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Happily Ever After
Binky, a 2-legged dog on shelter death row makes it out alive!
By Carole Raphaelle Davis
Photos by Jon Forrest
Binky, sprung from death row at a Los Angeles shelter, has bounced into the loving arms of Jon and Sylvie Forrest in Brentwood, California. The Chihuahua was born without two front legs, and where her front legs ought to be, are two little stumps.
Though she's unable to walk like other dogs, Binky doesn't let her deformity hold her back. Alert and playful, Binky uses her back legs and her chest to worm forward. If she knows there is a soft landing pad ahead, she can, from a lying position, push off with her hind legs and leap several feet!
Since the Forrests adopted her, Binky has become a national sen sation, appearing with Cesar Mil lan on The Dog Whisperer and winning first place in the Nuts for Mutts contest in Los Angeles. "When I fist saw Binky, I didn't see her disability, says Sylvie Forrest, her adoptive mom. "I thought she had beautiful eyes and saw how innocent she was.
How could no one want her? " Said Jon, Sylvie's husband, "I thought she was adorable and that she needed a daddy. She's my little girl."
Jon created a custom set of wheels for Binky so that she could go on walks with Sparky, their other rescued Chihuahua.
"The design was motivated by love," said Jon. "They're constructed out of carbon fiber and Kevlar mesh with plastic cast materials for her harness. She couldn't go very far hopping, so the wheels give her freedom to go wherever she likes. With her chest on the ground, she was afraid. This gives her mobility!"
When Binky wheels down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, she causes a sensation, like a celebrity gliding down the red car pet. "Everyone wants to take her picture and it's an ice breaker about rescue," says Sylvie. "They always ask, so it opens up the door to a conversation about rescue. People feel sorry for Binky but she's happy," Sylvie explained.
"Don't feel sorry for her; feel sorry for the ones that never make it out because they get euthanized at the shelter."
Binky's joyful disposition was uplifting to Sylvie when she was diagnosed with cancer. "She was very loving with me," said Sylvie. "Not long ago, I had ten transfusions in ten days and Binky is very sensitive. She would sleep next to me under my left side, where I had the surgery. During chemotherapy, I would get really cold so I would use Binky as a hot water bottle. I would put her on my feet and she wouldn't move."
Jon and Sylvie spend weekends protesting in front of pet stores that sell puppy-mill dogs and Binky has become a mas cot of the anti-puppy mill movement in Los Angeles. "She's changing people's views," says Sylvie about her dog Binky.
There's no going backward for Binky. Her wheels and her positive attitude only go one way"”forward!
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