A Blinding Reality Check

OK, here's a tale that's not such a "happy tail" but I wanted to write about it anyway to see what you think of a recent experience I had in my quest to find my new furever friend.  Please feel free to comment if you agree with my reaction or if you have a different perspective you'd like to share.       

 

After days and days of browsing the internet, researching just about every dog breed imaginable, I finally found what sounded like as close to a perfect match as I could ask for.  The dog was a 10-month-old male black lab mix whose owner was becoming too busy with work and school and didn't think it was fair to the dog to be left alone so many hours each day.  She had gotten him from a shelter so he was already neutered, microchipped, and vaccinated which, of course, is very important to me.  We made arrangements to meet at a dog park to see how we all liked each other and she agreed to hold him for a few more days so that, if all went well, we could get our house ready for him.  Sounds great so far, right? 

 

Well, here's where I think it all started to go wrong.  I believe in being honest and up front with people about my blindness, so I mentioned this to her so that there wouldn't be any surprises when we met.  I thought this would also give her an opportunity to back out before proceeding with the meeting if she wasn't comfortable with my situation.  Needless to say, I was very relieved when she said this was not a problem at all and still wanted to meet. 

 

On the day of the meeting, my husband and I arrived at the dog park right on time and sat on a bench to wait.  After about 10 minutes, I received a text message from the woman saying that she had just received an e-mail from the shelter where she had originally gotten the dog and they wanted her to bring the dog back to them as per the contract she signed at the time of the adoption.  During my time volunteering at Pet Pal Animal Shelter, I often heard the adoption counselors make this same statement to potential adopters so I wasn't too suspicious of her at first.  What made my husband and I a bit more skeptical about her story was when we showed up at the shelter where she said she was taking the dog right then and the adoption counselor said that no new dogs had come in at all that day and that they don't require people to return the animals if the adoption doesn't work out.  Hmmmm, I'd say something about this dog owner's story just doesn't quite add up.  

 

When we got home that evening, I sent a text apologizing for not getting to meet her and the dog in time and also inquiring again about which shelter she took the dog too, making it seem like I just wanted to know if it was a decent place for us to look for a dog in the future.  I was actually trying to see how honest she would be with me.  Of course, I haven't heard anything back from her since then and I guess I never will.  Now I'm left wondering if she would have gone through with the meeting if I hadn't told her I was blind?  Did she have second thoughts about giving her beloved furry friend to a blind woman? 

 

As you can tell, I'm pretty disturbed about this.  It's not so much the fact that I may have missed out on getting a great dog, its the principle of it.  Am I going to be faced with this kind of ignorance and discrimination every time I inquire about a dog?  Are there really people who are that narrow-minded to think that a blind person isn't capable of being a good pet owner?  If that's the case, then how is it that we can be trusted to care for our guide dogs? 

   

Oh well, enough venting about that for now.  I've got to get back to searching for my new furever friend!  Let's hope I have a little better luck this time.  Again, I welcome any comments you may have about this experience.  Thanks for listening!

 

Happy tails to you until we meet again!