Texas couple’s homemade device helps blind Chihuahua walk again
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Buddy the Chihuahua, who is 13, was terrified of bumping into walls after going completely blind over the past month. To help quell the dog's fears, Jesse Foy, owner Jordan Berg’s fiancé, created a handmade device to help detect objects before they hit him. (Photo courtesy Fox4News.com)
Buddy, a Chihuahua in North Texas, hasn’t been able to walk confidently since going completely blind over the last month. But now, thanks to a contraption his owner’s fiancé has built, the 13-year-old pooch suffering from cataracts in both eyes can navigate without running into walls and furniture.
“He started losing his sight in his right eye about four or five months ago,” Jesse Foy, owner Jordan Berg’s fiancé, told The Dodo, a website for animal lovers. About a month ago, the couple had to begin carrying him around the house and outdoors to the bathroom, as bumping into things around the house would cause the dog to sit still and shiver in fear. But because the dog wasn’t in pain, Berg and Foy didn’t consider putting the pooch down, according to Fox4News.com
They spotted an assistive device for large blind dogs on the Internet, but Buddy weighs only 5 pounds so it wouldn’t have worked for him, the news channel reported. Instead, Foy used a few bolts, wing nuts, washers, and a roll of plastic hanger strap to create a harness that helps the Chihuahua detect collisions, as the device hits objects before he does.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Now, Buddy can walk around the house, eat and drink, and go outdoors to use the bathroom with restored confidence.
"I did this project for two of the most important friends I have in the world," Foy told TheDoDo.com. “One, for a dog that deserves to live a great life for as long as we can keep him around us, and two for my best friend in the world and my fiancée, Jordan."
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