Love Is Blind's Bliss Says Giving Up Her Pets for Zack Led to Their Biggest Marriage 'Bonding Moment' (Exclusive) (2024)

Warning: This post contains spoilers from Netflix's season 4 Love Is Blind: After the Altar special.

Love Is Blind’sBliss Poureetezadi and Zack Goytowskiknow the importance of compromise in a marriage.

Shortly after the season 4 couple wed, the two moved in together to start their new life. However, they quickly realized it wouldn't be a simple process as Zack was severely allergic to Bliss's two pets, dog Asher and cat Blythe.

Realizing that Zack, 32, could barely breathe around the animals, Bliss, 33, made the difficult decision to give Asher and Blythe to her mom and sister. But the couple was determined to bring them home one day, so they sought out an allergy specialist to help Zack undergo immunotherapy.

The moment was shown on the newLove Is Blind: After the Altarspecial, which premiered on Netflix Friday. While the three episodes did not show the end result of his treatment, fans who follow Zack and Bliss on social media likely know it was successful and they have since brought their pets home.

Despite the challenges, Zack and Bliss tell PEOPLE they're grateful for this trying experience because it made them even stronger as a couple.

"It was really hard," Bliss says. "I would not have done this for anyone else. These animals are like my children. And I think that just speaks to how much I really love and care for Zack. I think I just had hope and faith in the universe or whatever, that they were going to be able to come back to us."

"We had to make a lot of big sacrifices for each other in our short marriage so far," she continues. "I think him going through the physical aspect of having to get shots twice a week for long, long periods of time, and then me having to give up my animals, I think that was a really big, beautiful bonding moment for us, and learning that that's what a relationship is about, not only compromises in the small ways with chores or whatever, but the big things."

Zack points out how "everybody has different levels of connections with their animals, but Bliss truly loves Asher and Blythe like children."

"I've always loved animals, but I've also always been allergic to basically everything that had fur, so I've always had to kind of keep my distance," he explains. "So it's really been a growing experience for me, and learning what that means to be an animal parent, not an animal owner... And there's a real difference."

"It affected Bliss being separated from them for so long that it was so important to me that we get them back to her, and that we can do it obviously safely," he continues. "So we kind of tested it out. We had made a couple visits, and I was gauging where my allergies were and where the reactions were. And we got to a point where I felt like, okay, we can do this."

Zack adds: "She's so much more happy with them. That was my big motivation ... I was willing, whatever we had to do to get them back."

Zack and Bliss first opened up about the pet challenges in a joint post on Instagram in July.

In his post, Zack explained how "anything with fur" would trigger his allergies, to the point that it "shut my breathing down." He then detailed the "rollercoaster of a journey" the two went through to get their pets back home.

"We embarked on this colossal undertaking of almost a year of immunotherapy, going to the doctor and getting allergy shots twice a week. It was tough. But love pushes you to do things you never thought possible," he wrote in the caption. "I really never thought this would be possible but I had to try for Bliss. And you know what? We did it ... seeing that joy in her eyes makes every moment of this challenging journey worth it."

With their family now complete, Bliss and Zack tell PEOPLE they're continuing to enjoy life as a married couple and looking forward to what the future holds.

"Hopefully [we'll be] buying a home sometime soon," Bliss says. "And we traveled so much, and we definitely want to continue traveling together and just growing together and experiencing life and having fun."

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Love Is Blind: After the Altarseason 4 is now streaming on Netflix.