Sasha's story

Sasha, an 8-year-old Bichon Frise, arrived at Battersea’s London centre in September 2018. Presumed to have been used as a breeding bitch, she came from a puppy farm with over 30 other dogs.

Despite her difficult start to life, in Battersea’s care Sasha quickly proved to be in fact a very content and happy dog. Leader of the pack, she was the most confident all of all the dogs in her group and relished human company, being her happiest when surrounded by people who could offer her fuss.

However, due to severe medical neglect she was sadly suffering from painful cataracts in her eyes which required serious medical intervention. The clinic team felt that – in her particular case – surgically removing both her eyes in a procedure called an “eye nucleation” would be in her best interests, given she had extremely limited vision and the disease was likely causing her a great deal of pain.

Following her big operation, the Battersea team worked hard to help Sasha adjust to life as a fully blind dog, regularly doing sensory sessions with her to help her get used to relying on smell and sound to get around. Helping her along her way, Battersea also performed a minor operation to remove wax from her ears to improve her hearing – particularly important now that this was one of her lead senses.  

After spending time getting to know the friendly girl, one of her care team was unable to resist her charm and eventually rehomed her. She happily went off to live with her new owner and their several other pet dogs in their Lincolnshire home – the first she would have ever lived in her 8 years of life.