About Mollie Sue

PLACEMENT REQUIREMENTS: Mollie Sue is blind & will need to be placed in a home with limited crate time, no other dogs & a physical fence. She does not require extensive exercise but requires a minimum of 2-3 exercise sessions per day. When outdoors & unleashed, she must be contained in an area with 6 foot (minimum) privacy fence; if not fenced/supervised, she must be on-leash at all times when outdoors. Cannot be crated for extended periods of time. MUST be an only dog and probably no cats. Older children will be fine (probably 8-12 or older). Mollie Sue is a female GSP mix, approximately 1.5 years old & blind. She's petite, weighing about 35 pounds & is white with black markings. When she interacts with her people, it seems every movement & exchange made is cuter & more intuitive than the previous one. Even though Mollie Sue is blind, she has learned to live & communicate in ways a sighted dog may not. She's so in tune to her surroundings & her people it's as if she almost takes on human-like responses & interactions. Mollie Sue never ceases to amaze them as she goes about her day-to-day routines - happy, loving, confident & eager to learn and please! Please don't think that just because Mollie Sue is blind she's not 'what you're looking for' in a pet, stick with us before you decide. You might discover she's just the dog you've been searching for all along! During her short lifetime, we know Mollie Sue was living in a desperate situation where she was badly neglected & mistreated. We're unsure how she became blind or how long she's been blind. We also know at one point she interacted well with other dogs; however, that hasn't been the case with her & her foster dog sibling. For this reason, we're advising she be an only dog unless she receives professional guidance from a skilled trainer when & if she is to be introduced to a possible permanent dog sibling. 'Blind dogs see with their hearts' is a quote from the Blind Dog Rescue website (blinddogrescue.org), and we couldn't agree more. This website offers realistic, helpful information about how to live with & care for a blind dog as a family pet. From what we've read & from what we've lived & experienced with her since we brought her into our rescue, we know that whoever is lucky enough to adopt this little girl will have the opportunity to experience some of the most joyful, fun-filled, loving days you could ever experience through pet ownership. Mollie Sue is positively THAT special. Perhaps the first very, very important detail we want to highlight is that Mollie Sue doesn't 'act blind'. If you've never been with a blind dog & don't understand how they maneuver throughout their daily activities, we'd like to give you a brief insight into her world, how she came to be with ISR & how she manages her days as an independent, normal, puppy-like GSP. Mollie Sue adapted easily & quickly to her new foster home surroundings & people. It took her a little over a day to 'visualize' her new surroundings & navigate throughout her new home & backyard, like she'd been living there forever as a sighted dog. Her foster mom says 'Mollie now weaves around obstacles so well one would think she has normal vision. Her senses of smell & hearing are extremely good, which she uses to help her locate toys, treats, bones & even to fetch & retrieve!' Mollie is house trained & will go sit by the door when she needs to go out. If she's in her crate when the need arises, she'll bark to let you know it's potty-break time. Mollie isn't a fan of her crate, but if she must be crated (not over 3 hours), she simply needs her leash & a few treats tossed inside her crate to entice her in. She will experience anxiety & separation issues if crated for lengthy periods of time. Mollie Sue's blindness doesn't keep her from craving exercise & outside time. Mollie has proven to be a bit of a mini-Houdini & easily navigates gates/chain link fences with her climbing/jumping abilities. She loves to go on leash walks to get good smells & sniffs of her outside world. It's also common for her to occasionally 'belly walk'. Her foster mom thinks it's because Mollie likes the feel of grass on her belly. Mollie Sue senses her surroundings in a different way than her sighted counterparts. She also loves to play fetch in the backyard. By using a ball with a sound, she listens to the direction it's thrown & then lets her sense of smell take over. It's really amazing & we have a video highlighting this. Mollie doesn't exhibit much in the prey-drive area, but she often acts like she's hunting birds in the trees & sniffing the ground for nearby critters. If she senses birds in a low hanging nest, she tries to get them, but so far, she hasn't achieved this feat. Mollie's exuberance should be considered before she's homed with children. For more detailed info (yes there's more!), please visit http://ilshorthairrescue.com/Adoptable_Dogs. There, you can also submit an application.

Lake County
Gurnee, Illinois 60031