It’s not the first ever story of a dog who takes it upon himself (or herself in this case) to guide another dog who has gone blind, but there’s something about this one that is particularly touching. I guess it’s the fact that they were picked up off the street as strays. They are an odd couple indeed: a blind husky with bulging glaucoma eyes, and the little terrier mix that stays with him at all times, cries for him when he is taken away and protects him when people approach too quickly. They’ve given the name of Isabella to the guiding terrier, and the husky is being called Isaac. Video below via News10:
As with other cases where particular dogs at the pound get a lot of public attention, these two now have no shortage of people who are willing to adopt them and keep them together as a couple.
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Stories like this make me wonder. Nature is cruel and heartless, with the strongest surviving, the weak and sick falling to the wayside, unmourned, and then you see something like this. What would be the evolutionary advantage for that little mutt terrier in sticking by a blind dog? Oh, someone could proffer a convoluted one, I have no doubt, but I dismiss it in advance. It makes no damned sense. Of-course, dogs have long been been around humans and have been bred by us and maybe you could argue they have become tainted by our (occasionally) soft hearts. Yet, things like this, although rare, are not unknown in the wild either. I’m thinking in particular of how elephant herds have been seen to help and protect weak or injured members. There’s something else going on. I guess there does not need to be an explanation for it. Indifference and callousness are easy to understand. Compassion, loyalty, altruism … one can only thank God that they stick their heads above the storm every now and then. Long may Isabella and Isaac bark.
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