A year ago, a resident of Tennessee – Jane Salazar – decided to get a dog.
The family’s new pet is a fluffy and clumsy dog named Diego.
Its breed was impossible to determine – it had features of several breeds at once.
And then Jane decided to use a kit for home testing of animal DNA.
The test showed that Diego is mostly a pit bull and partly an Australian herding dog.
But the good news ended there.
The analysis also revealed premature retinal aging in Diego, which invariably led to blindness.
In a year, Diego’s vision began to deteriorate and weakened every day.
Ophthalmologists could not help the animal and advised the family to get Diego a companion who would help the dog when he becomes completely blind.
Jane immediately set about searching.
She looked through various online shelter directories and chose a dog that closely resembled her pet.
Dixie soon joined the family.
Jane and her husband looked at the new dog and saw little difference from Diego.
To confirm their suspicions, the couple decided to conduct another DNA test.
The results shocked everyone: it turned out that Dixie and Diego are close relatives!
It is unknown if the dogs knew about this, but a close bond immediately developed between them.
They perfectly matched characters and played all the time.
And although, according to Jane, her pets’ temperaments are completely different – Dixie is energetic and curious, and Diego is a typical introvert and shy – they get along very well.
Having a second dog in the house had a positive effect on Diego.
The sister takes care of his brother and helps him navigate the space, which he sees every day worse.
It is not known how long the dog will still be sighted, but the family can already be calm – next to him is an assistant, they could not find anyone better than her.