Piglet é um cão especial. O animal, que nasceu cego e surdo numa casa sem condições no estado norte-americano da Georgia, é um exemplo de superação, que ensina aos mais pequenos sobre aceitação e inclusão de animais com necessidades especiais. É - quase - cor de rosa e as suas semelhanças com a personagem de Winnie the Pooh são evidentes.

Após ter sido enviado para um canil, conta a People, Piglet foi adotado por Melissa Shapiro, uma veterinária do Connecticut. A partir desse momento, a vida do cão deu uma grande volta: além de ganhar uma família… passou a ser uma estrela do Instagram. Tem 125 mil seguidores.

“Estamos muito contentes de ter recebido um envelope cheio de cartas dos nossos amigos do segundo ano do Alabama. Os meninos perguntam se o Piglet está contente na sua casa. A resposta é – claro! Apesar de ser surdo, cego e pequenino. O Piglet é um cão muito feliz. Ama a sua casa e a sua vida. Ama a mãe, o pai e os nossos outros cães. Ama ir para o trabalho, viajar e visitar salas de aula para ensinar as crianças sobre a ‘atitude Piglet’”, pode ler-se numa das publicações partilhadas na página do animal na rede social.

A ‘missão’ de Piglet, cruzado das raças chihuahua e daschund, é agora ‘dar aulas’ - partilhando o seu espírito otimista e positivo com as crianças - e levar também as pessoas a adotar animais com necessidades especiais. Tem até um site na Internet onde explica todo o seu ‘programa’.

Melissa Shapiro usa o dinheiro que faz no Instagram e na venda de merchandise de Piglet para ajudar locais que acolhem animais como ele.

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We were excited to open an envelope filled with letters from our 2nd grade friends We were excited to open an envelope filled with letters from our 2nd grade friends in Alabama. The children asked if Piglet is happy in his home. The answer- Absolutely! Despite being deaf and blind and tiny, Piglet is a happy little dog. He loves his home and his life. He loves his mom and dad and dog pack family, he loves going to work, he loves to travel, and he loves to visit classrooms to teach children about his Piglet Mindset. The children also asked why Piglet is deaf and blind. This is a complicated question with a complicated answer. Piglet was born in a hoarding situation. In his case, the people had three non-neutered dogs that bred to make more dogs, who bred to make more dogs, who bred to make even more dogs... and so it went that 3 dogs became 37 dogs in their small apartment. One of those 37 was Piglet. With an overpopulation of unwanted dogs, we should not be allowing dogs to breed in this way. Making matters worse, many of the dogs in Piglet’s situation were dapple color patterned. When two dapple colored dogs breed there is a 25% chance that the babies will be “double dapple” meaning that they receive a dominant dapple gene from each parent. Double dapple dogs are white or mostly white and many have congenital ear and eye defects which cause them to be deaf and or blind. Piglet has both- he is deaf and blind. Piglet’s original people did not intentionally breed two dapples. They were in over their heads and things got out of control. Thankfully a rescue group came in to help. Piglet is one of the lucky ones. Many dogs like Piglet are euthanized by breeders if rescue groups don’t come forward. Many end up in shelters or abandoned on the streets. Piglet’s Mission includes educating about the severe consequences of double dapple breeding, and encouraging people to adopt special needs pets. We have created educational PDFs and lesson plans for teachers to incorporate Piglet Mindset into their curriculum. Learn more about our Piglet Mindset Educational Outreach Program. Pinkpigletpuppy.org

Uma publicação partilhada por Piglet, deaf blind pink puppy (@pinkpigletpuppy) a 21 de Set, 2019 às 12:07 PDT

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