Ray the blind dog
This
little guy has had a few curve balls thrown at him …
but he keeps on swinging!
Late in life -- we think he's at least eight or nine years old -- he was turned in to a shelter in Spokane, Washington. He had been found as a stray. No owner showed up to claim him. Now he became just another small older dog looking for a new home. He didn't even have a name.
The shelter soon realized he was blind, and to help his chances of adoption, they decided to feature him in their weekly TV spot for adoptable animals. At the TV studio a cameraman put a pair of sunglasses on the little dog, and it was there he got his name, Ray Charles.
The shelter's phones rang off the hook after the TV spot aired, and a family came forward to adopt him. The shelter told the new adopters that in addition to being blind, he had a cough and needed dental work. They decided to take him home and try him out.
It didn't work.
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A few days later they brought Ray Charles back to the shelter. Their vet had found the dog also had a heart murmur and a testicle tumor. His new family decided they didn't want to to deal with his medical problems and the expenses.
At that point Ray was also showing what the shelter thought was advanced signs of kennel cough. All of his medical issues ultimately marked him as "unadoptable," and he was scheduled for euthanasia at the end of the week.
The day before he was to be euthanized, the shelter director called a local rescue group and told them about Ray Charles. She said they had 24 hours to find someone to take the dog or he'd be put to sleep.
The rescue group contacted us the same day, and we agreed to take him. Before the weekend was out, Ray Charles was on his way to Montana.
He went straight to our vets for a thorough exam. They found that in addition to all his other medical problems, he also had 13 bladder stones (ouch!), urine the color of coffee, and a collapsing trachea that caused him to gag. (This was the source of what appeared to be kennel cough but wasn't.)
We did surgery to remove the testicle tumor and the bladder stones, and put him on medication for his heart murmur and collapsing trachea. After a week in the hospital, Ray finally arrived at the ranch … a new dog with a new lease on life.
Now he trots around the yard, ears flapping, making little woofing noises that sound like he's muttering under his breath. Ray claimed a giant dog crate in the living room as his personal quarters and uses it for sleeping, eating and lounging … this tiny 18-pound dog looking completely out of place in a Great Dane-sized kennel. (It makes him feel like a Great Dane.)
At meal time he dances a jig in the kitchen and then dashes off to the crate to eat. Ray gets excited when visitors come to the sanctuary, barking happily, and he laps up the attention they give him. And he patiently sits for us while we clean his eyes and give him his medications every day.
So after a few twists and turns in his golden years, Ray is clearly enjoying his new retirement home.
