Mona Ramouni was born 3 months prematurely and lost her sight shortly after birth. That said, she’s not let her blindness get in her way. The 28-year-old works as a proofreader of Braille text books in Dearborn, Michigan, but she was missing something in her life: independence. So, she saved up her pay for three months and picked up Cali, a miniature horse that has been specially trained to be a seeing-eye pony for the blind. Cali is only one of five seeing-eye horses in the United States!
She is an awesome little horse. What I really want is to be able to take her places neither of us would have been able to go without each other,’ said Ms. Ramouni, whose parents would not allow her to buy and keep a seeing-eye dog in the house because Islam considers dogs unclean. “Before Cali, I had given up. I got to the point where I thought, ‘I’m going to get nothing out of my life.’ Cali has given me the confidence back I used to have as a kid.”
This girl is blind and her life has been greatly improved by her service animal. Why did her parents not get her a guide dog? There comes a point when your religion and real life are going to come into conflict, and giving your blind daughter a chance to move around and live like a normal person should outweigh any reservations you have about having a so-called unclean animal in your house. I mean, do fundamentalist Muslims just not have pet dogs? It’s mind-blowing.
Tags: guide horses, seeing-eye horses, horse used as service animal, horse used to guide blind, Mona Ramouni, blind Muslim’s parents get her guide horse, unusual animals, unusual service animals, student buys guide horse, Islam, Dearborn, Michigan, Cali, miniature horse
