‘Blind, beaten… but she was still beautiful’

Being blind doesn’t stop Maggie loving walks and chasing ballsAnimal behaviourist Kasey Carlin has faced many challenges over the years – but this traumatised stray had endured unimaginable torture. She tells Lorraine Fisher how she loved her back to happiness   Seen from afar as they scamper excitedly around the countryside near their home, Maggie and Millie look like all other joyful dogs on a walk. Maggie loves chasing after a ball while Millie can’t pass a fence post without a good sniff. But this most normal of dog behaviour becomes something quite extraordinary when you see the pair up close.For Maggie is completely blind while Millie has a nose that’s been smashed to pieces. Both were victims of the most unspeakable cruelty, but the fact that they’re both happy and healthy today is testament to the love and devotion of their owner Kasey Carlin. Kasey is just 26 but has spent years fostering some of the world’s most challenging dogs – the ones no one else wants or could cope with. And so far she’s adopted three, including Maggie, who she fell in love with while fostering 16 others.A qualified animal behaviourist, Kasey has taken on mutts that have been thrown off balconies, locked in a cage without company for months or even have been run over and needed wheelchairs. And, thanks to her, those dogs, utterly terrified of humans and untrusting of other animals, slowly turn into happy, friendly pooches with a newfound lust for life, ready to find a forever home with loving families.Yet she doesn’t think she does anything special. ‘I do it for selfish reasons,’ says Kasey, who’s now written a book about her rescues. ‘Dogs make me happy. I get to have my own around me all day and help others.’Kasey grew up wanting to study animal behaviour in college and began working with dogs who had issues as well as setting up her own ‘doggy daycare’ business, looking after lonely hounds while their owners were at work.But it was hearing about the plight of an Alaskan klee kai called Mishka two years ago that was to really change her life. Mishka had been bought by a family who had no time to socialise her, the crucial process of meeting other animals and humans that helps puppies become well-adjusted adults, instead of fearful and aggressive. ‘Mishka had just been left in a crat
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