This handsome boy is blind Mitch, a husky who arrived this evening from a rescue group in Indiana. A wonderful lady named Sharon A. runs Mercy Rescue, along with her husband Max, and she emailed us on March 1 about this dog. Sharon wrote:
"Mitch was abandoned in an outside kennel at our county animal control facility one cold Saturday night in January. We always check the kennels on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings because they are closed on the weekends. When I saw him I was impressed with his sweet disposition and his good looks. I told my husband, “We have to save this dog.” We had no idea he was blind. We gave him food and water and I called animal control on Monday morning. When we went to pick him up, the kennel tech informed us he had a vision problem. She brought him into the office and we could see that he was probably blind. We took him to a local vet immediately. She said he does have cataracts but they are not serious enough to blind him. She indicated his blindness could have any number of causes, but she was not able to do the diagnostics so Mitch would have to see a specialist, and would probably never see again. Being a small rescue in a small town the funds are simply not available for specialist care."
Sharon’s note continued:
"It was my opinion that such a pretty dog with such a gentle disposition was adoptable even if he was blind. I posted pictures of Mitch and the info about him on Petfinder and other sites. To my dismay we have not received one inquiry. So this wonderful dog is living in a kennel with no constant human companionship. We try to spend time with him, but it’s not enough. I think how alone and isolated he must feel. He listens to every movement around him and wags his tail at the sound of our voices or other dogs passing by him."
We asked Sharon to see how he was with other dogs, and he did fine. So we agreed to take him, and I then set about making his transportation arrangements.
We had to fly him into Bozeman, Montana, about three hours south of us, because Northwest Airlines is still flying larger jets — A319s and A320s — into that airport. All the other airlines have switched their Montana flights to the smaller regional jets (Canadairs and Embraers), which can’t take anything larger than a "large" crate … and those are about big enough for a Cocker Spaniel. And Northwest now only flies regional jets into Missoula and Helena, too. So for a dog of Mitch’s size, requiring an extra-large or giant crate, we’re down to one option … Northwest to Bozeman. Thus we made reservations for Mitch to fly from Indianapolis to Minneapolis and on to Bozeman.
I drove down to Bozeman this afternoon to meet his 6:30 p.m. flight. When the airline personnel brought him out in his crate on a dolly, I walked over and said, "Hi, Mitch!" And this boy’s tail just started a-wagging. Walking out of the terminal, Mitch went face-first into the curb, but he was so excited to be out of the crate and happy to be exploring it didn’t faze him at all.
We had an uneventful trip back to the ranch. The biggest challenge was simply trying to keep Mitch in the back seat; he tried every opportunity to climb up front. He is a very sweet dog, exactly as Sharon described him. Alayne took the photo of me with Mitch right after we got home about 10:30 p.m. As I write this, Mitch is in the yard checking things out after eating some dinner.
And now it’s time for all of us to go to bed!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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