If you’re a dog lover with access to Instagram (so, everybody), we’re willing to bet that your feed plays host to at least one of the apparently infinite canine personalities in the social media community.
Dogs that wear raincoats, dogs doing aerobics, dogs trained to go down water slides — it can often seem that we’ve seen everything. A refreshing furry face in the world of animal Instagrammers, though, is a pup that doesn’t see at all.
His name is Smiley (@smileytheblindtherapydog), and he’s a 15-year-old, popcorn-loving, undersized golden retriever with a preference for new soft toys (previously used toys need not apply). Smiley was rescued from an animal hoarder 13 years ago by his now-owner Joanne George. At that time, George was working as a vet tech near Toronto. She was sent with several of her colleagues to (hopefully) save the golden retrievers needing the most veterinary care, a group that would have been euthanized otherwise. George, now 44, remembers her friends insisting that she was the only one who could take the dog who they only referred to then as “the blind one.”
“Nobody at this puppy mill had time to coddle this dog because there were a hundred other dogs,” George told The Post. “He was left on his own, which was to his advantage. He had confidence in being a normal dog.”
Today, Smiley has more reasons to be confident: 128K Instagram followers and a thriving community of people in the Toronto area who depend on him as a therapy dog.
The inspiration for his therapy work was the regular conversations George would have with people while walking Smiley around the Toronto suburb where she lives with her family. She recalls one woman who “really made it sound like Smiley practically saved her life” after an earlier meeting, during which she’d been “going through something really horrible.”
“There was something very, very magical about him,” George said. “I knew that very early, and I knew he could do a lot of good.”
Smiley’s Instagram feed chronicles his adventures visiting nursing homes, classrooms, libraries, and more. A book featuring photos and stories of these visits (titled “Smiley: A Journey of Love”) will also be available this April.
The fact that Smiley is so obviously “different” has given him a unique edge as a therapy dog — his therapy sessions have an educational, inspirational element. George uses the story of Smiley’s tough early life at a puppy mill as an anti-bullying lesson for children.
‘I think people who don’t feel perfect or are experiencing difficulties connect to Smiley because he is not perfect. But he is perfectly happy.’
- Anne Houle
“[The kids] are so shocked that other dogs could be mean to him just because he was blind,” she said. “I see in their faces that they make a connection and I really feel like all those kids in that classroom are not going to bully somebody. His story is getting through to so many people.”
Smiley is also called in for more specific missions. Linda DiPietro, a local teacher, requested his services when a young student was struggling to adapt to his new school. Smiley would visit the student for one-on-one time on particularly difficult days.
“We’d be in situations where the student would be upset and hurting, and Smiley would come and suddenly it was like a deep breath,” DiPietro told The Post. “It helped him feel a level of safety.”
Smiley also participates in the Paws for Stories program at the Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library, during which he “meets” with two children each Thursday afternoon for a reading session. The kids snuggle and read to him for 30 minutes, and Smiley is “paid” with dried chicken or other treats.
“There is so much in the media today about how differing from the norm is negative,” librarian Anne Houle said. “I think people who don’t feel perfect or are experiencing difficulties connect to Smiley because he is not perfect. But he is perfectly happy.”
According to his veterinarian Dr. Angela Smith, Smiley’s so-called “imperfection” — his blindness — is a result of microphthalmia, a genetic condition that causes the eyes to form improperly. Smiley’s case was severe, causing both total blindness and physical discomfort. In the early days after his adoption, George recalls him constantly pawing his eyes and sticking his head in his water bowl.
“Unhealthy tissue is susceptible to inflammation and infection and often results in discomfort and pain,” Smith told The Post. “Once the unhealthy irritating tissue is removed, the patient appears happier, with more energy and significantly more comfort.”
According to George, having Smiley’s eyes stitched up made “a big difference in his life.”
Pal, another dog suffering from microopthalmia who George rescued from Turkey after seeing his photo on Facebook, will soon undergo the procedure, too.
Less than one month after he arrived at his new home last October, Pal, now 10 months old, had an intense round of health issues and was ultimately diagnosed with the bone disease hypertrophic osteodystrophy. George documented the experience — from Pal’s initial yelps of discomfort to his trip to an emergency vet clinic to his rehab — on Pal’s Instagram feed (@thegoldenlifeofpal). When Pal’s 21K followers saw the images, many of them called the vet directly asking to make financial contributions to his care. Since the clinic couldn’t accept the donations, George decided to sell T-shirts to her online community, the profits of which benefitted Pal’s vet bills.
“I could never have paid for his sickness,” George said. “I think it was meant to be that [Pal] came to us. It was Smiley’s wonderful followers that had already fallen in love with him that made it possible.”
Pal is now healthy and will one day become a therapy dog, too. For now, he and Smiley remain mostly separate as Pal learns to navigate and play nice. “Pal is the bull in the china shop and Smiley is the china,” George joked of her pets.
While George said that maintaining two canine Instagram accounts is a challenge, posting photos and videos of Smiley and Pal is simply part of her routine. There are no photo shoots or professional equipment involved, just real-time images of the dogs playing in the backyard, sniffing out clear paths throughout the house, and, in Smiley’s case, being “a community helper.”
Since starting Smiley’s Instagram account three years ago, George said she hears from many followers who are inspired to adopt blind or disabled dogs. She also receives messages from families whose dogs are going blind due to health issues. “They say, ‘If it wasn’t for Smiley, I would have thought they could never have a quality of life,’ and they would have euthanized them. They tell me, ‘I know my dog will be fine because I’ve watched Smiley and know that [blind] dogs can do absolutely anything.’”
Even followers who aren’t seeking George’s advice on managing life with a blind pup are anxious to show their love for her dogs. A full wall of George’s home is filled with paintings and drawings of Smiley sent to her from around the world, and a glass cabinet displays handmade clay sculptures and bobblehead dolls of the golden retriever.
Karin Froch, who follows both Pal and Smiley on Instagram, said she interacts with their feeds daily. “If it’s a day off [from work] then possibly more,” she joked. Froch suffers from chronic pain, and the dogs’ photos inspire her to persevere, she said.
“They are special to me because they have a disability and they inadvertently set an example to us humans of overcoming adversity,” Froch told The Post. “I love that they are therapy dogs and I enjoy seeing how much they are loved by their family.”
George’s love for her dogs and her commitment to her work with them is certainly not up for debate.
“I look at other dog Instagrams and I see lots of beautiful studio shots, and it’s not actually the dog’s life,” she said. “And then I realize, it isn’t their life for the owner, either. These dogs are my life.”