A Puppy Raiser’s Love

A puppy raiser’s love is quite remarkable considering she invests all her hopes and dreams in a very special guide dog puppy who will someday make the transition into a hero in a harness.  Such is the story of MC, our latest guide dog in training. You see, when guests rent a pet-friendly cottage from our Mermaid Cottages collection, the pet fee helps us sponsor puppies to be trained as guide dogs and service dogs for persons in need, including members of the United States Military.

Here’s what we know about our latest puppy in training in an update from our contact with Southeastern Guide Dogs.

“We dedicated the name MC after Puppycon2020, which you once again so generously supported! It’s the last bit of normal we can recall.
On 4/4/20 Ruby whelped a litter. Ruby was raised by a student in our Savannah puppy raiser group during her time as an undergrad student at GSU-statesboro. She’s now a student at UGA’s school of veterinary medicine. She wanted to raise one of Ruby’s puppies, and I matched her with the 6th born pup, and it became known as MC and was raised in Athens during much of the pandemic. They navigated the pandemic, vet school and life together. On September 11th, MC entered advanced training and last week she was matched with a visually impaired individual in the ongoing class on campus at Southeastern Guide Dogs.

This upcoming Saturday the student gets to travel and meet the puppy she raised again as well as share an hour with the student that’s been matched with MC.
I will pick up a few unisex Mermaid cottages items today at Seaside sisters to send along with her for MC’s person. We don’t yet know gender, size & age of the student.
The team then has another two weeks of training on campus before they graduate and head home, forward together as is customary to say.

It’s a very special accomplishment to be selected to go to class. Industry standard graduation rate of a guide dog candidate is 30%. I have posted a congratulatory post to the puppy raiser, since my followers are aware that class dogs don’t always graduate. More info to come on Saturday afternoon!

I’m incredibly happy to be sharing these tidbits with you, and cautiously optimistic that all will be well and MC will graduate and change the life of her person.”

If you haven’t guessed already, MC is a namesake for Mermaid Cottages. Southeastern Guide Dogs wanted to thank our Head Mermaid Diane for her generous support of these incredible puppies and their puppy raisers. Now you can see why we’re always so thrilled when our pet guests bring along their well-behaved humans.

Oh, and we’re just as thankful when you purchase bags of our Beach Bum Biscuits. Those profits help us sponsor more puppies in training, too. Please be our guests in our pet-friendly cottages and follow along for more updates of MC and her journey to become a Guide Dog!