Are there Seeing Eye humans for blind dogs?

Are there Seeing Eye humans for blind dogs?

I guess it would be appropriate to say that Levi, my golden retriever is my best bud and companion. He is underfoot any time I am home moving from room to room as I do and plopping down under me or right beside me until I make the next move in the house.

He enjoys our Saturday mornings together going to breakfast and our weekly chores. We wander around first to Village Inn then either the bank or Costco. Next, are the trips to Home Depot or possibly the local pet stores where he can go inside with me as I find his food or treats. Levi doesn’t like it when I go to get Pig’s food or shavings hoping to spend the time outside for a little run. I say little . . . not long . . . as Levi is not one to expound too much energy these days.

Levi is almost 12 years old and used to weigh about 120 pounds. Yes that’s right one hundred plus twenty pounds . . . sort of a ‘large’ dog. My vet last year told me he was in pretty good health for his age and size but that I was doing him no favors giving him the treats or food that I do.

Killing him with kindness was what it sounded like so I had to make a solid effort to not give him all of the junk and give him treats which are healthier for him. So we both went on our ‘diet’ of healthy (yuck) foods and treats. Levi has always enjoyed vegetables eating carrots, celery, and salad.

He has lost weight now, down to about 100 pounds and his hip dysphasia still makes it hard for him to jump up onto the bed or into my rig when we head out on Saturdays.

Over the last several months especially since the move I have noticed he is having a harder than normal time with the stairs or making his way across the hardwood floors. I have watched his paws come out from under him as he fell spread eagle across the floor.

After a couple of weeks of Levi gingerly stepping around things and doing a few of these wipe out on the hardwood it finally dawned on me what might be happening.

Levi was losing his eyesight.

It started slowly at first but has progressed with time. I had to put throw rugs on the hardwood floors in several places so he can ‘see’ (depth perception) the light colored floors. Levi has had trouble in the deep snow navigating the stairs down off the back deck but still makes snow angles every time he is outside.

That’s the wonders of life . . . he cannot see well now as his eyes cloud over but he still has that ability to enjoy the snow and his time with me. He likes going with me fishing or just hanging out at my feet on the days I take him to work with me.

I guess as our roles in life change as I become the ‘seeing eye’ human for my beloved dog Levi. We find our lives changing all the time and making adjustments to cope to the current situation or adversity that comes our way. From it we grow and seek the wisdom from which it brings.

For Levi I wish his youthful snow angel exuberance remains as he gets older much like a child before being jaded by life.

Ice

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morrison Springs - Ponce de Leon, Florida

Image
Morrison Springs Ponce de Leon, Florida County road 181 Morrison Springs was one of our favorite dive spots on many of our Florida trips but it also had the most danger to it.  One of Northwest Florida’s best-kept secrets was known to more Georgia and Alabama folks than Floridians.  And they weren’t talking.  It had to do with the jewel of a Panhandle spring, a turquoise pool surrounded by stately cypress trees whose aerial roots stand taller than a man. Below the surface, clear, 68-degree water wells up from a spring cave source over 90 feet deep. Morrison Springs is just far enough off the beaten path in this sunny pine and cypress country to be special for any diver lucky enough to find and dive the site. The shallow pool reflects the overhead blue sky and if the water is clear and the bottom clean of silt, it resembles a giant sapphire.  Unlike some springs with a deep, black hole source, this one takes visitors gradually into its shallows from a gol...
Read more

Are Showing Your Nipples Appropriate Work Attire?

Image
Let me first say that personally, I have no problem with it at all. This has been kind of a weird week here in the north land with the first of many winter snowfalls’s to come and the landscape once again beautifully covered in the white stuff. It looks like the kids will have to put their Halloween costume on over a snowsuit again this year as the cold snowy stuff is here again. That is not what I wanted to write about tonight but was necessary to set up what I did want to write about. “Frosty nipples” are quite common here during most of the year and when things cool down on the cusp of winter probably more so. Work attire with tight shirts or low cut blouses that ‘make a statement’ during colder weather could be taken several ways by co-workers or visitors to your place of business. While you may not always be taken seriously by others in the office and some may have trouble looking you in the face, I say it's a freedom of rights issue. If you want to show o...
Read more

Biscuits and Whores

Image
Some of the best things about life I learned from Lonesome Dove. Great movie, excellent characters, and tells a story about how to live life. Augustus McCrae “It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living.   I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.” I'm just tryin' to keep everything in balance, Woodrow. You do more work than you got to, so it's my obligation to do less. “Yesterday’s gone and we can’t get it back.” “I'm sure partial to the evening,' Augustus said. 'The evening and the morning.   If we just didn't have to have the rest of the dern day I'd be a lot happier.” Hat Creek Cattle Company Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is . . . he's hard to stop. Biscuits “I never knew you to get excited about anything except biscuits maybe . . . and whores!”    Captain Woodrow Call to Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove. Whores L...
Read more