VIDEO: Animal lover smashes fundraising target for new wheels to give disabled dog she rescued and brought home from Crete turbo-charged retirement

A kind-hearted photographer who rescued two elderly ex-hunting dogs she fell in love with during a family holiday to Crete is fundraising for state-of-the-art wheels to give one of them a turbo-charged retirement.

Smashing her £800 target for the special canine wheels within hours of launching a GoFundMe page, it was clear that old, aged pooch Jack, 13, had won more than just Jo Cope and her children’s hearts.

With well over £2,000 raised so far, she plans to give her Greek mixed breed dogs all the medical treatment they need, as well as a happy home with her and her children, Kade, 14, Acacia, 12, and Dakota, nine, and their three-year-old Goldendoodle, Waffle.

Jo, 35, of Chelmsford, Essex, said: “It was actually Louis, the other former hunting dog we brought home, who first caught our eye when he and Acacia fell in love at a rescue, we visited during our Greek Island holiday in August.

“He’s quite an old boy, too – we reckon between eight and 10. He’d been at the rescue for four years.

“He had such a sad story, as he’d just been abandoned in a forest and left chained to a tree.”

She continued: “There were hundreds of dogs to see, but he lay down with Acacia and let her tickle his tummy and pet him. She stayed with him for the whole time we were there and insisted she was having him!”

While bringing one old dog home from Crete would have been too much of a challenge for most people, soon animal mad Jo found herself agreeing to rescue two.

She said: “I spotted Jack on the rescue’s Facebook site and saw that he was disabled and started looking into bringing them both home.”

“The rest is history,” said Jo.

Jo, who is no longer with her children’s dad, was on holiday with her three-strong brood in the Cretan seaside town of Chania when they spotted the dog rescue a four-hour drive away on social media and decided to visit.

While Louis won her daughter’s heart, Jack won Jo’s as she read how the poor pooch had been hit by a car – breaking his jaw, damaging his spine and leaving him with paralysed back legs, while he also had arthritis in his front legs.

She said: “I sat there at the rescue Googling flights to see how I could get the dogs home.

“We had cheap tickets and I couldn’t change them, but alternative tickets for us all were too expensive, and Greece doesn’t allow dogs to be flown out unaccompanied, so it looked like the most cost-effective way would be to go home and come back again by myself to bring them back to England. ”

Eventually, in October, Jo returned to Crete with Dakota and spent £415 bringing both dogs home – driving to Paris and back to catch the flights.

Jack, who had been sent to Athens for surgery to help with his injuries during his time at the shelter, was also given wheels by his carers there, to hold up his back legs and help him move around.

And, before they knew it, Jack and Louis were settled and happy as part of a devoted new family.

Jo said: “It’s quite difficult sometimes to settle in older dogs, especially when they’ve had a horrible time, but they are lovely and get on really well with Waffle.”

Keen to do all she could to ease Jack’s painful arthritis in his front legs, Jo paid for him to have hydrotherapy and laser therapy, designed to stimulate the nerves,

Then she was horrified to be told by the experts working with the dog that his wheels were hurting, rather than helping him and that they needed to be replaced urgently.

She was recommended a specialist wheel-cart, available from a firm in the USA, which would cost around £800 including shipping.

Unable to afford it, as well as paying for his treatment, she launched a GoFundMe page, hoping Jack would melt the hearts of kind strangers, just as he had melted hers.

Jo said: “I couldn’t believe it as, within two hours, we’d smashed the target and had £1,000.

“Now we have well over £2,000 and will spend the additional money on giving him all the treatment he needs and ensuring both dogs have the best old age ever.”

“I was working extra hours to try and pay for treatment, but I couldn’t really keep up, so this is amazing,” she continued.

“Without these wheels, he’s going to lose his independence, which would be so sad, as he’s really happy living with us.

“He loves going to the forest with the wheels he’s got, but they are harming his legs and making everything worse, not better, so they have to go.”

She added: “Now I can afford to buy him dog shoes, to make him more stable and his wheels will mean he can run around like a puppy again.”

Now the animal loving family are hoping to get the wheels in time for Christmas, which will be the best present any of them could wish for.

Jo said: “I am overwhelmed by people’s generosity.”

“But Jack is such a big, soppy pup – as is Louis – I’m not surprised he’s cast a spell over everyone. They’ve both worked their magic,” she added.

“It’s going to be the best Christmas ever and when we get Jack’s new wheels, he’s going to prove that you really can teach an old dog new tricks!”

* To donate to Jack’s GoFundMe go to: www.gofundme.com/f/gf399p-jacks-new-wheels and to follow the family’s journey go to Instagram: Louis_n_Jacks_family_adventure