Robin Wagner, of Burlington, Vermont, and her boyfriend had been searching for the perfect dog for a long time, without much success.
However, when she came across Blaze’s adoption profile online, she immediately knew that was it: Blaze was the dog for her. It was love at first sight in the first photo.
It wasn’t until she brought him home that they discovered his teeth.
Many unexpected surprises
“We didn’t even know about teeth until he came home. It was a glorious surprise,” Robin said Animals GeoBeats.
But teeth were just the beginning lots of unexpected surprises.
When they adopted Blaze – a German shepherd and greyhound mix – they were told that although his eyes were sunken, Blaze didn’t seem to have any vision problems.
However, after taking Blaze to a veterinary ophthalmologist, they learned that he was in fact completely blind in his right eye and required surgery to try to salvage whatever vision he had left in his left eye.
It wasn’t a pleasant surprise at all, but they weren’t abandoning their precious boy.
“About two weeks after the surgery, I was on a walk with Blaze and he just started getting into everything. I rushed him back to the eye doctor only to find out that the surgery hadn’t been successful and that Blaze wasn’t blind in his left eye either. » said Robin.
Blaze was now completely blind, but he handled this huge change with so much grace. He learned to navigate the world with as few problems as possible.
“We had his right eye surgically removed due to repeated infections. And I think I was more put off by the change than he was. » said Blaze’s mother.
Blind Boy Blaze
Due to many problems that kept cropping up, it took them a long time to get Blaze back to health.
When they first adopted him, Blaze was just a 50 poundsbut they managed to bring him to 80 pounds.
Once he was finally physically healthy, they could finally focus on his behavior. “We work closely with a trainer to help Blaze feel a little less worried about the world,” » said Robin.
His blindness caused a huge decline in his confidence. Blaze became very anxious and reactive.
Since Blaze can’t see what’s going on around him, they started communicating with him more to let him know and ease his anxiety.
The training process was very demanding, but also rewarding.
“Obviously, we didn’t anticipate the number of challenges we would face after adopting Blaze. But if I had the chance to do it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing. He’s my best friend and I count my lucky stars every day for him. » said Robin.
Their cat, Satin, also serves as Blaze’s guide cat!
Satin uses meows and chirps to warn Blaze and prevent him from colliding with her and the furniture.
“Every time he walked towards her, she meowed. She would meow, and he would stop and redirect himself. their mother said People.
While Satin isn’t the cuddliest cat ever, she certainly shows Blaze that she loves him. You can follow their daily adventures on Blaze’s Instagram profile.
