#2
Tiegan Lane has had Pluto since he was 12 weeks old after a long search through ads with her brother. The mini dachshund’s bright blue eyes drew her in and, accompanied by her partner and her partner’s daughter, the girls made a lengthy journey practically across the whole of Australia (from Magnetic Island to Brisbane). She called the tiny pup Pluto as it was the only name he seemed to respond to after several other options. Tiegan is a big fan of Disney and the puppy’s eyes resembled the galaxy, and, well, for the size comparison, as Pluto happens to be a dwarf planet.
But soon, they found out that the dog responding to the name was just a coincidence and that there was something wrong with the dog.
“Pluto is completely deaf. We discovered this a week into having him on a holiday away. He wouldn’t respond to his name or come when we called and would become upset if he couldn't see us. So we went to a vet and he confirmed that he was deaf. He also looked over Pluto’s eyes and said that it shouldn’t be anything to worry about as he responded to movement. I never intended to have a deaf dog, I applaud those who do. So the surprise of having a deaf dog was a bit rattling, but he has grown on us so much, I wouldn’t change anything,” shared Tiegan. Pluto is actually a well-trained dog and he responds to hand signals.
Her decision to post an entry in the Dogspotting Society was based on the fact that on their daily walks, Pluto would get praised for how exceptional his eyes are. “He is cute and I want to show everyone just how cute he thinks he is. But I never thought the response to my post would become so big. I remember looking when I had only posted the picture for 43 minutes and it already had over a hundred comments, 3 shares, and 2k likes. I was kind of blown away. It was hectic! It was just pinging constantly, I could hardly get the chance to respond to people."
Tiegan is an amateur photographer, so she already had a few pictures ready to charm the internet as well as his own Instagram account. In the household, Pluto is nicknamed Catdog as he prefers cat friends to dogs and his friendship with the next-door feline residents has made him believe that he actually is one. Catching him munching on cat biscuits or balancing along the back of the couch is not an oddity either.
Another adorable entry was submitted by Lauren Deitering from Louisville, Kentucky. She posted a picture of blind and diabetic dog Stevie whom, together with her partner, they’ve been caring for for the past 11 months thanks to the Kentucky Humane Society. According to Lauren, it is definitely not easy to cater to an unwell senior, but it is surely entertaining. “We love Stevie dearly, but I am answering this question after he just peed on my foot. He is a pain in the ass, but we feel honored to be his caregivers until he decides to cross the rainbow bridge. We are hoping he makes it at least one more month so we can celebrate his one-year 'gotcha' day.”
Stevie makes people smile as he unfortunately gets stuck in random places, loves eating human food, and takes lots of naps. Lauren’s mum prompted them to submit a picture of their foster dog for the #PrettyEyesChallenge as he actually has no eyes.
Lauren didn’t expect over a thousand comments and 12k likes. “I received so many comments in such a short amount of time and was trying to respond to them all so fast that Facebook actually put me in jail and restricted my account for 'abusing the feature.' I was in jail for three days because of the overwhelming amount of reactions. Ha!”
#10
