Adopting a disabled pet can be a very challenging and rewarding experience. If you ran into Patty Franz and her fourteen-year-old Cocker Spaniel Dexter on one of their usual hikes in Spokane, Washington, you might think they looked like any ordinary pair out for a little exercise. But the truth is they’re not.
Dexter is deaf and facing blindness due to glaucoma. And Franz is at a crossroads in terms of what to do about it. “I could not face the possibility of euthanasia, and yet, I knew he was in trouble,” she said, concerned that losing his sight would leave Dexter with little quality of life. Like so many other people whose pets are struggling with a new or recurring disability, Franz found herself asking some hard questions. Would Dexter adapt to being deaf and blind? Would she be able to provide him with the care he needed to lead a happy life?
Then, she found Rolling Dog Ranch—a sanctuary for animals with disabilities—and wrote to them for advice. “Their long and compassionate response,” she said, “changed everything.”
The Animal Counselors Are In
It makes sense when you consider the source: Steve and Alayne Smith who, in 2000, started the nonprofit enterprise that sits on 160 acres in Montana’s Blackfoot River Valley. Today, they’re home to almost ninety physically, mentally, and neurologically challenged cats, dogs, and horses.
In addition to caring for these animals, the Smiths offer free counseling to people from all over the globe on how to deal with a newly disabled pet. Like Franz, some want help negotiating ethics, while others want to simply give away the animal and the problem. In 98 percent of cases, the Smiths try to help them see that it isn’t as bad as they think. “We remind them animals aren’t human,” Steve Smith says. “They have a remarkable resilience that we don’t. Once we get people to stop projecting their own fears onto their pets, everything gets much easier.”
Dealing with Disability
While some conditions are worse than others, few if any, he says, are insurmountable. For example, taking care of a deaf dog can be as simple as using hand signals to communicate and building fences to keep it safe. And taking care of, say, a three-legged cat can be an easy matter of using a ramp for steps, Smith said. “Although cats by nature, even disabled, are very self-sufficient so people don’t worry about them as much.” Still, it’s blindness that’s trickiest for many of the five to ten people who find Rolling Dog online and reach out to them each week.
