Two paralyzed dogs and the Selden man who never lets them down

It started with Mondays. Then soon spread to Wednesdays too. And before long, it was every day.

Rain or shine, paralyzed rescue dogs Crumbs and Chi get their walk — pulled in a wagon in Port Jefferson Station by longtime volunteer Mike DiGeronimo.

Chi was shot in the eye and twice hit by a car. Crumbs was struck by a car. They’re both from Mexico and came together to New York eight years ago to Long Island in this condition.

Now, the two mixed-breed dogs, both paralyzed in their hind legs and huddled together on a chilly Wednesday afternoon under blankets in a wagon, spend part of their days rolling through neighborhoods with DiGeronimo, a Selden retiree who has walked them every day for the past two years.

“I feel like I’m giving back,” DiGeronimo, 70, said, while tugging the wagon past — and then around — Toast Coffeehouse in Port Jefferson Station. “Instead of retiring, laying around, moaning and groaning about the world, I said, ‘What good could I do for the world?’ And God sent me these two.”

DiGeronimo is a 1973 graduate of Ward Melville High School who works part-time at the Stop & Shop in East Setauket.

His routine is pretty precise: two shifts a week at the grocery store, daily check-ins on his 93-year-old mother who lives alone in East Setauket, and walks each and every day with Chi and Crumbs. The dogs live at Save-A-Pet Animal Rescue shelter on Route 112, steps away from Toast.

“They have a pretty good life here,” said Sue Manolakis, who has worked at the shelter for 21 years. “They have their own big room. They scoot around on their front legs in the lobby. They let everybody come and pet them. People come and pet them all the time and play with them.”

And the pair absolutely light up at the sound of DiGeranimo’s Toyota Corolla when he pulls up.

“They know the sound of my car and they know my voice,” he said. “When I pull into the driveway, they know it’s me, and they start barking with excitement.”

Chi is blind in one eye from the gunshot wound. Crumbs likes to hang his head out of a hole DiGeronimo cut in the front of the wagon.

‘Together forever’

Rain or shine, paralyzed rescue dogs Crumbs and Chi get their walk — pulled through Port Jeff Station by volunteer Mike DiGeranimo each afternoon. When he retired, he wondered what he could do for the world. Then, “God sent” him Chi and Crumbs. @SaveAPetNY – story link in replies pic.twitter.com/8n1skCySHF

— Greater Long Island (@Greater_LI) April 23, 2026

The two are inseparable. Save-A-Pet tried to adopt them out separately years ago, but Chi grew distressed without Crumbs. The shelter now requires anyone interested in adopting them to take both dogs together.

“Two for one,” DiGeronimo said. “They can’t be separated. They’ve been together forever.”

DiGeronimo began volunteering at Save-A-Pet years back, before his wife Sharon passed away, he said. He was retiring and didn’t know what to do to stay busy.

“Sharon said, ‘What are you going to do now you’re retired?'” DiGeronimo recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t know. I’m not going to lay on the couch, that’s for sure.’ She says, ‘Well, why don’t you volunteer?'”

DiGeronimo and his wife had known Scofield for 20 years through their own cat rescue work. When he started volunteering at Save-A-Pet, he met Chi and Crumbs. He brought them treats, petting them, and eventually took them out in the wagon once a week.

“I said, ‘Well, this is nice, but the dogs should be going more than once a week,'” he said. “So I started doing Mondays, and then I started doing Wednesdays. I wound up taking them every day, seven days a week.”

He’s only missed a couple of days in two years — because of heavy snow. He won’t walk them in snow, but he goes with the dogs in rain.

The walks about 30 minutes. On Sundays, when traffic is lighter, he takes them down to the library around the corner. During the week, he keeps them closer to Save-A-Pet, circling the Toast shopping plaza or strolling through the neighborhood behind the shelter.

Chi gets cold easily, so DiGeronimo keeps blankets in the wagon and tries to avoid the wind. Crumbs hangs over the front edge, relaxed and watching the world go by.

Both pooches require significant care. They are incontinent and get messy when they relieve themselves. Chi tends to bark if she sees other dogs.

DiGeronimo and Manolakis said Crumbs and Chi are gentle, loving animals. Save-A-Pet hopes someone will eventually adopt them together, but until then, they are well looked after at the shelter.

“You have to be a special person,” Manolakis said. “We don’t know if they’ll ever get adopted, but they are a lot of fun and people love to see them.”

For now, they have each other—and they have Mike.

“It’s not about me,” DiGeronimo said, smiling and gesturing toward Chi and Crumbs wrapped in blankets in his wagon. “It’s all about these two.”

Save-A-Pet is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.

_{Top: Animal rescue volunteer Mike DiGeranimo of Selden with Save-A-Pet Animal Rescue shelter dogs Chi and Crumbs (Brian Harmon photo).}