Why this blind dog was worth rescuing
Over a seven-month period, a large, stray dog was seen skulking around an Etobicoke car wash and a nearby industrial site littered with shredded metal. He’d forage through garbage and would run away if approached. Word went out through the well-connected dog rescuer group community in Toronto and one woman, who’s also a certified professional dog trainer, got an email about him.
When Dahlia Ayoub discovered she didn’t live far from the site, she decided to monitor the area where he was seen, getting advice from a local rescue group, The Dog Rescuers. Ayoub took her cam- era and shot photos and video of the dog, which she named Bo, eventually posting the story of his rescue in a very moving YouTube video.
After two weeks of tracking and monitoring Bo during Thanksgiving 2012, and with help from other likeminded volunteers, she used a live trap and caught the dog within six hours of setting it. Ayoub got the frightened but gentle dog into the care of a veterinarian.
The 60-pound malnourished dog (about 20 pounds underweight) turned out to be a 2-year old Azores Cattle Dog and with his docked tail and cropped ears clearly must have belonged to someone at one time. But amazingly, Bo was blind. Despite numerous tests, the veterinarian told Ayoub that he didn’t know why Bo was blind — it could be genetic, but he wasn’t born that way. The dog stayed at the clinic for a while and one of the vet technicians fell in love with him, taking him home to foster at first, then adopting him.
Independent filmmaker Judith Keenan, thought the story of the blind dog along with many other ca- nine rescues, would make a compelling documentary series.
She’s currently shooting “Furever Home” (Pet Network has already expressed interest), which will profile individual dogs, like Bo, and tell the story of how they came to have a second chance at life, how and why they were rescued, what was involved in their rehabilitation and the final chapter, the adoptive home.
“Each is a true story,” says Keenan, who hopes that “telling the stories of dogs who have come through rescue will break down the myths surrounding their worth as adoptable pets.” Here are some of the other candidates for the series:
Hollywood: This little mixed breed dog had been taken away from his mentally ill owner who had been seen physically abusing him and threatened to throw him to its death. Surrendered to a Toronto-area animal shelter, he was then taken into the care of Canadian Chihuahua Rescue and Transport (CCRT) in the summer of 2012. Trish Aleve, a 37year-old registered nurse, took on the task of turning Hollywood into an “adoptable” dog. Because he’d been kicked and hit frequently, Hollywood would react strongly to feet and hands coming close to him, often biting. “Once the fear was better under control, and he learned that he could trust me, the snuggly sweet Hollywood came out,” said Aleve, who lives in Mississauga and got help from a dog trainer. “Despite Hollywood’s issues, “it was very easy to see through that ‘broken’ little dog, and see the dog that could be.” Aleve, who also has a pet photography business, created a Facebook page, Hope for Hollywood, to document his progress and help find him a home. It worked. Hollywood came into her hands in July 2012 and was adopted by a Milton-area family in May 2013.
Cap’n Jack Kirby: A small chihuahua which had been roaming a Toronto neighbourhood in the spring of 2012, while foraging for food, was brought to a veterinarian by someone who noticed the dog had a terrible eye injury. The vet contacted CCRT, and told the rescue outfit that the injury was consistent with a bite from another animal. The eye was so badly infected, it had to be removed. CCRT took the dog — dubbed Cap’n Jack Kirby (named for both his “pirate” look and in honour of former professional baseball player Kirby Puckett, who went blind in one eye) into care and contacted Georgetown retiree Colleen Duke, who has fostered many dogs.
Duke took the malnourished, oneeyed dog under her wing in May and it was immediately befriended by her cat, Oscar. With proper care and affection, Jack’s confidence came back. By the end of August, he was ready for adoption by a Thornhill family accompanied by a handmade “going home” quilt that Duke gives to every adopter of a dog she fosters.