This is a TNB Public Service Announcement: Don’t Ignore Handicapped Pets
We at TNB don’t know if this message needed to be presented or not, but are erring on the side of caution… and on the side of helping to save some shelter pets.
Many people don’t want pets; I fully support that view. Others cannot have them for one of many good reasons (allergies, finances, housing rules.) Still others adore purebreds and the dependability of the genetic traits they bring. I grew up with shelter pets and animals saved from the streets, though, and those are usually the ones who have the hardest time getting adopted out.
Sometimes handicapped animals have a little extra to bring to the table, though.
This was learned during April in Australia by Max, a blue-heeler who not only kept a lost toddler company overnight in the Australian wilderness, but also alerted the family to come and get the girl.
Aurora Bennet, three, wandered away from her family on their expansive Queensland property. The rest of the family didn’t notice, but Max did. The dog is seventeen and has gone deaf as well as partially blind, but he kept Aurora company as the young child explored, and then got lost overnight. The dog huddled with her in the chilly, rainy night; the next day, when searchers came near, Max sought them out and led them to the missing girl.
But it’s not just the dogs that have aged into infirmity. Ones born that way can be heroes, too. As evidence, True, a dachshund from Oklahoma. Specifically, a deaf dachshund. More specifically, a deaf and blind dachshund. Actually, a dachshund that was born deaf and blind and had then lost a leg in a vehicular accident. True couldn’t do much, but what it could do was notice an increase in temperature. And it could bark, which is what it did to great effect in 2012.
As the website Life With Dogs put it:
Crosley rescued True when no one else would. The Dachshund is blind, deaf and only has three legs. Despite his disabilities he was able to alert Crosley, saving her and her 7-week-old son Jace. An electrical short ignited the house in flames making it impossible to get out the front door. Katie, Jace and True had to navigate through the smoke out the back door. Crosley believes what True did was a genuine miracle. “He deserves a lot of loving. I’m glad that we saved him,” she said.
Stories of dogs protecting their owners are not uncommon, thankfully. Cats, on the other hand, are widely seen as too independent to be protective. Perhaps some of the people who believe that merely need to meet more cats like Homer, the blind wonder cat.
Question of the night: how protective (or possessive) are your pets?
