A local child and future seeing-eye dog candidate at the centre of an upcoming fundraiser for the blind met a guide puppy in training yesterday.
Five-year-old Rosie McDougald met five-month old puppy Nelson in celebration of International Guide Dog Day, but that isn’t the only reason they met up for the special day.
McDougald, who suffers from a rare genetic disease that caused her to go deaf and is now causing her to go blind, may need a guide dog in a few years.
The Alberta Guide Dog Services organization is helping to promote an upcoming fundraiser that will be used to help people like McDougald.
“We just think it’s a great cause especially because Rosie may be a future client of ours. She loves dogs and it gives her a chance to meet a guide dog in training,” spokesperson Susan Deike told Metro.
“It’s so cute to see them play together, Nelson has a lot of patience and Rosie is very gentle with him.”
Nelson’s volunteer dog trainer Brenda Antosz spends 24-hours a day, seven days a week training the puppy, which is a two year process from start to finish for the trainer and dog.
“He’s doing really well, he already knows to stop at curbs and doors, and when I stop. He’s a brilliant animal,” Antosz said.
The Comic Vision fundraiser in support of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is on May 7 at The Laugh Shop.
For more information please visit www.comicvision.ca.
