A Year of Love, A Lifetime of Impact
Puppy raisers are an integral part of the Israel Guide Dog Center. What makes puppy raisers especially remarkable is the love they give, knowing from the very beginning that their role is temporary. They pour time, energy, and heart into a puppy, fully aware that they will eventually have to say goodbye. And yet, they do it anyway—because they understand that their sacrifice is part of something much bigger.
Without puppy raisers, we simply could not do what we do. Professional trainers build advanced skills, but it is the raisers who create the foundation those skills depend on. Every confident step a guide or service dog takes, every door opened to independence, begins with a family willing to nurture potential and then pass it forward.
In a few weeks the Greenblum family will make the drive to Beit Oved in Israel, their hearts full, to return Maverick—the puppy who, over the past year, has come to mean so much to their family—to the Israel Guide Dog Center.
Anat shares, “I always tell people how excited we are for Maverick. And almost everyone says the same thing: ‘But in the end, it will be so hard for you.’
And yes—how could it not be? We have fallen in love with Maverick. The once small puppy has become part of our family and our lives. We cared for him, shaped his world, and in turn he shaped ours. Even as we sit in our shelters during these uncertain moments, we remember how we planned for him—rearranging our home so curious teeth wouldn’t find shoes or charger cables, watching the Center’s training videos again and again, wanting to get everything right just for him.
Returning Maverick, like so many other life choices, is not easy. But because it comes from love, it also isn’t hard.
Of course, the children are already counting the days until we are separated. Our entire family is deeply comforted knowing that our wonderful Maverick will be given to someone we have never met, but someone whose life will be forever changed by his gentle spirit, his loyalty, and his curiosity.
The end is not our goodbye, the end is a visually impaired person traveling to work on public transportation, the end is a veteran with PTSD leaving the house to the neighborhood pub. So, to us, our end is some else’s new beginning. And that is the happiest ending!”
Thank you to all of our puppy raisers in Israel!
