Pawsitive Update: A Blind Dachshund & His Guide Dog Who Were Adopted, Then Split Up, Have Been Reunited

[Sugar Cookie]

They came in as a pair and they were adopted as a pair — a blind 12-year-old dachshund and his guide dog, a 6-year-old pit bull. The two found a new home this week, but one dog was discovered a few days later wandering on a rural road 100 miles away.

The dachshund is named OJ, and the pit bull is named Blue Dozer.

And in the past few days, their tale, which sounds straight out of a Hallmark movie, has gone viral on social media with thousands of animal lovers offering to adopt them and doling out criticism, worry and support for what a Richmond shelter official called a “delicate situation.”

Late Wednesday, after hours of dealing with logistics and trying to persuade the owner to return the pit bull so they could be together, the dogs were back together. Upon being reunited, they wiggled and rubbed each other and hopped in a truck to head back to the Richmond shelter that had handled their adoption.

“Our main concern is they needed to be together,” said Christie Chipps Peters, director of the Richmond Animal Care and Control shelter. “They’re a unique, bonded pair. OJ can’t see well, and he needed his buddy with him.”

The dogs’ journey started when the pair were brought in Friday to the Richmond shelter after their owner became homeless. She had adopted the pit bull four years ago from the shelter and already had the dachshund. The dogs immediately became best friends.

The owner couldn’t keep them but her request was for them to stay together, if possible. The shelter agreed and took the dogs.

On its Facebook page, the shelter described the relationship between the two as the “cutest (and saddest) thing.”

“OJ is blind and depends on Dozer to show him around,” the shelter wrote. “We can’t stand the cuteness and kindness these two share. Anyone willing to love a bonded pair of perfection?”

On Sunday, a woman stepped forward to adopt the pair. Peters said the woman, whose name was not disclosed, had emailed after seeing a Facebook post about the dogs. She filled out the required paperwork and told Peters that she had lost her pit bull a few years ago and could handle two dogs. Peters described her as being “super nice” and said there “wasn’t any cause for concern” at the time.

The woman and the dogs left together, and the Richmond shelter updated its Facebook post to say that the two had been adopted, using the hashtag #BestFriendsForLife.

But the pair soon ran into trouble.

On Tuesday, OJ was brought in to the Shenandoah Valley Animal Services center near Staunton, Va., by a man who said that he found the dog on the side of a road and that he appeared to be a stray. Blue Dozer was not with him.

Tracey Meadows, acting director at the Shenandoah shelter, said Wednesday that they checked OJ and used a microchip and a tracking database to figure out that he had come from the Richmond facility, and they found his new owner.

Meadows said that when the shelter contacted the woman who had adopted the two dogs from Richmond, she said that “someone was watching the dog [OJ] for us.”

Meadows said the owner told her the pit bull was with her. The woman told Meadows that she could keep OJ but that she didn’t want to give up Blue Dozer.

Once the word got out that OJ had been found alone on a road in Staunton, the dogs’ tale gained attention, as people followed updates in suspense, wondering whether they would be reunited.

Some animal lovers made offers on social media to adopt the pair. Others called for their new owner to be fined or banned from adopting animals in the future. But mostly it was an outpouring of worry and affection for the two canines.

For hours on Wednesday, Peters said she went back and forth talking to the woman, trying to persuade her to give up Blue Dozer so the pair could remain together.

“She really loved the dog,” Peters said of Blue Dozer. “She wanted to keep him.”

But Peters said she thinks the woman didn’t “fully understand they needed to be together.” She said she thinks the woman also became afraid. The woman told Peters she had received more than 600 death threats on email and social media.

Eventually, the owner agreed to turn over Blue Dozer and meet shelter officials in a parking lot. His best friend, OJ, was waiting.

This time, whoever adopts them will be required to sign a document, promising to keep the pair together.

Peters said that although it is not uncommon to have a bonded pair of dogs, these two are rare in that they’re such different types of dogs.

“You’ve got this giant, beautiful pit bull mix and this tiny dachshund, and they’re inseparable,” she said.

OJ can detect only shadows and relies on Blue Dozer to “make the way” as he “plods along behind him,” Peters said. At times, the 10-pound OJ runs into the 90-pound Blue Dozer when he follows too closely.

“They sleep smashed together,” Peters said. “They’re a unique pair.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...018/04/25/96f59b48-487b-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2

 

[Satanica]

Blue Dozer is a BIG boy. I'm glad the idiot woman gave him back. What a cunt.

 

[MildlyMedicated]

Why, would you take a bonded pair of animals and just toss one of them ? ? ?
She kept the healthy one and just let the blind baby to fend for himself.
What a witch ! She should have to face some type of charge, abandonment or something.
This was a disabled animal she just threw away, she knew (with the media attention, there was no way she did not know) that this animal was special needs.
Glad, they are together and safe.

 

[Brillig]

She said she thinks the woman also became afraid. The woman told Peters she had received more than 600 death threats on email and social media.

The woman is selfish monster. I think she planned on only keeping one dog from the start, and lied from the start in order to get access to the one dog she wanted. She cares about none except herself. I hope she gets 600 more death threats and spends the rest of her life living in fear and looking over her shoulder.

 

[Keepalowprofile]

Blue dozer needs a diet.

 

[Satanica]

http://www.nbc12.com/story/38053326/exclusive-interview-with-woman-who-adopted-oj-and-dozer

[....]
“I'm very hurt,” Colleen told NBC12 exclusively. “I would never do anything like this. I am not a bad person. My intentions were for these dogs to live a good life."

Colleen is referring to social media posts and other reports claiming she left OJ, a nearly blind dog, on the side of the road.

Shenandoah Valley Animal Services’ interim shelter director, Tracey Meadows, said Wednesday that also was not the case.

"A citizen brought him in as a stray,” Meadows said. “He had a collar on."

In a statement provided Thursday afternoon, Meadows went on to say, “There are several articles that I have seen myself, that have been screenshot and sent to me that are not accurate. [Colleen] is not who originally brought OJ to the shelter. For some reason, I think people thought she lived in Richmond and dumped him miles away, and that's how he showed up here. That's not true.”
[....]
"I'm not going to lie, they did tell me they were a joint pair,” Colleen said. “But also during the conversation I picked up on some things that they had not been together their entire lives, etc. But I did not have any intentions of separating them whatsoever."
[....]
Colleen said she had every intention of making sure the duo has a great home.

“I was interested in a friend of mine having them possibly at her farm where I would be able to interact with them and just give them a good life," she said.

What unfolded over the next few days is still surreal for her.

"I have people threatening my life, people stealing pictures off Facebook and adding things to them,” she said. “It's unreal. I'm actually a nervous wreck right now."

Colleen asked a friend to watch the nearly blind dog after he nipped some people on the ride home Sunday to Augusta County.

"I was told that he bit that individual [as well],” she said. “He then talked to someone else that was looking out for him for a little bit until there was a decision made because I did not want to get rid of the dog," she said.

Colleen said she had no idea OJ was at the shelter until Meadows called her.

“When I first talked with her on the phone, she was going back and forth on surrendering him,” Meadows said. “OJ had bit so she didn't feel comfortable taking him back home but also didn't want anything to happen to him.

"I was actually hesitant to sign him over,” Colleen said.

Meadows said Colleen came in Tuesday afternoon to sign paperwork for OJ.

“She was very nice about the situation and confused as to how OJ came to us,” Meadows said. “She had placed him into a temporary home until she could make a more thought out decision. She did not abandon the dog.”

Colleen said she knew OJ and Dozer were a bonded pair when she adopted them, and did not intend on separating them.

Meanwhile hundreds of people on social media claim Colleen broke her contract with RACC.

“She didn't break the contract,” Young said. “She definitely broke verbally what we had talked about."

When asked if the contract specifically mentioned OJ and Dozer as a “bonded pair” Young said it did not.
[....]
"I was advised [through some other people] that by no means did I even have to turn the dog back over to them,” Colleen said. “I willingly did that."

"Social media has had a lot of compassion, and anger about this situation,” Young said. “We just hope now that we can move on."

Young said OJ and Dozer will remain at RACC for the time being, until the time is right to adopt them out again.

Sorry, she's still a cunt and was ill-prepared to take these dogs. The time for "a more thought out decision" was before she made an emotionally based reaction. Contacting the shelter before she rehomed OJ would've been a good idea, but then she knew she would've been asked to bring them both back.

 

[Sejanus]

Colleen,
SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Stop trying to spin and damage control.
Eat dog shit and die you horrible collection of DNA, guts and man drippings.
Signed,
Everyone Who Learns This Story.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

June 3, 2018

Blue Dozer and OJ, the unlikely canine duo whose story went viral after a failed adoption, have found their forever home in Richmond, shelter officials announced.

The odd couple has spent the past three years working in tandem – six-year-old Blue Dozer leads the way for 12-year-old, blind OJ, who follows in his shadow. The bonded pair who had to be adopted together after their original owner surrendered them, facing housing problems.

In a Facebook post, Richmond Animal Care and Control (RACC) officials said that the pair were adopted Friday night by a "wonderful" family from Richmond.

"These dogs have taken us on a roller coaster ride of emotion and turmoil and yet remained steadfast in their love for each other and their ability to adapt and overcome vexing circumstances," the Facebook post reads. "We hope that their story helped showcase the work that we do at RACC and the commitment we have to each animal in our care. So many people (from across the world) have reached out to us in support and encouragement-thank you! While we are grateful that OJ & Dozer’s story ended happily, the reality is these two dogs make up a very tiny fraction of the animal population we serve and support each year. We save thousands of lives and help thousands of people without fanfare or any media coverage."

‘Wonderful’ Richmond family adopts famous duo Blue Dozer and OJ

Blue Dozer and OJ, the unlikely canine duo whose story went viral after a failed adoption, have found their forever home in Richmond, shelter officials announced Saturday morning.

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