After a Toy Poodle named Muffin began losing his vision due to cataracts — and took a spill down some stairs — his dog mom, Silvie Bordeaux, decided to do something to help him safely get around.
Bordeaux invented the Muffin’s Halo Guide for Blind Dogs, a lightweight, three-piece device that includes a harness, copper tubing “halo” and wing-shaped padding on the back. It stops vision-impaired pups of all sizes from bumping into walls and furniture, or worse.
“They can eat and sleep and play and run with it on,” Bordeaux told the Associated Press. “It’s like their superpowers.”
Dr. Christin Fahrer, of Eye Care for Animals in Culver City, Calif., told the AP that if the halo hits the wall before the dog does, it will slow him down and help prevent injury to his face.
“We are the ones who struggle with the concept of our pets being blind,” Dr. Fahrer said, noting that dogs can adapt fairly easily to losing their sight. “We struggle with what it would be like for us. Our pets don’t drive or read, but we use our vision every moment of every day. It’s a different world for them.”
On the Muffin’s Halo website, Bordeaux wrote, “Muffin now knows his home again and can travel with me to any hotel or friend’s house and gets to familiarize any new surroundings, quickly. He just loves this aid and is back to his peppy confident self!”
Bordeaux wrote that she was “stunned” over how many dogs are abandoned or euthanized when they lose their eyesight. To help these pups, she started the non-profit Second Chances For Blind Dogs, which donates Muffin’s Halos to blind dogs in shelters.
Like the dogs wearing the device she created, Bordeaux has earned her angel wings. (Muffin’s Halo is also available in butterfly and quarterback shapes.) For information about ordering it, visit the website.
Photo via Facebook