Bamby… chance of a lifetime. Adopted in Istanbul

Bamby was found in a municipal shelter. The way puppies are kept in those places defies description but in this case it was more tragic due to the fact that the pup was blind.

Her condition is a death sentence in a municipal shelter where dogs are given food and water sporadically at best. She could not have fought her way with the others in order to get even a tiny scrap of food. She had to get out of there if she was to have a chance.

We named her Bamby.

İts amazing how well a blind puppy adapts. This is due to the way dogs deal with blindness.

For a human, sight is the primary sense. For a dog, the primary sense is smell, followed by hearing. Vision is a dog’s third most important sense—that’s relatively low on the list.

Dogs also possess a skill called cognitive mapping. It’s the same instinct that allows them to find an object they buried weeks ago. That’s really handy for blind dogs. They have the house and garden mapped in their mind, and they can run full speed around the house.

Well for the most part a blind puppy is not that much different from a “sighted” puppy. Most blind puppies are born blind so this is the way the world is to them. They come into the world depending on their other senses from the very start, and those senses very often become even keener. So emphasize their other senses of smell, hearing, taste and touch in your training of your puppy.

If you do have multiple dogs already they can help your blind one. Its not uncommon to hear of sighted dogs leading, looking out for and guiding the blind ones as if they knew they couldn’t see. Many people with multiple dogs find putting bells or noisy tags on the sighted dogs collar helps guide the blind one.

I love all my dogs the same, but the bond you form with one with an impairment is amazing. They trust you enough to run beside you, to step up when you step up. The blind trust they put in you is incredible.

İf you are one of those rare dog owners for whom breed is not important and that does not consider a dog a status symbol but a living being with feelings and need we recomend adopting a handicapped dog.

What Bamy needed was a truly special person. Someone willing to go the extra mile and be a much better person for it. A message to our Facebook group and we found precisely what we were looking for.

Bamby lives now with Aylin and her family in Tarabia. She is a happy pup.