Blind couple weds after their guard dogs bring them together

Updated on: 25 March,2014 12:44 AM IST |
Agencies |

Claire first fell for Mark when her pet Venice got friendly with his pooch Rodd at Guide Dog Training classes in 2012

London: A blind couple who married yesterday have told revealed they fell in love — when their guide dogs also became a ‘couple’. Claire Johnson (50), first fell for Mark Gaffey (51), when her pet Venice got friendly with his pooch Rodd at Guide Dog Training classes in 2012. The two dogs became inseparable and soon their owners, who are both registered blind, soon realised they were head over heels for each other too.

Love is blind: At the wedding ceremony, the dogs acted as the ring bearers for the couple

Just a year after meeting, Mark popped the question on Valentine’s Day last year. And the happy couple married yesterday — with their dogs as ring-bearers. Claire, who lost her sight due to diabetes when she was 24, beamed: “I have no doubt that our guide dogs brought us together and helped me find my true love.” She added, “'Much like our two guide dogs, we really are best friends and soul mates.”

The pair met when they both took their dogs to Venice to Guide Dog Training course in Shrewsbury, in March last year. Mark, who was blind from birth said: “Rodd and Venice, seemed to know something we didn’t. They were always playing together and nuzzling up together.”