauseOtherwise, she was just
laying there with nothing to do. And we'd
put soft music on when we were gone so
(22:36):
she would hear voices and that sort of
thing. And so everything is is
about keeping them still stimulated so
they don't, you know, they're just not
laying there in you know an empty space
with with no stimulation and no voices
and nothing. So a lot of a lot of our
worry was was what we can do for her
when we're not there instead of, you
(22:57):
know, necessarily when we were there as
well. SoSo that was a big thing as well.
Yeah, absolutely. And
is there any like
suggestions in terms of
medical like
assistance, like what are the medical
assistance that, for example, if you have
(23:18):
this sort of situation, you should go
to a physio or what are the
medical assistance, a doc that is
suffering these sort of things,
we have to go to. Is there
anything, 'cause if something happened
like that to my dog, I wouldn't know
unless I take to a closer vet, but
(23:40):
is there anything that you can give us in
terms of how do you get
any sort of
information about more, what happened
to the dog?
We started with our regular
vet,and kind of deferred
to his expertise on what what all the
(24:01):
next steps were. And that's how we were
led to the animal neurologist. And
then eventually we, you know,
I I didn't get a lot of guidance and so I
had to do a lot of searching on my own
phone calls. You know, as I said, every
situation is different and soone
(24:22):
doctor might be able to work with
one type of injury but not another.
You know, get get as specific diagnosis
as possible so then you know what type of
specialist to look for if you're in that
situation. And in the
meantime, you know, as I said, you know,
(24:42):
everything that you can do to keepKeep
your dog comfortable. We We got her a
giant orthopedic bed, the
the largest,
most cushiony dog bed that we could
because we knew that she would be no
longer up and moving a lot. She would be
laying in one spot, so we wanted to to
(25:04):
get her as comfortable as possible there.
But always, you know, start with your
regular veterinarian and then
We never did find out what happened.
We have a theory. We had a a coffee
table that she would like to crawl under.
Yeah. And then when she would hear us
come home, you know, as dogs are want to
(25:25):
do, they jump up and and they want to
come greet you. That's one of the things
that makes them so wonderful, right?And I
think that she may have done that
maybe maybe just one time or maybe over
time she might have been under that
table. and then you know hit her
spinal cord as she was you know jumping
up to to greet us. We're not sure, but
(25:46):
that was our working theory.
So you know we never did find out
what the cause was, but thankfully we
were through the different
doctors, we were able to find out at
least you know a proper diagnosis, and
then we we went from there. Yeah, it's
very sad, isn't it?BecauseSometimes
(26:07):
you you want to know the cause so it
doesn't happen to a to the dog again or
to another dog or to another animal. And
it's difficult to to determine what could
happen. But I feel that
finding the the actual results help
you guys to identify, okay, what what are
the next steps for us to to take out the
(26:28):
dog of this situation?And yeah,
I think it's a beautiful story
andI think we need to share more
of this to the community because
sometimes there are people that are
having the same situation and they don't
know how to overreact or what to do. And
sometimes we just need to feel that we
are not the only ones having the same
(26:50):
situations. So what will be
the the thing that you want to leave the
last saying, like what message you want
to leave to people?like in
general, for those who probably are
listening to this podcast, or for those
who read the book, like a big message to
say, to close
(27:10):
this episode. Well,
the reason that I titled the book,
Nobody Told Me My Legs Don't Work, is
because of Keegan's amazing spirit
through all of this. And so, I I
think I would just say, we can
never discountjust how
incredible our animals are
(27:33):
and and just how much, you know,
we took part of our lead from from her
and the fact that, you know, she never
got down. You know, she was still happy
every time we walked in the door. She
would show us some time by
Even when she was better, she would get
so excited when we'd walk in the door
that she'd still lose control of her
(27:54):
bladder a little bit. Ohh And so she'd
tinkle a little bit, and and that was a
sign that she was excited to see us, so
that was kind of comical.
But, you know, just don't discount their
spirit and their amazing will to do
incredible things, and and they
just might surprise you. Yeah, Yeah
(28:15):
thank you so much for joining us today.
And is there any social media
tiles or anything you want to share now
so listeners can follow your
Instagram or your account so they can
learn a little bit more about this story?
Sure. I think the easiest way is my
website, traviscyates.com,
and there's lots of information about the
(28:36):
book on my website and lots
ofpictures, the video that I
referenced earlier is on there, and
and that's a great place to start, and
there's a link to to find the book on
Amazon, so that's the best place to go.
Okay, wonderful. Thank you, Travis, for
sharing your story today, and I
appreciate for you to join us at the
(28:59):
Person Companion Podcast.
Congratulations, you guys, to get on
board of that and and get head through
that difficult situation.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for coming into this
episode of The Possum Companion. If you
have any further questions for our
experts, feel free to leave them in the
(29:19):
show notes or reach out to me directly.
And if you are a pet expert who loves to
contribute to this podcast, we will be
thrilled to hear from you. Don't forget
to follow us, and if you enjoyed today's
episode, we will really appreciate a five
star review. Thanks again, and we will
see you at the next episode.
Welcome to the Pawson Companion, where
pets are part of our family. I'm
your host, Joanna Herrera, the founder of
Coco & Bondai. I'm very excited to
interview experts and pet owners to
share their stories and insights so you
can use them to take care of your babies.
(00:24):
When something is off, you feel it too.
This is Georgia. She loves walksbeach
runs and chasing the neighbour's
sprinkler. But lately, her limb got
worse. Slower mornings, less tail
wagging and no zoomies. Her humans tried
everything. Then they found Rose Hip
Vital Canine, a natural anti-inflammatory
(00:45):
backed by science. Just weeks later,
Georgia was back on her feet. More
comfort, more freedom and more of the dog
they love. Because when your best mate's
in pain, you'll do what it takes. Rose
Hip Vital. For joints, for life, for
love. Visit rosehipvital.com.au to
find out. Hello Travis,
(01:06):
how are you?I'm great, how are you?
Very well, thank you. So thank you for
joining us at the Possum Companion
Podcast, season three.
I want to say a short introduction about
about Travis.
Travis is an Emmy-winning
writer, multimedia artist, and associate
(01:27):
professor of communication. Travis is not
only a creative storyteller and a
compassionate educator, but he and his
wife have also spent over 20
years rescuing and rehoming
animals. His book, Nobody Told
Me My Legs Don't Work, Journey of
Down Dog is a moving trash
(01:49):
to his beloved dog called Jet.
who lost the use of her back leg
due to a spinal stroke.
Told through Jet's eyes, the story
mirrors Travis' own experience with
paralysis and shines a light on
resilience and conditional love and
finding joy in every moment.
(02:10):
Travis, we are honored to have you in our
show. Thank you so
much, honored to be here. Thank you so
much for taking your time, I know that
you are in Florida. So what time is
there, Travis?It's almost
midnight here. Okay.
So I would love to understand a
(02:30):
little bit more who are you, what you do,
and why you wrote this book.
Well, I am a communication professor and
a writer. Okay. And I
wrote this book
really to share the story of our
dog, Keegan. and her just amazing
(02:52):
spirit through the process of
losing her ability to walk,
and our journey to try to
get her back on all four paws,
and what an experience it was, a learning
experience, and how much it taught my
wife and I just about the amazing
spirit of animals. Umm And I
(03:14):
know that you are working rehoming and
rescuing animals. Is that
something that you started doing after
this happened too yet?Or it was
before that?It was
before and during. Okay. We've
since downsized from about
nine rescues to two. Wow.
(03:37):
And we started a a family,
we have a son now, but we're
always on the lookout for any type of
animal that that needs help from
the other daywalk I rescued a baby
bunny that was in the clutches of a cat's
mouth. So we're we're always on the
lookout for animals that that need help.
(03:59):
But it was quite a journey
and and when Keegan had her stroke, um
I think at the time we had
three dogs and maybe
three or four cats in the house.
SoBull house while all of this was
happening. So what happened with,
(04:20):
so the name of the dog is Yet, which is
your dog. It's Keegan, actually,
is the dog that had the spinal stroke.
Okay, so how long was
Keegan when that happened?
So she was seven when this
happened, and
We I came home at lunch to
(04:43):
find her unable to come down the stairs
with the rest of the dogs. And so
we I knew something was was wrong right
away and and ended up taking her to our
our vet at lunch. And by the
time I went back after work, she was
unable to to move her back legs at all.
And, you know, at seven,
(05:05):
she hopefully had a long life ahead of
her, and so that that started our our
journey of of trying to,
you know, to rehab her so she could live
a-- Better life. A long
and healthy life again. Yeah.
So, So when this
happened to you guys, what was the first
(05:26):
thing that you thought, like, in terms
of,getting her recovered, or what are the
things that came to your head straight
away?You know, it all happened
so fast, it's such a blur, and one
of the reasons it was very cathartic to
sit down after all of this had
happened, to write this book and kind of
(05:47):
relive the emotions, because at
the time, it was just, we didn't know
what was happening, and you know,
as it works with with all doctors, animal
doctors and and people doctors, right?
It's a process of elimination of what's
happening. And so it was the
first few weeks was just trial and error
(06:08):
to find out what had happened. And part
of that involved taking her to an
animal neurologist, which at the time we
didn't even know was a thing that
existed. And it was very, all
of it was just so scary and
you know, we we just kept on
keeping on, so to speak, until we were
(06:29):
able to first get a diagnosis, which was
officially a spinal stroke,
where some pieces of of her
cartilage had somehow entered into
her spinal cord and blocked the flow of
blood to the to the back, to her whole
hind side. And so that
(06:50):
was step one, was getting some sort of
diagnosis. And it was just, it was so
scary and it was all, it just kind of
happened so fast, but yet it felt like
it was taking forever at the time.
Everything was moving in slow motion. You
know, you want answers now. And we
just had to wait and be patient and, you
know, she was, you know, stuck at the vet
(07:10):
with all sorts of IVs and, and you know,
they kept having to do blood work and so
it was just,It was
sad to see her like that, and we felt so
helpless. And
once we had an official diagnosis, then I
was able to set about trying to find
you know some way to try to rehab her.
(07:33):
After the diagnosis, one of the doctors
said, you should put her down. She's not
going to have a quality of life, and you
know the humane thing would be to put her
down. Yeah. But I've never been
one to take no for an answer, so that
then set set us off on our amazing
journey to to try to find a
way to rehab her. Yeah, and I know that
(07:55):
having a dog is like having a child,
having a pet. It becomes so part of your
life that it's like how I'm going to do
this to my dog, right?And
also, in the book, you tell a story
of of the dog
and someone else and it reflects your
story as well. Is that okay?It's
(08:17):
like that's what happened in the story of
the book?Or give us a little bit more
context of what is in the book that
you want to tell us as an audience
or people who are reading the book.
Sure, so. you know, ultimately we
did find a doctor who worked with animals
(08:38):
that had spinal cord injuries. Yeah. And
it was about from our home. And
so we, a lot
of trips and a lot of times where we
had to leave her for a few days so she
could do intensive therapy with the with
the doctor. And
Little by little over the span of a
(08:59):
year, we had these baby steps,
literally, as she slowly
began to regain the use of
her back legs. And when we had her home,
we had. two to three
hours of rehab that we would do with her.
So we would drag ourselves out of bed at
five in the morning, and the first thing
we would do is put the coffee on and head
(09:21):
downstairs and do a number of different
rehab exercises that the doctor had
prescribed. And then at the end of the
day, we would finish late at night,
another hour to an hour and a half of of
rehab exercises with her.
And just step by step, little by little,
we started to see improvements.
and eventually these improvements led to
(09:43):
big steps. She was in a wheelchair for a
while so she could get around and then
eventually we were able to to get her out
of the wheelchair and not to
spoil the end of the book because
really the the book is more about the
journey than, you know,
how it ended. But it ended with her
(10:04):
able to walk again, never
quitewith the
stability that she had before the the
stroke, but she was able
to to run around and and
live a happy, healthy life for another
six years until she passed when she was
13. So, it was a
(10:25):
successful journey. So
did you decided to write the book after
that happened to her or through the
process?
afterwards. Okay. We were just so, yeah,
we were so busy with all of of the rehab
that I I don't know when I would have
found time to to write. So then it
(10:45):
was afterwards, long after actually,
because we had a number of
animals in our home at the time and so
life went on with them as well. And so
while we were spending all this time
rehabbing Keegan, we also had a whole
house of rescues that we had to to give
our time and love to as well. And so
(11:06):
there just was no time to to write at
that time. And so
so years later I sat down and said, you
know, I want to tell this story. I want
to tell the story of just her amazing
spirit through it all and the story of
all our other rescues because each one of
them had an amazing story as well.
One of our dogsnamed Jedi, who I
(11:28):
think you were referencing. Yeah.
Yes. So So Jedi's story
coming back to us is is quite amazing.
We We first saw him running down our
street with a broken chain hanging off
him and and so we realized, you know, he
he belonged somewhere and so we we
called for him and and he came to us and
(11:50):
so we we took him in for a few nights and
we asked everyone in our neighborhood, do
you know whothis dog belongs to, and the
mailman eventually found him, the
owners, and so we we took him back, and
then we realized soon after, as
we kind of drove by this house, that the
dog was just always chained to a tree in
the backyard. And so then
(12:12):
a few weeks later, we had this historic
ice storm that came through our
region, and then
lo and behold, this dogbroke
free from his chain again and
showed up back on our doorstep covered in
ice. Ohh And so we
we realized, you know, we can't just turn
(12:33):
this dog back over who's just left
outside in the snow and the ice,
but we also couldn't steal the dog. So we
turned the dog into the Humane Society
and we told them if no one claims him in,
you know, the the amount of time that it
takes, I think a week, we will adopt
The dog. So they called back in the week
(12:55):
and they said, OK, the dog is still here,
but you don't want to adopt him because
he has stage 3 heartworms
out of stage four. Yeah. And we said we
do want to adopt the dog and we
immediately started the dog on heartworm
treatments and.
And it it worked. And so Jedi,
we named him Jedi for the Star Wars
(13:17):
movie Return of the Jedi because he
returned to us when when he needed help
and and this dog was had been
abused. So it was very fearful. If you,
you know, reached down to him too quickly
he would cower or or try to bite you.
So this dog had had some trauma in in his
life. Absolutely. And yet he knew to come
(13:38):
to us. He knew to to know where to find
safety. So it was it was an
amazing rescue, and we had some wonderful
years with him as well. Okay. So you are,
in this book, you are telling a lot of
his stories about how you take care
of those animals and what were their
stories. So what do what would
you say around like resilience
(14:01):
and and those people that are probably
having the same situation with animals
that have any illness or you
know like are having any issues with them
in terms of health?
Yeah, you know, it was interesting
because this had happened when the,
this is before social media when Keegan
(14:21):
had her stroke. And so, you know,
at the time, the message boards was kind
of this form of social media, and we
found some amazing websites that had some
message boards with people that were
having experiences similar to what had
happened with Keegan and her stroke. And
so I kind of gravitated to all the people
that had had success with with rehabbing
(14:43):
them, and I was looking for a theme. And
the theme was staying
positive. Staying positive around your
animal and not not
getting toodown. And so I
took that as, you know, this is this is
the the number one thing we have to do is
stay positive for
her and for our family, and and
(15:06):
that kind of just set us on our
trajectory to then framed
our journey with her rehab of staying
positive, you know, we're going to make
the best of the situation and and try to,
you know, make her as comfortable as
possible at all times. And so
As dire as situations may
be, you know, I I urge people to try
(15:27):
and stay positive and and try to look for
that potential solution. And
unfortunately, you know, we were lucky
and we we found an amazing doctor and,
you know, we were able to to rehab
her her injury. And I know that all
spinal cord injuries are different and
not everybody will have the same results
that we had. But we were prepared either
(15:49):
way if if it didn't work, we wewe were
going to stay positive and we were going
to to find a way to to make life as
normal as possible and and stay positive
and, you know,
animals are so reliant on us
for everything, the domesticated animals.
Yeah. So we owe it to them to do these
(16:10):
things, to stay positive and to exhaust
every potential method that we might have
to try tokeep them healthy and keep them
safe. Yeah, so how many
animals do you have now, Trevis?
So we are down to two. We have two
rescues, one dog and one cat. One came
from a Humane Society shelter and
(16:33):
the other came from an organization that
that does what we used to do. It was,
you know,somebody found an
animal that needed a home, they'd bring
them to us, knowing that we would take
them in and try to re-home them. And so
that's that's where we got our dog
from, was an organization that does that.
(16:55):
And so that, you know,
we were young, and we were able to
to do that to keep up withthe many
animals that we had at the time. And so
life has settled down for us now, but
like I said, we're always on the lookout
to help in some way, shape, or form,
whether it's helping with our time, with
donations, or, you know, as I
(17:16):
said, the reason I wrote the book was to
to get the message out of our journey
with animals and hopefully spread that
positivity to anyone else that might need
it. Yeah. So what are you
currently doing with that book?Are you
selling it online or or how how
do you like
(17:37):
write the voice and share the book and
what you have experienced?Like Have you
done anything about it?
Yes, it is available online. You can find
it in print or digital form, really at
any online bookseller, Amazon. You can
find it on my website as
well. And yeah, I've done some fun
(17:59):
giveaways online, had fun on social
media, that sort of thing. And I'd like
to share, you know, images and
and some inspirational stories on on
social media as well that that
hopefully will lead people to find the
book. Yeah. So have you
like met anyone that have the same
(18:19):
situation or have you got any contact
with someone that have had the same
experience that you havebeen able to
help or?Not yeah, not in
person, but I have met other people
online that that have had similar
situations with their animals. I
posted a a video on
(18:41):
YouTube that shares a little
bit about Keegan's journey and and her
steps to to walking again and
and had some amazing feedback on that,
people that would post and say, oh my
goodness, you know thisThis gives us
hope, that sort of thing, which means a
lot. And I have a small section in the
book about kind of tips and things that
(19:03):
we learned along the way when caring for
a downed dog, which is a dog who's
lost the use of their legs. And so I
hope that anybody that finds this book,
because they're in the same situation, I
hope that they find, you know, a lot of
those tips helpful as well, because we
were, you know, just. flying completely
(19:23):
blind with no idea of what we were doing.
And And like I said, this was you know
before YouTube and social
media finding you know so many answers
that we were looking for that you might
be able to find online now. So
it's important to share some of those
tips in the book as well. Is there any
couple of tips that you can give us now
(19:44):
to those who are watching the the
episode?Sure.
SoWe had a
basement that we sort of transformed into
kind of a special space for Keegan.
When she lost the use of her legs, that
means she lost the use of a lot of
things, her bladder included. So
(20:06):
down dogs can typically be a messy affair
sometimes to no fault of their own just
because they can't controlTheir bowels
and their bladder, yeah. And So what we
did with this space is we got
large clear shower curtains
and then used duct tape to kind of tape
them. into the size of this space that we
(20:28):
needed. And then we used
large, oh, they're kind of like, they
were kind of like puppy training pads
essentially that we would throw over that
that vinyl. It was like a thicker vinyl.
And so she wouldn't kind of poke through
it with her claws. And we had lots of
messes, and and so at the end of the day,
(20:49):
we were able to just, the vinyl protected
our carpet. And then all those pads we
would just throw. We also ran a load of
wash every day that were these pads that
then when she would have accidents on the
floor. And, you know, it was hard at
first because we were like, well what are
we going to do?We have this dog now that
can't control her bowels or her bladder.
(21:10):
Yeah. What in the world do we do?And so
we kind of brainstormed and thought,
well, this is what we came up with. And
that was a lifesaver for our home. So
we could, you know, keep her comfortable
and and keep her near us. So
that was a big, you know, tip right
there, just how to keep everything clean
(21:30):
for for everybody. So you allocate a
particular space in your house to keep
her clean
and give her more like a stability
space for her to stay and for you guys to
always get frustrated as well
too much. Yeah, any other
tip?Yeah,
(21:54):
we used what's called a Kong toy ohh
and you can put little treats or peanut
butter, that sort of thing in there, you
know, when a dog losesthe ability to
walk, then that means they're not mobile,
so they're, unless you are able, if
you're present to move them around, they
either drag themselves or they they can't
move around. And so life gets very boring
(22:14):
for them. And so we were constantly
trying to find things to keep
her stimulated, and so all the various
Kong toys, things of that, chew toys, all
these sorts of things that would, when we
were gone, you know, give her something
to do becauseOtherwise, she was just
laying there with nothing to do. And we'd
put soft music on when we were gone so
(22:36):
she would hear voices and that sort of
thing. And so everything is is
about keeping them still stimulated so
they don't, you know, they're just not
laying there in you know an empty space
with with no stimulation and no voices
and nothing. So a lot of a lot of our
worry was was what we can do for her
when we're not there instead of, you
(22:57):
know, necessarily when we were there as
well. SoSo that was a big thing as well.
Yeah, absolutely. And
is there any like
suggestions in terms of
medical like
assistance, like what are the medical
assistance that, for example, if you have
(23:18):
this sort of situation, you should go
to a physio or what are the
medical assistance, a doc that is
suffering these sort of things,
we have to go to. Is there
anything, 'cause if something happened
like that to my dog, I wouldn't know
unless I take to a closer vet, but
(23:40):
is there anything that you can give us in
terms of how do you get
any sort of
information about more, what happened
to the dog?
We started with our regular
vet,and kind of deferred
to his expertise on what what all the
(24:01):
next steps were. And that's how we were
led to the animal neurologist. And
then eventually we, you know,
I I didn't get a lot of guidance and so I
had to do a lot of searching on my own
phone calls. You know, as I said, every
situation is different and soone
(24:22):
doctor might be able to work with
one type of injury but not another.
You know, get get as specific diagnosis
as possible so then you know what type of
specialist to look for if you're in that
situation. And in the
meantime, you know, as I said, you know,
(24:42):
everything that you can do to keepKeep
your dog comfortable. We We got her a
giant orthopedic bed, the
the largest,
most cushiony dog bed that we could
because we knew that she would be no
longer up and moving a lot. She would be
laying in one spot, so we wanted to to
(25:04):
get her as comfortable as possible there.
But always, you know, start with your
regular veterinarian and then
We never did find out what happened.
We have a theory. We had a a coffee
table that she would like to crawl under.
Yeah. And then when she would hear us
come home, you know, as dogs are want to
(25:25):
do, they jump up and and they want to
come greet you. That's one of the things
that makes them so wonderful, right?And I
think that she may have done that
maybe maybe just one time or maybe over
time she might have been under that
table. and then you know hit her
spinal cord as she was you know jumping
up to to greet us. We're not sure, but
(25:46):
that was our working theory.
So you know we never did find out
what the cause was, but thankfully we
were through the different
doctors, we were able to find out at
least you know a proper diagnosis, and
then we we went from there. Yeah, it's
very sad, isn't it?BecauseSometimes
(26:07):
you you want to know the cause so it
doesn't happen to a to the dog again or
to another dog or to another animal. And
it's difficult to to determine what could
happen. But I feel that
finding the the actual results help
you guys to identify, okay, what what are
the next steps for us to to take out the
(26:28):
dog of this situation?And yeah,
I think it's a beautiful story
andI think we need to share more
of this to the community because
sometimes there are people that are
having the same situation and they don't
know how to overreact or what to do. And
sometimes we just need to feel that we
are not the only ones having the same
(26:50):
situations. So what will be
the the thing that you want to leave the
last saying, like what message you want
to leave to people?like in
general, for those who probably are
listening to this podcast, or for those
who read the book, like a big message to
say, to close
(27:10):
this episode. Well,
the reason that I titled the book,
Nobody Told Me My Legs Don't Work, is
because of Keegan's amazing spirit
through all of this. And so, I I
think I would just say, we can
never discountjust how
incredible our animals are
(27:33):
and and just how much, you know,
we took part of our lead from from her
and the fact that, you know, she never
got down. You know, she was still happy
every time we walked in the door. She
would show us some time by
Even when she was better, she would get
so excited when we'd walk in the door
that she'd still lose control of her
(27:54):
bladder a little bit. Ohh And so she'd
tinkle a little bit, and and that was a
sign that she was excited to see us, so
that was kind of comical.
But, you know, just don't discount their
spirit and their amazing will to do
incredible things, and and they
just might surprise you. Yeah, Yeah
(28:15):
thank you so much for joining us today.
And is there any social media
tiles or anything you want to share now
so listeners can follow your
Instagram or your account so they can
learn a little bit more about this story?
Sure. I think the easiest way is my
website, traviscyates.com,
and there's lots of information about the
(28:36):
book on my website and lots
ofpictures, the video that I
referenced earlier is on there, and
and that's a great place to start, and
there's a link to to find the book on
Amazon, so that's the best place to go.
Okay, wonderful. Thank you, Travis, for
sharing your story today, and I
appreciate for you to join us at the
(28:59):
Person Companion Podcast.
Congratulations, you guys, to get on
board of that and and get head through
that difficult situation.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for coming into this
episode of The Possum Companion. If you
have any further questions for our
experts, feel free to leave them in the
(29:19):
show notes or reach out to me directly.
And if you are a pet expert who loves to
contribute to this podcast, we will be
thrilled to hear from you. Don't forget
to follow us, and if you enjoyed today's
episode, we will really appreciate a five
star review. Thanks again, and we will
see you at the next episode.
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