Pet lovers of all ages can understand how quickly and completely a family and its new pet form the bonds of love. The connection can be made in minutes given the right circumstances, and the passage of time will only strengthen it. Before very long, a pet can become an important, indispensable and beloved member of the family.

That’s why it’s so remarkable that programs like Guiding Eyes for the Blind are even able to find participants, much less do the important work that they do. Guiding Eyes is a non-profit organization that breeds, raises and matches guide dogs with blind people who need them.

The catch is that real people — real families with real love to give — have to raise the dogs from 12-week-old pups.

The process is a familiar one to anyone who’s ever had a puppy. The dog comes home, licks a few faces, wags and chews and plays and generally terrorizes the home until there’s little one can do but fall in love with it. The difference for families raising dogs for Guiding Eyes is that they have to provide all that training and love in the full knowledge that by the time the dogs reach the age of two, they will be moved out of the home and into the training program — to be prepared for a lifetime of service to a blind person, an autistic child, a police officer or someone else who needs a service dog.

Considering the love many of us invest into our animals, it’s not hard to imagine the pain that would accompany the parting of ways as the Guiding Eyes dogs prepare to enter the training program. There clearly is a sacrifice involved for the people who have been entrusted to raise the dogs as pets for two years, only to turn them back over at the end of the process.

Conversely, there must also be a sense of pride and accomplishment in the knowledge that the investment of love will pay incalculable dividends for someone whose life is changed by the service of a loving and well-trained dog.

We tip our hats to the families who choose to make that investment on behalf of others.