My Little Guy

Hello  everyone!   Marie here and it is time this month for the Design Team to share something with you other that paper crafting.  I decided to share the story of my little guy, Astro.

A photographer found an adorable black lab at an animal shelter in the Los Angeles area   He was just so cute and filled with personality.   His face was so expressive that she just had to take him home   Astro was a scholar and sailed  through modeling school with straight A’s.   .   The photographer worked with him and trained him to recognize hand signals for photo shoots.   He soon became a gorgeous male model!    He modeled for various companies such as Pedigree Dog Food and other major companies.   He did photo shoots throughout Los Angeles and the San Francisco area.

This is a picture  of the front cover of a book titled, How to Bring Out the Best in Your Human.   The book features good dogs (Astro) in  the “good dog” role and pictures of another dog in the “gad dog” role.   Isn’t it fitting that Astro was cast in the “good dog” role?

And this, my friends, is Astro’s “Signature pose” and his “signature tail”!   This is the pose for which he is best known.

Awww – this is a picture of his many facial expressions.   Isn’t he just the cutest!    He used all of them each and even day!

I have bought a LOT of Pedigree dog food with Astro’s picture and I cannot bring myself to open up the cans.   I just keep  one on display and the rest in the pantry.   I believe he is also on Vita Bone but I cannot verify it so I do not want to publish that picture.

At the age of 6, Astro suddenly missed some hand signals during a photo shoot in LA.   When he was leaving the studio,  he was unable to walked down the stairs.   He was immediately taken to specialists and it was determined he was  going blind.  After multiple visits to specialists, the verdict was the same –  Astro was rapidly going  blind and his condition could not be reversed.

The photographer was unable to keep Astro and gave him to a friend at the Central California Labrador Retriever Rescue.    Many people visited but Astro was a “Special Needs” dog and they felt they were not prepared to care for a bind dog. Astro remained at the rescue for a few years, waiting for someone to take him home.

I came across the Central California Labrador Retriever Rescue site on my computer three years ago.   I found a gorgeous picture of a handsome young man called Astro and read his story.   With tears in my eyes, I contacted the organization immediately and picked him up on my first day off from work.   It was love at first sight.   He has become an important and loved member of our family.    We were advised to treat him as a “blind dog” for the first week and then to just treat him as a “regular dog” after that.   He is very smart and tries to use the “blind dog” routine to get extra treats on a regular basis – and it usually works!      I absolutely love my little guy and he brings pure joy into our lives.

I hope you enjoyed this brief little glimpse into a very important part at of my life!  For those interested in adoption, the Central California Larador Retriever Rescue site can be found HERE.