Chatham school raises money for injured class dog
The six year old Labrador injured two of his legs when out and about playing ball on the school field and now they're looking to raise thousands to get him his second operation.
Transcript
00:00 Meet Skippy. He's been a part of Maundeen School in Chatham for years. He plays ball
00:06 with the children on the playground, is there for support when they're learning to read
00:10 and write and generally is a great source of comfort. He's been greatly missed in the
00:15 past few months after seriously damaging his cruciate ligament whilst out playing on the
00:20 field at the school. He returned to the school this week after a few months of rest.
00:25 In the library he'd maybe come and sit next to you and it's always helped me with my confidence
00:32 reading because I know I'm not just reading to myself, I can always read to him.
00:37 You can go to stroke connect and some of the tools like boost your confidence that day
00:41 if you're not feeling like you normally would.
00:43 Normally when we're doing a singing assembly he likes to dance with Mr. Atwood.
00:49 Yeah when people come into school upset some of the teachers go ask them to play with Skippy
00:56 and they come back really happy.
00:57 It's been sometimes sad when he throws you the ball and you can't throw it back.
01:02 It's really nice to have him around the school because every time he comes around we all
01:07 stroke him and give him treats and throw the ball.
01:10 Not only have the injuries meant Skippy can't play ball for a while but it's resulted in
01:15 two costly operations and other associated vet fees.
01:20 I don't think I kind of realised until he did hurt his leg how much of an impact he
01:26 has on so many other people, the kids and how much they miss him. I think just our wider
01:33 community as well, just kind of the love and support that we've been given to help him.
01:43 The six-year-old Labrador certainly loved being smothered with the attention, being
01:47 back at the school, but this visit was only a fleeting one as he still needs to rest to
01:52 ensure he doesn't worsen his current injuries.
01:55 He's there as emotional support for not just the pupils but for staff as well.
02:00 Yeah absolutely I've got a lot of children with additional needs this year in my class
02:04 and sometimes we just need a bit of regulation time. At the moment obviously he's not here
02:08 and the children are finding that really hard.
02:10 For such a long time Skippy has helped students at this school day to day but now they want
02:15 to help him and they're trying to raise £7,000 to hopefully get him better and get him back
02:20 on the school ground very soon.
02:23 This is on top of the £7,000 they've already paid for his first operation. The team at
02:28 Maundeen are now fundraising to get this money to get Skippy back up on his feet and skipping
02:34 around the field again very soon.
02:36 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Chatham.