This is Xander. He's almost two years old and he's a service dog from Oregon. He's also blind and unbelievably adorable.
Last January, Xander was admitted to a local animal shelter. He was was adopted a few days later by Rodney Beedy.
"I loved him," Rodeny said of meeting Xander for the first time. "Just his personality and everything, I was saying 'I take this dog, he's going to make a fantastic therapy dog."
Rodney and his wife adopted Xander and officially had him certified as a service dog. Xander provides comfort to those victims of child and spousal abuse. That's Xander visiting his momma in the hospital.
Some other important facts about Xander: He wears the absolute heck out of a suit.
Look at this dapper little dude.
"A lot of times he'll hear a child crying at an event and he's bolted several times, at least 500 feet over to this child to comfort them," Rodney said.
Rodney stresses that Xander may be disabled, but he's just like any dog — if not even more self-reliant. He joked that a lot of other dog owners are peeved at just how well-behaved Xander is.
"He's been in a crowd of kids, 20-30 kids at a time, and it doesn't affect him at all," Rodney said. "He just goes right in, with the flow, every day."
Rodney said that Xander is shockingly capable and follows him around without a leash, just following the sound of footsteps.
Sometimes Xander works with bigger animals. He's pretty chill about it.
The kids Xander works with love curling and uncurling his pug tail. And a few days ago he got a big smooch from a baby right on the face and he played it off like a total professional.
Xander, I love you so much that it actually physically hurts me.
