After a career of guiding and protecting someone who is blind, Marek, a 9-year-old retired Seeing Eye dog, developed diabetes and lost his vision to age-related cataracts. His current caretaker could not keep him due to personal reasons. So, this beautiful Golden Retriever was in need of a home.
According to The Seeing Eye Facebook page, the non-profit that bred, raised, and trained him, took him back, helped Marek through surgery, and found him a retirement home. The news is good for Marek. His vision was restored due to the surgery, his diabetes was stabilized, and just in time for the holidays, Marek found his new forever home.
Pam, a volunteer at The Seeing Eye’s Morristown, N.J., campus, worked with and fell in love with Marek. This week she adopted Marek.
The Seeing Eye has a long list of people who are eager to adopt these well trained dogs after retirement and when some of the dogs don’t make the cut as professional guide dogs. All of the dogs at The Seeing Eye go through rigorous rounds of training before being paired with someone who is visibly impaired. The nonprofit has a high success rate of four-legged graduates.
The Seeing Eye recently released a survey, and found that:
- “93 percent of the people in their program who received dogs said they are more mobile now than before they had a dog.”
- “83 percent described their overall Seeing Eye experience as ‘excellent.’”
- “97.7 percent said they would recommend The Seeing Eye program to others.”
The Seeing Eye is an international non-profit that breeds, raises, and trains dogs to guide people who are blind and places them with individuals all over the United States and Canada. The Seeing Eye receives no government assistance and relies on donations from individuals to support its mission. For more information, visit The Seeing Eye.
Sources: The Seeing Eye
