[Dailydrool] Blind dogs

[Valerie]

I am catching up on Drools and have been following the thread on blind dogs. for probably the past two years my DH and I have been attributing Bo's increasingly idiosyncratic behavior to his famously innate fearfulness, his marked bassitude, and what we assumed was a mild dementia from long term steroid use for his ulcerative colitis. Bo would refuse to walk more than one house away from our own though comfortable in our yard. He would not go out after dark at all. He would sometimes bellow as if lost when under our house (which is on stilts), or sometimes for no ostensible reason. He would not use steps or get out of a car without being lifted. I think we all become even more "ourselves" with age. So too with Bo. We've spoken with our vet and Bo is in his office fairly often and the vet agreed with our assessment. Other than the ulcerative colitis, Bo!s health is good for a dog of nine years old, Bo is just Bo.

Until about three weeks ago, when my husband and I realized in a sudden insight that we are all idiots--Bo is almost completely blind and we've all missed it. When Bo bellows, I always call out to him "to reassure him". Duh. Bo orients himself to my voice, gets his bearings, and comes. Bo navigates around the house by the compass points of the fishtank gurgling, the road noise, the sounds of the neighbor children, the birds at the backyard feeder. If he calls out and I!m not there, his brother Harley comes to his side and licks his face. Bo loves outings to the dog-friendly outdoor fish restaurant because we are at his side as guaranteed by the tautness of the leash, the smells of good cooking, and the coos of friendly strangers. He dislikes the dog park because he is off leash and can't see what's lurking there. He loves car rides because he is in my lap with the wind gently blowing on his face. Bo seems a lot more understandable as a blind dog than our previous understanding of him as a slightly dim dictator. 

I guess I write all of this as a word of encouragement to those facing a future with a limited or unsighted dog. Bo is a very gentle, happy, adaptive creature full of life and love, and, yes, bassitude as well, so adaptible despite an innate tendency to rigidity that he's fooled two devoted Basset slaves and the best vet on our island for probably a year now.