Photo editor’s house has gone to the dogs

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This article was published 20/01/2018 (3126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s one of those stories that warms your heart and breaks it into little pieces at the same time.

I stumbled upon it earlier this week when I heard a gentle whimpering sound behind me as I sat in my office cubicle waiting for professionally amusing thoughts to pop into my brain.

When I spun my chair around, there was Free Press photo editor Mike Aporius holding one of the cutest dogs I have ever seen in my life: the newest member of his family, Daisy, a Shih Tzu cross believed to be about five years old.

Mike had brought Daisy to work as part of our ongoing Newsroom Dogs project, wherein editorial department employees can bring canine companions to the office two days a week.

As I hugged Daisy, I looked into her face and realized I couldn’t find her eyes. “She’s totally blind,” Mike explained, before sharing the story of how this sightless little dog and her injured sister, Dot, had come to be part of his rapidly growing family.

Let’s start with the heartbreaking part. Last October, Daisy and Dot — who would later be found to be suffering from a badly broken jaw — were discovered abandoned in a ditch alongside the Trans-Canada Highway near Oak Lake.

It’s not known how they ended up in the ditch, nor how long the pint-sized dogs were forced to survive on their own. They were filthy, cold and hungry when someone stumbled on them and turned them over to a provincial conservation officer, who took them to the Brandon-based rescue organization Funds for Furry Friends.

“They were very unkempt and dirty,” Mike’s wife, Elizabeth Spence, recalled. “It’s unbelievable! Anyone who could hurt an animal, what else are they capable of? It makes me furious. I don’t know how they survived, but they did. They’ll never have to experience anything like that again.”

Once in care, Daisy underwent emergency surgery to remove one eye, and is unable to see out of the other one. On top of that, her heart briefly stopped while being spayed, raising concerns about another health threat.

It was Elizabeth who spotted photos of the adorable duo on the adoption page of the Funds for Furry Friends website.

“I follow that website all the time and see all the new dogs,” she told me. “I always want a new one, but normally I can talk myself out of it. But this time I couldn’t.”

The full-time mom and part-time photographer tried to persuade her parents to adopt the pair, but they weren’t ready, which is when she began pressuring our beloved photo editor to add to their already-impressive menagerie.

“She sent me photos of the dogs and I said she was crazy because we already have two other dogs, three kids and two cats,” Mike recalled, laughing. “In the end, I was smitten. She always says, ‘Let’s just look at them.’ Once I agree to that, it’s done.”

And so, in a heavy October snowstorm, the couple, accompanied by all their kids and dogs, drove to Brandon to meet Daisy and Dot in their foster home. It was love at first sight for everyone involved.

“They all got along great,” Elizabeth said. “They sniffed each other and that was it. They were just beautiful, wonderful, loving dogs.”

On Remembrance Day, Daisy and Dot arrived in Winnipeg and started their new life in the crowded and mildly chaotic Aporius-Spence household.

Unable to see, Daisy couldn’t manage the stairs, and Elizabeth spends much of her day toting the little dog around in a sling. As for Dot, it was clear something was painfully wrong.

“She (Dot) was a little off,” Elizabeth said. “We took her to the vet and found out her jaw was broken in two places and had been like that for a while. She’s very good at hiding her pain. She was likely kicked in the face. It’s consistent with abuse.”

Another trip to the vet and Dot’s little jaw was wired shut.

“She can get her tongue out of her mouth to slurp up wet dog food,” her new mom said.

Normal humans might be overwhelmed, but Mike and Elizabeth say their pet-intensive home is the picture of harmony. Daisy and Dot have joined a pack that includes two other rescue dogs (Nora, a 10-year-old English pointer, and her daughter, Remington, 9), two rescue cats (Jack and Leon, both 11), and three young children — Wellington, 8, Loretta, 5, and Archie, 2.

For her part, Elizabeth has turned her crowded home into art — she’s become an internet sensation by posting to her Instagram account (@wellettas) heart-tugging photos of her brood (animals and human) cuddling and napping and just hanging out.

In recent years, her photos have garnered worldwide attention (she has more than 121,000 followers on Instagram) from the Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Good Morning America, Canada AM and even a montage on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. A National Geographic book coming out in March, Love Unleashed, will feature several of her heartbreakingly adorable photos.

As for a pair of formerly unwanted and unloved dogs — sightless Daisy and Dot with her broken jaw — things couldn’t possibly be better.

“It’s wonderful,” Mike, our photo editor with an oversized heart, told me. “It’s a lot of work. The blind one we have to carry outside every time she has to go to the bathroom. But they love you unconditionally. They appreciate being in a loving home, because they love you back tenfold.”

Now, at the end of a hard day of photojournalism, when the kids are put to bed, Mike and Elizabeth flop down on the couch, where they are quickly smothered by four grateful dogs and two cats.

“It’s the best way to end a day,” Mike told me.

“We’re pretty lucky and they’re lucky we’re suckers. They (Daisy and Dot) fit in right away. There were no issues at all with the other dogs or cats or kids. Dogs understand a loving home, rescue dogs especially understand that.”

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca