In May 2017, SWESR was notified about a 7-year old blind English Setter in an Oklahoma shelter.  Kai was rescued quickly and went to a foster home. His foster mother took him to a canine ophthalmology specialist, who diagnosed Kai with a degenerative eye condition called progressive retinal atrophy (PRA). It is not painful, but there is no cure.   

While Kai was in rescue, his former owner had called the animal shelter looking for a blind ES he had lost, and they told him the dog was now with SWESR. He contacted us as he wanted to make sure Kai was okay. It became very clear the owner cared about Kai but knew he couldn’t provide him with the life he deserved. The owner shared Kai’s back story. 

He had had Kai since puppyhood, as an indoor dog. He hunted with Kai and said he had the best nose of any hunting dog he’d ever known. When Kai was about a year old, through a series of choices and events where Kai did absolutely nothing wrong, he found himself placed in a wire kennel on a concrete slab at a commercial business, where he stayed for the next six years.  When he started going blind, he wasn’t even taken out of the kennel to hunt.   

Six years is a long time to wait in a metal cage, blind and alone, for your happily every after. 

Kai is terrified of thunderstorms, and one night a strong one blew through. In his panic Kai had moved the kennel in such a way that he could wriggle out underneath. When Kai was picked up by animal control, he had run more than a mile away, a blind dog in a driving storm, from where he had been kenneled. 

As soon as he saw Kai’s posting on SWESR’s Available Dogs page, his new dad showed an interest in and unwavering commitment to adopting him, and soon enough Kai was nestled in a dog bed in the back of an SUV, ready for the long drive to his new home in Iowa. Kai was carefully and lovingly introduced to his new home, his new backyard, and his new canine sister.  He would pace his environment, mapping and memorizing the layout of each room. You could see him working the rooms in his head as he moved though them. He did the same thing with the yard outside. He paced the fence until he knew exactly where it was and where he was in relation to it. You could watch him run through the middle of the yard only to slow down and stop when he approached the fence. Kai proved time and time again how smart he is. 

Kai had been a bird dog when he was young, so his new dad took him to the local hunt club and put out game birds for him. Kai found each and every one with his nose, pointing with an intensity that only a bird dog can demonstrate. His dad shot a bird over him and directed Kai to where it had landed. Kai found the bird and brought it back to his dad. Sight or no sight, Kai was in his element, doing what he was bred to do and loving every minute of it. Kai and his dad have returned to the hunt club many times, and Kai is always excited to get into the fields. Once Kai was so eager to hunt game birds that he chewed through a rope while waiting to go! 

Kai is generous in sharing his love with his people and his canine siblings. Through the years, his parents have fostered and adopted other dogs as puppies, and Kai has bonded with all of them, becoming instant friends. They play together in the backyard, and they sleep together in dog beds. He likes to snuggle and cuddle with all of them. 

Kai is about 14 now. He’s slowing down, and he isn’t as fast or as nimble as he used to be. He still loves his walks. Rain or shine, winter or summer, he loves to roll around on the ground in his backyard. He comes up to his dad daily, burying his head in his dad’s lap, to get head and ear scratches. He can never get enough of his momma’s back and haunch scritches. 

Kai may come up to his parents for love, but they believe this is also Kai’s way of saying “thank you for bringing me home”. He hasn’t let his blindness take away a moment of life’s enjoyments, most especially walking in the woods and chasing game birds in the fields. Kai has made the most of his happily ever after. He has taught his parents that no matter what, life is pretty great.  He is a happy dog, and that makes his parents happy. He is loved completely and unreservedly, and his parents are thankful every day that Kai is in their lives.