Carter Blanchard, eight years old, was born with a rare skin condition called vitiligo, in which parts of his skin—specifically around his eyes—are turned into white patches. Carter, who’s from Arkansas, was not feeling confident because of his skin. So, when his mom found a special friend who shares his issue, Carter found a new hope to make friends, the Daily Mail reports.
Carter’s mom, Stephanie Adcock, said that the white patches on the boy’s skin had become a hindrance to his self-confidence. But when she found Rowdy, the dog with vitiligo, and introduced Carter to the dog, her son was feeling more cheerful.
Stephanie first saw a photo of Rowdy, who’s from Oregon, on the Internet and immediately contacted his owner, Niki Umbenhower. Rowdy is 14 years old. The two built a relationship for about a year online. After they asked the public to fund the trip for their meeting, the two families finally met for the first time on Saturday.
Niki, 48 years old, said, “In all honesty, it was as if they had known each other forever. Carter walked right in, took off his jacket and just knelt down and started petting him.
“He was on the floor playing and Rowdy just kept walking around him and laying down by him and he even was barking and hoping around because of all the energy and excitement in the air.”
Rowdy and Carter were both diagnosed in the same year of 2014. Their mothers helped each other deal with the diagnosis by sharing photos.
Niki said, “Stephanie always shows Carter stuff I've posted online. I do some stuff on all his social media sites and he sees it then makes comments and Stephanie will email or text me what he said. We do Facetime as well.
“Because of how close we have grown over the miles, when they walked through the door it honestly felt like they had met a million times over. This story has been an incredible journey. At first it started with people seeing Rowdy in person and stopping us on the street and asking questions and if they could take a picture with him.
“Then when he aired on the news because I submitted a photo to the local station, he went pretty viral at that point - all over the world.”
Rowdy, who has his own Instagram account, now has more than 5,000 followers.
Niki said, “It all changed for me and I had an 'ah ha' moment as to what I could do with this unique creature of mine - when a mother reached out to me and shared her story about how my dog was changing the way her son was looking at his own skin.”
Vitiligo is a skin condition in which the melanin-producing cells stop functioning or die. The results can vary and take irregular forms or shapes. There are no known cure for vitiligo.
