Joyful sight: Local woman and her guide dog Naboo 'a match made in heaven'

Back in 1959, Debbie Welch was born premature and put in an incubator with 100% oxygen burning her baby retinas and resulting in a disability that would undoubtedly set the course of her life in a challenging direction.

Growing up, Welch had particular obstacles that most other children didn’t have. Her condition, called Retrolentilfibroplatia, left her almost entirely blind. “I had to get special books with big writing, and they were heavy,” she said. “Growing up with that is tough. You get teased a lot, but my parents made me be very independent. They didn’t shelter me. But it was hard. I had books with extra large print, heavy books.”

However, in the sixth grade, she didn’t have to get those big, heavy books anymore.

“They used telescopic lenses back then, but it doesn’t help now,” she said.

Then, in high school, she met Dr. Robles, an optometrist in Butte. She discovered that her condition was slowly deteriorating. It could take a day, or years, but it was inevitable, and she decided to get a cornea transplant in Salt Lake City. As they were boarding the plane she got a call from the hospital saying that they’d accidentally given the cornea away. The doctor assured her that they would get it back, and they did. To this day, she still has the cornea, which originally came from a 22-year-old man from the midwest who had been in a fatal car accident. He was an organ donor. “I did reject the cornea and still have to put drops in everyday, but that’s no big deal,” she said. “But then I got a cataract on the inside of the lens and had to go back, but it’s really doing well.”

Technically, the other eye doesn’t work. It’s entirely there for cosmetic purposes, however, she needs to closely watch it because the pressure in that eye is so low that it could die, then they would have to remove it.

Over the last few years Welch’s eyes have gotten progressively worse. She had to get stronger glasses and didn’t feel comfortable going anywhere in public. But that all changed when she met Naboo.

Originally, Dr. Robles was going to retire and wanted to make sure that she would be okay afterwards. They encouraged her to contact the Blind and Low Vision Center in Butte. Shortly thereafter they started doing home visits and taught her how to use a cane, something she had never done before. Then, one day, they brought up an unexpected idea. They said, “Debbie, you could’ve gotten a guide dog at any point in your life, did you ever think about it?” She had always assumed that she wasn’t eligible because she wasn’t entirely blind. On the contrary, they prefer you get one before you’re completely blind, whenever possible. It took her a few years, but as her vision continued to deteriorate, she discussed it with them and thought, “I’m ready.” She filled out the paperwork, sent it to the Guide Dog for the Blind campus in California, and was called for a phone interview. Later someone had flown up to observe her in her home, and around Christmas time, she was notified that she’d been accepted. 

Then covid hit.

Welch was scheduled to fly to California in early 2020, but it wouldn’t happen for two long years. Then, on April 18, 2022, Easter Sunday, she flew down to meet her seeing eye dog for the first time.

They already had the perfect dog picked out for her. It was no accident. One worker, Emily, read her file and immediately called her staff and said, “You have to pair Debbie with Naboo. They’ll be a match made in heaven.”

Their first two weeks together involved a lot of work and training. “We had meetings in the morning; you have to be up and fed and go to the bathroom at the same time every day, take them to breakfast, and take a lot of walks. You even sleep with them. He never left my side,” she recalls. “At first you walk with a leash, then a harness, but you have to learn so much. Walking the streets of San Francisco was really scary.”

But then, something remarkable happened. “One day we were walking and we got to a corner. I said come on Naboo … forward, but he didn’t move. There weren’t any cars but he still wouldn’t move. Then a car came flying around the corner and didn’t stop. If we would’ve been walking, that car would’ve hit us. He probably heard that car when I couldn’t. That was the moment I realized that I could trust him, and I’ve trusted him with my life ever since. After that, our bond became so close because I let go of my inhibitions,” she emotionally explained.

After the two weeks of training it was time for the pair to go home and start their new life together. Every day is very structured – waking up at 8 a.m., scheduled food and bathroom breaks throughout the day, then at 9:30 it’s off to bed. “I just say Naboo, bed – and he goes,” she said. “When he’s not in his harness I let him be a normal dog and run around and play, which he loves doing. But he doesn’t like the snow very much. He’s definitely a California boy. ... He’s a trooper in this weather. He gets booties on his feet. He’s okay with them but they slow him down.”

Overall, there isn’t much to complain about. It seems that life has only been getting better since their return home.

“I think about how much he’s enriched my life. I look back at where I was seven months ago. I never would’ve taken a walk before, not in a hundred years, but it doesn’t even bother me to do it now. That’s what is amazing to me, the independence it’s given me,” she continued. “People in town will tell me how they see me walking with Naboo all the time and it’s so wonderful to see, and I think, wow. I guess I never really did that for many years. It’s truly amazing, wherever I want to go, me and Naboo can walk there.”

But it’s not just about a sense of support or independence, it really boils down to unconditional love. “He always senses when something’s wrong or bothering me. He’s very attached. He always lays at my feet or on my lap. He thinks he’s a lap dog,” she said.

Last week, Debbie put her dish in the sink, but accidentally left her napkin on the kitchen table, and in walked Naboo with the napkin. “It was the cutest thing ever – he brought me my napkin,” she said, but then got serious. “When he’s gone I feel like a part of me is missing. He goes wherever I go, he follows me everywhere. When we’re walking he always looks back at me to make sure I’m okay. It’s so cute.”

However, that devoted adoration doesn’t just happen. Naboo is 2-and-a-half years old, but started his disciplined training at only six weeks old. She doesn’t even technically own him at the moment. “Naboo doesn’t belong to me, he belongs to the Guide Dogs for the Blind. But I can put in for ownership after a year, then he’ll be mine,” which she absolutely intends to do on April 18, she said.

But 2023 is right around the corner and the pair have plans for the future. “My New Year’s resolution is to call the schools, especially the little kids, and see if we can come visit and talk to them because kids question me about it,” she said. “Kids are so inquisitive and innocent, so I think it’s important that kids learn about it.”