ohmidog!

The widow of Chicago Cubs legend Ron Santo says she’s in the final stages of setting up a nonprofit charity to help pair diabetics with dogs.

The foundation would help people with diabetes buy trained dogs that can alert them when their blood-sugar levels rise too high.

She sees the Ron and Vick Santo Diabetes-Alert Dog Foundation as a way to continue Santo’s legacy, she said last week, on the second anniversary of his death.

Before Ron Santo’s death, Vicki Santo says she’d never heard of such dogs, but she says they saw evidence of that power in their own pet, Joker, near the end of the Hall of Famer’s life.

Joker

“I was in the basement, and Joker came and got me,” she told the Daily Herald. She followed him to the bedroom and found Ron unable to get off the bed because his blood sugar was so low.

While dogs can be trained to detect changes in blood sugar and alert their owner – often faster than a glucometer can — Joker had not been.

Still, Vicki Santo thinks he must have had some abilities.

Children with diabetes, especially, could benefit from alert dogs. Sometimes they are hesitant to participate in sports and other activities because they worry about how their blood-sugar levels might change, she said.

While Ron Santo was dedicated to helping researchers find a cure, Vicki Santo thinks that helping others cope with diabetes through the foundation’s work would make him happy.

“He loved dogs,” she said. “I think he would have been so proud to share the knowledge of what these dogs can do.”