This boy became best friends with a dog who has the same rare skin condition
A young boy has befriended a dog with the same rare skin condition as him, because life is beautiful. Eight-year-old Carter Blanchard from Arkansas has vitiligo, an incurable skin condition that causes the loss of skin color in blotches. He was diagnosed in 2014 when he was in kindergarten.
Understandably, Blanchard was having a really hard time with the changes happening to the skin on his face.
“He was at a big school with a lot of kids and his face was transforming very quickly,” Blanchard’s mom, Stephanie Adcock, told ABC News. “The first thing he’d tell me when he got in the car is that he hated his face and hated the way he looked.”
Around the same time in Oregon, a 14-year-old labrador retriever named Rowdy was starting to develop white spots all over his black fur. His owner Niki Umbenhower discovered that Rowdy had vitiligo.
Adcock came across Rowdy’s Facebook page and she started messaging back and forth with Umbenhower. She showed her son the similarities between his skin and Rowdy’s skin, and eventually Rowdy helped Blanchard become comfortable with himself.
"Vitiligo is a very rare condition, and he was very upset that he had it, but now he is proud that he was chosen to have vitiligo, and this is the way he is, and he wouldn't have it any other way," Adcock said. "He thinks that everyone else's skin is boring."
Their story was featured on KATU, a local news channel in Oregon. After it aired, a very generous person decided to anonymously donate $5,000 to fly Blanchard and his mom to Oregon so the new pals could meet in person.
Because sometimes humans are the best.
“When we walked in I didn’t feel like we were walking in for the very first time, they were family already,” Adcock said. “Carter hugged him and petted him for two hours straight and they’ve been together ever since.”
Last week, Rowdy had a seizure. He seems to be in stable condition right now, but his family started a GoFundMe page to help pay for medical costs.
If you’d like to make a donation, we’re sure both Rowdy and Blanchard would be forever thankful.
