It’s not every day two siblings reconnect after 11 years apart, especially when it comes to seeing eye dogs.
Regina residents Susan Picott and Gwen Klotz, who both live with blindness, made an interesting discovery thanks to their dogs.
It started when Picott’s daughter thought she spotted Abe – her mom’s seeing eye dog – across the street.
“As it turns out, Abe was actually in the house and it was (a different seeing eye) dog,” Picott explained.
The dog she saw across the street was Klotz’s seeing eye dog Ally.
Struck by the overwhelmingly similar appearance of their dogs, the neighbours discovered that not only were the dogs the same breed, but they were the same age, and adopted from the same place.
Get daily Regina news
It turned out that Ally and Abe are siblings – born of the same litter in New Jersey – reuniting in Regina 11 years later.
“They both get excited the same way,” Klotz explained. “The huffing and puffing and their bums wiggling when they’re happy. They’re gonna be 11 and so they have the same kind of slowness in their hips.”
The pups hail from The Seeing Eye, a non-profit organization based in Morristown, N.J., that matches people living with blindness with dogs.
Melissa Allman, an advocacy specialist with The Seeing Eye, said the news of these dogs reuniting was incredible to hear.
“My instant reaction was wow, that’s an amazing coincidence and it just shows what a big impact we have. I hope that these women will be able to connect on a meaningful level and be able to celebrate their relationship with us and their dogs and offer a little of bit of community to each other,” Allman said.
As for the neighbours, they say they plan on spending a lot more time together from now on. Hopefully, the dogs enjoy being together as much as they do.