Tao is a beautiful senior Golden Retriever who has lived a long and happy life together with his mommy, Melanie Jackson.
But one year ago, the twelve-year-old pup’s happy life took a bad turn, as he was diagnosed with glaucoma and lost both his eyes.
However, when everything was at its darkest, a little ball of light entered Tao’s life and turned everything around once more.
Jackson took her beloved pup Tao to the vet one year ago after he suddenly began showing signs of distress.
One evening, completely out of the blue, Tao began shaking his head as if in pain, and just a few hours after the initial onset of the pain, Tao completely lost vision in one of his eyes.
The vet diagnosed Tao with glaucoma, and had to surgically remove Tao’s blind eye.
Glaucoma is a disease of the eye in which fluid builds up inside the eye. This build up increases the eye pressure, which leads to pain, redness and loss of vision.
Glaucoma can affect one or two eyes, and in Tao’s case it unfortunately affected both eyes.
Not long after he had his eye removed, the pressure in Tao’s remaining eye grew so severe that it also had to be removed.
Jackson worried about her beautiful boy, but with the loss of his eyes came a relief from pain, and Tao quickly returned to his normal, happy self.
Tao adjusted to blindness with surprising ease. It only took him a few days to learn how to walk up the staircase by himself and he was even able to go on walks without his leash.
But despite Tao’s speedy recovery, Jackson felt that she wanted to do something extra for Tao to enhance his life and make him as happy as possible.
Then Jackson found Oko, a eight week old Golden pup with a bubbly personality and a heart of gold.
The pup radiated love and happiness and Jackson knew that the sprightly little pup was exactly the kind of friend Tao needed.
Oko joined the family and immediatley fell in love with his new, senior buddy.
And Tao instantly connected with the happy, cuddly little ball of fur which seemed to worship his every move.
Tao and Oko quickly grew inseparable and began eating, sleeping, playing and cuddling together.
It was clear that they were perfect for each other and made each other extremely happy.
Tao may have been doing alright before, but now, he was absolutely thriving.
Now that he wasn’t in pain, he felt and seemed several years younger, and with Oko, he could really enjoy and take advantage of his newfound energy and love of life.
Now, Oko has become Tao’s own personal seeing-eye dog; Tao has learned to keep close to Oko when they’re out and about and trusts the little pup to keep him safe and on track.
And since Oko is still a playful and mischievous little puppy, Jackson is making sure that he takes his responsibilities seriously and doesn’t get Tao into trouble.
“Tao is being trained to follow Oko’s scent and Oko to listen and respond to my commands to ‘stop, wait, go right, go left,” Jackson told Bored Panda.
Though Tao lost his eyes, he’s gained a whole new appreciation for life and is happier than ever.
Oko has brought so much love, adventure and happiness into his life and we’re sure he’s forever grateful to his mommy for bringing Oko into their lives.
Jackson is thrilled to see Tao doing so well, and to see how happy and energetic he’s become.
And she also loves her newest little furbaby with all her heart and is excited to see him grow and develop.
Jackson has begun raising awareness for glaucoma in dogs and has been working with The Kennel Club to identify what genes caused Tao’s glaucoma.
Glaucoma can be prevented if caught in the early stages, and Jackson hopes to save other pups from going through the same loss as Tao.
Tao and Oko have their own Instagram page where they document their life together, and it is the most adorable thing.
