Hometown Hero: Michele Iverson

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Where some people saw special needs, Michele Iverson saw special opportunities.

“I think he brings me enough joy that it’s the least I can do for him. Otherwise, he’s probably going to be at the shelter his whole life,” Michele Iverson said.

Fred has already lived at the Palmetto Animal League three different times in his first year - before and after he was hit by a car and paralyzed in his hind quarters at just seven months old.

But that hasn’t slowed him down much and it didn’t get in the way of Iverson making him part of her animal family.

“I have another dog named Bella and I wanted her to have a friend, so, I started going online and the pictures they had of him were priceless. So, I went and met him,” Iverson said.

Then, she brought Fred home as a foster for six weeks until making his adoption official last week at PAL headquarters.

“I just fell in love with his demeanor. And he thinks he’s a lap dog, he’s a good boy. He just has a couple of little things that are different,” Iverson said.

Like the way he drags himself around Iverson’s split-level home stairs and all.

“He’s very powerful up front and he just pulls himself around,” Iverson said.

And the way Iverson has to put a diaper on him and express his bladder.

“He’ll lay on side and you just press on his side where his bladder is. You just press and he goes. And you make sure you have towels, and you just do a lot of laundry,” Iverson said.

Now what’s different for Fred is his even greater mobility through his Big Wheels, a walking apparatus donated by a friend of the Palmetto Animal League that has put the year-old hound mix back on the run.

“He’s so proud of himself and what he can still do. And we’ll be out on a walk, and someone will go ‘awwwww’ like, no, he has no idea. He really doesn’t, he doesn’t know he’s any different. And I try to help him be as independent as he can,” Iverson said.

Fred has helped Iverson.

He’s been that playmate for Bella and he has shown this WTOC Hometown Hero who opened her home and her heart to a handicapped dog that anything is possible.

“He’s teaching me patience, which I think we could all use a little bit of, It just takes a little bit more time. But now that we have our routine, we’re both settling in pretty good, he’s just the goofiest, happiest guy,” Iverson said.

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