Couple brings home a blind shelter dog. Then he surprised them.
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00:00 He was born blind in a shelter in Louisiana.
00:02 I'm Emmeline.
00:03 (laughs)
00:04 (dog barks)
00:05 I'm Emmeline and this is Virgil's story for GeoBeats.
00:08 His mom, we don't know how she ended up there,
00:10 but she was totally healthy
00:12 and she gave birth to three blind dogs.
00:14 All of our dogs have always been adopted
00:17 and special needs dogs just have a really,
00:19 really hard time getting a home.
00:20 But the idea of blind sounded just way too difficult to us.
00:24 We did a lot of research and we're looking at all
00:27 of these things on how to have a blind dog
00:29 and we applied for him to adopt him anyway.
00:32 We met him and then all of those concerns
00:34 just went away immediately.
00:36 (dog barks)
00:37 (upbeat music)
00:39 We have never needed any of the tips that we had
00:41 from people on how to have a blind dog.
00:43 He's just a dog.
00:44 (upbeat music)
00:46 He went straight into our yard with our other dogs.
00:51 They wanted to play and he didn't have any fear.
00:54 (upbeat music)
00:59 We tried to carry him up the stairs
01:00 and he was like, put me down, I can do it myself.
01:02 He's three now.
01:03 We always joke that he doesn't act any different
01:05 than he did at three months.
01:07 Everyone who meets him around our neighborhood,
01:09 we have to remind people that he's blind
01:11 because they have no idea
01:12 and they usually don't believe us.
01:14 And they say, he must be able to see shadows or something.
01:17 He can't see anything at all.
01:18 He was born without his retinas attached
01:20 so it's always been pure black for him.
01:22 Virgil, happy birthday, buddy.
01:24 And you would be amazed at how well he gets around.
01:27 (upbeat music)
01:30 Oh, he's giving her kisses.
01:33 (laughing)
01:35 - He knows exactly where all the furniture is
01:37 and just hops on and off like he owns the place.
01:40 We always have to remind people
01:41 you can't just put things down where you left them.
01:44 We will have guests come
01:45 and they'll leave their chair out
01:46 instead of pushing it in at the dinner table.
01:49 And he's like, why did I just walk into a chair?
01:50 If you take him on a walk, he leads the way.
01:52 He thinks he needs to be out front
01:54 showing our other dogs how to do it,
01:55 even though he can't see what's in front of him.
01:57 (laughing)
01:59 Hi, hi.
02:00 I take him on hikes and nobody would ever think
02:04 that you could do that with a blind dog.
02:06 He is usually wearing a shirt for practical reasons.
02:08 - Roll over.
02:09 Oh, that's a spin.
02:11 - That's a spin.
02:12 - He's allergic to grass,
02:13 so it helps him to not get a rash when he goes outside.
02:16 Virgil taught me to understand human disability better.
02:20 There are so many people out there
02:21 living with various disabilities
02:23 that it's just the only life they've known.
02:25 It's just their life, and they are not lesser 'cause of it.
02:28 Hi, baby.
02:29 People with disabilities,
02:30 dogs with disabilities can be literally anything.
02:33 I'm gonna try to eat it like a monkey.
02:35 This is our foster, Elijah.
02:37 He's deaf and blind because Virgil was so important to us.
02:40 We decided that the best thing we could do
02:42 to pay everything back was to foster for special needs dogs.
02:45 Virgil.
02:46 I never think of Virgil as a blind dog anymore.
02:49 I love him and he's my favorite thing in the world.
02:51 (gentle music)
02:54 (gentle music)
02:56 [Music]