success-stories4

My name is Bonnie Gold, I am a member of Coast 2 Coast dachshund rescue. I adopted a blind from birth doxi beagle mix whose name is Maya, she is 3 years old. There was a call for help on the e-group message board that I belong to, I answered it and sent refrences. Maya was transported from Arkansas by the DUR with the wonderful help of Lisa and all the others
along the way from Arkansas to Calif.

I have to say Maya is the sweetest little gal that I have ever had. The adjustment was made easy with the help of Michele Wray who sent books with her to me. The 2 books by Caroline Levin are so wonderful that I spent the first 3 nights after I got home from work reading them from cover to cover. Maya's transformation was so easy as I have 6 other wonderful doxi's that have helped her so much. Just this morning after I put all the dog's outside I went to the back window and watched them run ! and play. I noticed Maya running at full speed toward our chain link
fence. As I started to yell to her to stoooooopppp out of nowhere came my Soffee girl and herded her around and out of the way of the fence, like you see the cattle do in the cowboy movies. Makes me think that all the other dogs we have, must know Maya is blind.

I work 40 hrs a week. I do not crate Maya she is left in my room as I do not want her to have the run of the house. She goes outside with the other doxi's , comes in and sits on my bed staring at me with those beautiful but sightless eyes as she knows by her keen sence of smell where I am until I leave for work. Of all my animals she is the one who is most connected to my white double double dapple who is deaf, and he to her.
Thank you for being there with your web page.
Bonnie Gold
Calif rep
C2CDR

I first saw Tyg on the internet a few weeks after Christmas while reading about the dogs up for adoption on

the Petfinder.org web site. I had been thinking about getting a playmate to keep my 3 year old toy poodle TeeTee company. As soon as I saw this sweet boy’s picture, I was completely in love. He looked so happy just like my TeeTee- only white. I read his sad story about how he was found stray and also how much he loved to play. When I got to the sentence that told me he was blind, I just cried.

For the next few days I could not stop thinking about him. I wondered if I had what it would take to care for a blind dog. But, the love that I felt for him overcame that fear. So, I e-mailed Donna with Carolina Poodle Rescue and began the adoption application process. A few weeks had passed and I had not heard anything so I sent an e-mail asking if Tyg had been adopted. I was told that he had found a family and was living in Virginia. There were mixed emotions at that moment- one part of me so happy that someone was going to give him a home & the other part of me sad that I wasn’t the lucky one. But, my sadness didn’t last long! A few minutes later Donna e-mailed me- the adoption did not go through and she wanted to know if I was still interested. At that moment. I knew that I was destined to be his “forever Mom” and that God had brought us together. The little boy came to his new home the day after Valentine’s Day- what an incredible gift of love!

He & his new brother TeeTee were best pals in a matter of days- they love to play with their squeaky balls at the same time & love to follow Mommy around everywhere she goes! The most precious part is when they take naps together laying side by side. Tyg is getting around the apartment and the steps just like he has always been here- it is really amazing. This little boy has touched my heart more than I can say. I am so thankful to all of the wonderful caring people associated with the Carolina Poodle Rescue program that helped bring us together. And, a special thanks to Kathryn Smith at the New Bern NC shelter who was Tyg’s loving foster Mom for many months.

Sometimes, when I watch Tyg I feel sad wondering about what the poor little guy went through when he was alone and blind and on the streets and then I remember that he is ok now and that he found his “happy ending”. And all of our lives are happier because of him.

Thorne's Jefferson

I adopted Jefferson almost two and a half years ago from the Franklin Township., NJ Animal Shelter where I volunteer. He came in as a stray, 10 years old and totally blind. I brought Jefferson home where I already had two dogs and numerous cats and he has been a wonder to us all. In addition to his blindness,he also suffers from severe arthritis but yet gets around the house and yard just like my other two dogs. I have recently completed a course of study in Tellington Touch for Companion Animals and Jefferson accompanied me to four of the week-long classes. We often used him as a "demo dog" when we gave seminars to the public and he had the opportunity to appear briefly with Linda Tellington-Jones in a PBS series called "Pets: Part of the Family". He loves to travel and has gone with us on numerous vacations with us to the beach, Montreal, New England.

Last fall he became ill with Vestibular Disease, an condition affecting the connection between the inner ear and the brain that causes dizziness, loss of balance, marked disorientation, incoordination, and a tilted head which in some cases, like Jefferson's, can be permanent. Having a dizzy, disoriented blind dog has it's challenges, but Jefferson slowly got better, although because of the head tilt, he could no longer find his way around the yard by himself and needed to be taken out on a leash. He also became rather quiet and withdrawn for several months. I thought our happiest times were past and prepared myself to just help Jefferson be as comfortable as possible for his remaining days.He would not give up, though, and with the onset of Spring , his old happy, cheerful personality is coming back and he is getting better all the time at re-learning the back yard. He can now go out by himself again and wander around to his heart's content, although, like a nervous parent, I keep and eye on him. He is truly an inspiration to me and no matter where I am, I cannot think about him without smiling.

China
China is an Italian Greyhound who spent her life as a brood bitch in a puppy mill in Arkansas. Upon her “retirement”, she went into rescue with the Italian Greyhound

Safehouse Alliance which is the only IG rescue organization which takes puppy mill dogs. She was fostered for the IGSA here at Addie’s Safehouse in Memphis, Tennessee.

Not only did China have grand mal seizures but she was also blind from PRA. That, combined with her puppy mill history, should have made her a difficult dog to acclimate. But she was actually one of the sweetest, most cooperative mill IGs I have ever handled. She got her bearings quickly, was very responsive to voice, house-trained easily, and was in no way the difficult foster that I had expected.

China was adopted last month by a wonderful family in California which had three IGs already, one of whom is also blind due to PRA. They drove over 1,800 miles to Memphis to get her and they are all totally in love with her. She adapted readily to their home and other dogs, and within a few days was using the doggy door to go potty. They report that she has gotten a spring in her step and a wag in her tail, and acts for all the world like she has been a part of their family all her life. After the first few days, a casual observer in the house would not even be able to tell China was blind.

I had never dealt with a blind dog before and it was a revelation to me and a very rewarding experience. Thank you for being a resource for these deserving dogs.

In November 2000, I was reading the local paper and glanced at the photo of the "Pet of the Week" run by the local Humane Society. I started laughing because the photo was of a tiny, UGLY dog. Reading the caption, the dog was described as "older" and "visually impaired." I knew I had to get this dog; no one else could possibly love him except for a sucker like me!

I told my husband that despite the current five cats in our household (all rescues) and despite the fact that he adamantly did not want a dog, this dog was coming to live with us. I went to the pound the next day it was open to get the dog. He was even smaller (7 pounds), older (estimated to be 15 years old), and uglier (what can I say?) than his photo portrayed. And he wasn't visually impaired, he was BLIND. He'd been found as a stray, one person had adopted him and then brought him back, and now the dog pound employees were in love with him and were trying desperately to save him
from euthanasia.

Home he went with me. For my husband, it was love at first sight. His, not the dog's, of course! Riley has been with us for six months now and is a delight. He can negotiate stairs, likes to run across the open yard, and is a great companion to all the cats, all of whom are larger than he is.
He has checked out at the vet as being healthy other than very thick cataracts, survived neutering, and can take up an extraordinary amount of a king-size bed. He is unbelievably sweet, friendly, and smart. He is a great watchdog, barking like a big dog when he is trying to protect us. We don't even think he is ugly anymore! In fact, he is so ugly, he is cute.

My husband and I get lots of compliments bestowed upon us for rescuing an old blind dog. That makes us feel good but what really makes us feel good is that Riley is the sweetest, most loving, most fun dog when could ever hope for. We have an appointment with a veterinary ophthamologist to see
if we can have the cataracts removed because this mighty dog deserves it!

My best,
Rebecca Price

I got Worf in December of 1994..... I can't believe it will be 7 years ago! He was my birthday gift to
myself (adopted him on December 14 and my birthday is the next day). He is my

little boy, light of my life, my little guy. He was adopted from the ASPCA at about 2- 2 1/2 years old, and they said he'd been found in an apartment with a dead owner. Poor little fella.

I got his sister Lucy about a year later, and had her with me three years, and unfortunately she was lost to me in a series of poisonings here in the neighborhood (three in one month). Maybe some day I can post a picture of her. It's been two years and it still is very difficult to talk about. I wasn't going to have another one (famous last words), but then five months later I saw a posting about Rascal, and she was the same breed, same age, almost (a year younger) and had almost lost her life through no fault of her own (like Lucy, in a way), and although I had never had a blind dog, I was open to the idea. I talked to Robyn, her rescuer, and made the trip to New Jersey to see her a little while later and brought her home that day. Although it was an adjustment, I can honestly say now
that there are times when I just don't think about it any more and it's a surprise to remember.

The few issues that she seems to have left are *big* food protection issues! She'll guard a biscuit for hours if you give her one that she can't munch down in a minute. I got around that by breaking the biscuits down into small pieces; then she guards them for 20 minutes and snarfs 'em down! She won't let me hold her on her back, but that doesn't surprise me. However after I was told that she wasn't much of a kisser, a few months later I realized that she just had her own way. She has been blind since very early on, so I don't think faces have much meaning for her; what she *will* do is kiss my hands over and over and over. I think that to her, I am my hands. She's a precious girl and she and my little 'fella' are the lights of my life.
Patricia