A Villa education emphasizes intellectual pursuits
as well as physical, emotional, and spiritual life.
Physical education, leadership development, studio
arts, and performing arts are considered integral
parts of the curriculum at every grade level. These
activities are also featured in a wide range of extracurricular
offerings
villa maria
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M 26 AY 31-JUNE 6, 2019 BTR
Mary takes Lexi and Candy for a walk. Photo by Silvio Pacifi co
Throggs Neck couple rescues
fi ve wheelchair-bound dogs
Tom Fayet walks Tomek and Mr. Bojangles.
Photo by Silvio Pacifi co
Are you searching for a Stimulating
Junior High?
Villa Maria Academy is your answer!
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Villa Maria Academy
3335 Country Club Road, Bronx, NY 10465
718-824-3260 www.vma-ny.org
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
A Throggs Neck couple has opened
their home and their hearts to a group
of dogs that are easy to love despite
some physical challenges.
Mary and Tom Fayet adopted and
became the caretakers of fi ve dogs that
require front or rear wheelchairs to
remain mobile, over the past several
years.
They are known as animal rescuers
with experience working with dogs who
have disabilities and non-functional or
weak front or hind legs.
It all began with Lexi, who’s known
by more than 20,000 Instagram followers.
She’s a Maltese Pekingese mix breed
dog whose front legs don’t function but
is nevertheless a rock star of a pooch
with the pet lovers who follow her website
littlemixlexi.com, sharing her journey
and latest fashions and grooming
styles.
A few years ago, her original family
put her up for adoption on Craigslist,
which often doesn’t work out well for
animals, Mary said.
She decided to adopt her and train
her to walk, no easy task since dogs often
steer themselves with their front
legs, she said.
“Her family loved her – they just
didn’t know how to take care of her,”
she said, adding that she trained Lexi
to walk by taking her to work and having
her navigate through the crowded
streets of Herald and Times squares in
Manhattan.
Lexi is a therapy dog with the Good
Dog Foundation and has been used extensively
at Manhattan’s VA hospital in
this role when her owner is able, said
Mary.
After rescuing Lexi, who was born
in 2013, the Fayet’s adopted Tomek, a
dog whose rear legs were disabled in a
hunting accident in his native Poland
in 2015.
Tomek, Polish for Thomas, was described
by his owners as a true mixture
or a “Heinz 57 of a dog.”
He uses his front legs well and like
two of Fayet’s other dogs, uses a rear
leg wheelchair, and oftentimes wears a
doggie diaper, which is common for canines
whose rear legs are disabled and
can complicate adoptions.
Then came Mr. Boojangels, who appeared
on Animal Planet’s Dog Bowl
television program and is a Poodle Pug
Shih Tzu mixture who is currently up
for adoption, Mary said.
“We named him Mr. Boojangels because
when he gets excited, his little feet
look like they are dancing,” she said.
Tobi, who became the fourth member
of the pack, is a very strong dog who
is a fi ve years old and is a French Bulldog
Shih Tzu mix, said his owners.
He had a hunch back because he was
constantly standing and trying to walk
on his hind legs, but the wheelchair
straighted out his back, said Tom.
After placing him in a chair, he was
able to learn how to walk, and now lives
in a much more stimulating environment,
his family said.
Candy, the newest addition, a Maltese,
would have been euthanized at
a Brooklyn shelter had she not been
adopted. Rear leg amputations didn’t
prevent Candy, as well as Lexi, who is
described by Mary as a ‘diva’, from appearing
on a Netfl ix series called ‘Dogs,’
in an episode about rescue animals.
“We have had people come up to us
teary-eyed, telling us that if they knew
about these wheelchairs, they would
still have their dogs,” she said, adding
that the main thing to know is that “you
don’t have to give up your dog, there are
options.”
/www.vma-ny.org
/www.vma-ny.org
/littlemixlexi.com