In this line of work you get your fair share of horrible stories to write about, and more often than not the most distressing ones revolve around animals, whether they’ve been poached or killed.
So it’s actually pretty refreshing to write a nice story about dogs for once, rather than the fact they’re being eaten in their thousands at some ‘dog festival.’
Brodie is a unique looking boy, and was adopted by Amanda Richter, 30 and Brad Ames, 23 from Alberta, Canada when they fell in love with the pooch after seeing an advert on Facebook.
Amanda said: ‘I literally looked at the picture and would cry and just be like, we have to go meet this dog.’
Brad said: ‘I spent an hour with him. I had to take him home.’
Brodie is a German Shepherd/Border Collie mix, who was, unfortunately, attacked by his mother at a fragile age of 13 days. The dog attack left the puppy’s face disfigured and as of result, Brodie is now partially blind.
Not that it bothered the new owners of course, who dedicated an entire Instagram account to share this silly dog’s life and how much fun he was having.
He soon became a hit, with the pups owners sharing a post that read:
“It’s not hard to see why everyone loves this little goofball as much we do lol. We hope that all this recognition will help others make the decision to dog adoption and rescue, especially those “less than perfect” animals out there! They deserve love as much as anyone. Thanks for all the love! Support your local rescues and shelters guys!”
And now, the couple are even planning for Brodie to become a therapy dog, with the hope of him eventually helping others with disabilities.
Amanda said:
We’d like to take him maybe into old folks homes, children’s hospitals, group homes for people that have disabilities, that kind of thing.
Brad added: The disability doesn’t slow him down in any way.
Amazing story – one that reminds me of five-year-old pooch, Maggie, who was discovered in Lebanon having been shot 17 times and abandoned by the monster that did it to her.
However, Maggie was luckily rescued by an animal charity called Wild At Heart Foundation where she was later adopted by an animal lover called Kasey who helped her qualify as a therapy dog.
Speaking with The Argus, Kasey explained: “This person in Lebanon posted asking for help and a woman in London saw the post and got help.
“Wild At Heart said they would take her in, even though it’s quite hard to get pets out of Lebanon.
“My mum saw Maggie’s post and said we had to foster her.
“I got home and saw the picture and agreed.”
After passing her exams, her owner wrote: “Yesterday me and Maggie went to meet with her assessor, @maherandhounddogtraining she flaunted her stuff and gave it her best go and she PASSED.
“Maggie is now a registered therapy dog with @underdog_international.”
She continued: “She and I will speak to schools and work hands-on with youngsters.
“I know what happened to Maggie was horrendous but if her story can educate and inspire others to do good then at least we can do our part to make this world a little brighter.”
“She’s just brilliant. She’s so energetic and bubbly. She walks off the lead and follows me around.
“She must have been in agony with all she’s been through, but she never hurt anyone and she’s so loving.
“She’s got a great life and she wants so much out of it… I just want people to see that she’s living life.
Dogs – we really don’t deserve them do we?
Precious little creatures.
