Jake

Profile

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Sponsored by: Rosemarie & Jan deRuiter

Jake is a gorgeous 11-year-old purebred golden retriever. He is in every way classic golden...sweet, gentle and loving. But one thing sets Jake apart from most other dogs...for Jake is blind. He lost his vision due to a condition called progressive retinal atrophy. To be perfectly honest, when I first found out that my new foster dog is blind, I thought that it just would not work. Surely our home and yard would be much too complicated for Jake to navigate and I had no experience caring for a blind dog. But I am thrilled beyond words to tell you that Jake proved me wrong...he is learning to find his way around our home so fast! And much to my surprise, caring for a blind dog isn't all that different from caring for a sighted dog. Jake loves all the things that any other dog does...going for long walks (and he heels better than our resident goldens!), exploring the yard, and rolling over for tummy rubs. He gets along great with our three resident goldens, our three cats, and our 5-year-old daughter. And aside from his vision loss, Jake is in excellent health. He went to see our wonderful vet Dr. M. on 7/25 and the only minor problem found was an itchy skin infection secondary to an allergic reaction. So Jake enjoyed a spa treatment with medicated shampoo and is now on antibiotics. He's already scratching less and should be just fine in a few days.

We are also fostering Jake's mom Suzi 08-299. Jake and Suzi are very close....in many ways she is his "seeing eye dog".

Suzi and Jake