Glamour Girl

When I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is let the dogs out in the back yard so they can exercise while I take a shower.  One morning Lottie didn’t come downstairs with the thundering herd, and when I looked for her, she was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down toward me quizzically.  I tapped the steps with my hand to call her to me (she can feel the vibrations), but she just cocked her head, took a step backwards, then went to the bathroom door.  Little monster seemed to know that I was going to take a shower, and she very plainly said that she wanted to hang out in the bathroom with me instead of going outside with the other dogs.  

So this began our new morning ritual of our time together in the bathroom while I get ready for work.  She seems to really feel special, she waits for me each morning at the top of the stairs while I let the other dogs outside, then runs happily to the bathroom when I come back upstairs.  She wanted to chew on my discarded flip-flops while I showered, so I compromised and brought a Nylabone in for her, and now she happily chews on that and leaves my shoes alone.

The funniest thing is the hairdryer.  One time when I bathed her, I used a hairdryer on her, and she seemed to really like it.  Now she waits every morning for me to get out my hairdryer, and while I dry my hair, I also blow-dry Lottie.  She loves it.  She does slow figure 8s through my legs as I work on my hair, and I tilt the dryer onto her periodically and she stops to let it blow her hair.  She is a weird dog.

Zombie Detection Training

Over Halloween weekend, I loaded 7 dogs in the car, and we drove to Michigan to learn how to hunt for zombies.  It says a lot about me that I think this is a fun weekend.  Not the zombie part so much, because I’ve never even seen a zombie movie.  I live alone in the country, so I don’t really like scary movies.  I saw a couple of them, classics like The Exorcist and Halloween in my younger days, and pretty much decided I never wanted to see any more, ever.  So I missed the whole zombie movie-thing.  But a car loaded with dogs, and Michigan, and Halloween weekend filled with crisp, cold air and sunshine . . .  that’s my thing. 

The Event was at Dog Scout Camp, and coordinated expertly by Troop 217.  There were 33 people who participated, which is quite a nice turnout.  We spent the weekend taking our dogs through various competitions to help in their training for Zombie Detection, and then the final event was the collection of Zombie parts in the woods (similar to a scavenger hunt) and the reassembling of each team’s zombie back at the lodge.  Lottie, of course, had a blast.  She loves everything, so zombie-hunting was pretty awesome for her.  I have to admit that Tango the Wonder Dog was my main zombie hunter, because I wanted to win, and Tango can do everything extremely well.  But then Chris and I (team “Army of Darkness”) found out, after we were in first place by Saturday afternoon, that the winner had to plan next year’s event, so we decided Lottie should be more involved!  We were able to successfully lose our first place standing with Lottie’s help ;-)

Tango the Wonder Dog flying through the agility course




Lottie navigating the agility course

 

All in all, it was a super cool weekend, and we will definitely plan to come back to kick some more zombie butt next year!!

Dazzle and Tango, the brains and brawn behind Team "Army of Darkness", pose with their completed zombie.



More Lottie agility.  Go, girl, go!!



Punch, Tango and Pascha on the lookout for zombies.

Lottie meeting the new burro

Agility course

Friends4Life

Sunday was Lottie Moon’s first kinda official outing for blind/deaf PR.  Victoria brought Dahlia and Lenix, and I brought Lottie to the Heritage Park in Groveport.  The event was the Friends 4 Life picnic, and between the attention and pets and kisses and food, everyone seemed to have  a good time.  Victoria made some phat bandanas for our Helen Keller crew.  Lottie’s was black with pink letters that said “Blind and Deaf” and she had a flurescent pint feather accent.  Dahlia’s was red, and also said “Blind and Deaf” and her accent was a yellow flower, and Lenix’s said “Adopt Me, I’m Deaf.”  One family was very interested in Lenix, and he and their aussie got along very well, so fingers crossed he can find his forever home soon.



Lenix, Dahlia, Lottie

Lottie and Dahlia have always had a special kind of connection, and it was sweet to see them together again.  Several times Lottie walked over to Dahlia and kissed her, then walked away.  It’s like they know they are both special in the same kind of way.  Dahlia was my inspiration to adopt Lottie, she is an amazing dog.  Dahlia is completely blind and deaf, and her enjoyment of everything is so awesome to see.



Lottie meeting and greeting

One man was very interested in Lottie, he came over several times to pet her and to talk to me.  Every time he walked away, he would mutter, “that’s so sad.”  I kept trying to convince him it wasn’t sad, how can anyone watch Lottie with her joie de vivre, and think her condition is sad?  Despite this, he was facinated, and I know she made an impression on him, and he will tell others, and ultimately, that’s what we were there to do – stimulate interest in special needs dogs. 


Lottie checking out the silent auction baskets

I’ve asked myself, what exactly am I trying to promote with these double merle dogs?  I think the answer is simply Awareness.  Awareness that they are out there, awareness that they are wonderful and happy, awareness that they should be considered when adopting, and awareness that they are inspirational and amazing.  And, awareness that they are VERY trainable.  In a couple of years, I would like to adopt a double merle who is deaf but not blind so that I can run a double merle competitively in agility.  Of course Lottie is proving that she can do agility amazingly well, considering she can barely see, but I want to train for competition, and I’ll need a dog who has decent vision for that.  Right now I’m focusing on Lottie, and I have three dogs I’m competing with in agility, so I’m not ready yet, but in a couple of years . . . . just one more way to expand myself as a trainer, and expand others’ ideas of possible.  Recently I heard a couple of friends discussing the possibility of a deaf agility dog, and they both said that would be very hard.  Neither had any experience with deaf dogs, but they made that assumption, despite my opinion.  So nothing inspires me like someone telling me it can’t be done . . . .

In the meantime, little Lottie will continue her training and work, to show just what CAN be done, even when you are blind and deaf.

 

Peanut butter eating contest!

 

                                                                      




High Hope

Hope

In late September, I received a call from a friend who runs a local shelter/rescue. She said there was a double merle Aussie at the county pound, which appeared to be deaf and might have vision issues, too. Could I take her? Of course I did. I named her Hope, after the shelter where I picked her up, which was located at High Hopes Stables.  She was a very gentle, calm girl, and Lottie was thrilled to meet her! She took to Hope right away, and they became friends.

Lottie and Hope

Hope is about 2 or 3 years old, and the sweetest, most gentle dog I think I’ve met. She was the easiest foster I’ve ever had, that’s for sure. Hope is completely deaf, but has pretty good vision. I had her spayed and vetted, and posted her on a couple of double merle and lethal white sites that I am a member of, and it wasn’t long before Hope had a wonderful family that wanted to adopt her in Georgia. After some failed attempts to get a transport for Hope to Georgia, we decided to take a Rescue Road Trip. I packed up Hope and Lottie, and we picked up my friend Victoria and her double merle Aussie, Dahlia, and we all drove to Lexington to meet Hope’s new family.
       

Lottie greeting Hope's new family
(with Hope close by!)

It was a great trip, driving with 3 deaf and mostly blind dogs!! We all had a good time, and so fun to see Hope take to her new family right away. This adventure for me with these wonderful dogs continues . . .

Hope meeting her new family!

Lottie and Hope became instant friends

Hope

Dahlia with Hope's new mom

Lottie and Dahlia

The Blind Leading the Blind

Lottie meeting Lacey the sheltie

My good friend, Diana, has an older sheltie named Lacey who has been losing her sight over that past few months. As this has happened, Lacey has become more shy and fearful in her home. Recently the vision loss has accelerated, and the past couple of weeks have found Lacey afraid to
go outside at all, and certainly unwilling to go for her daily walk down the driveway to the mailbox with Diana. I realized that although dogs who are blind from birth seem to get on exceptionally well with limited or no vision, dogs who lose their sight seem to have an extremely difficult time making the adjustment. I had also noticed that these "lethal white" dogs like Lottie tend to have a special affinity for each other - it's like they can recognize the limited sight and hearing in each other, and choose to spend time with others more like themselves. I wondered if there would be a chance that Lottie could recognize the blindness in Lacey, and somehow be able to help Lacey cope by demonstrating Lottie's own enthusiasm for life, despite the blindness. I wasn't exactly sure how I thought might happen, but it wouldn't hurt to try . . .
So last weekend I drove Lottie to Diana's house, and we introduced the
dogs. Lacey seemed very interested in Lottie from the moment Lottie came into the garage. Lottie greeted Lacey politely, then ran around the garage looking for food (evidently Lottie's mommy never feeds her), and Lacey followed Lottie around. So far so good. Then we put a leash on Lacey, and along with Diana's other dog, the two humans and three dogs went for a walk down the driveway. And Lacey came! I had to keep making Lottie go back and check in with Lacey, but Lacey followed us, and Lottie, all the way to the road. Diana said Lacey hadn't walked to the end of the driveway since the spring!
Later this week I spoke to Diana, who told me the change in Lacey since Lottie's visit has been phenomenal.  Lacey has not only been going for walks down the driveway again, but she's also been out sunning herself in her yard.  This, too, is an improvement, since she has been afraid to leave the house or garage for quite a while, until now.   So, mission accomplished.
I've always felt that Lottie was here to help others :-)

 

Diana walking with Lottie, while Lacey follows her new blind friend

Grand Mal

Last night we were in bed by 11:00 pm. Then suddenly I was awakened at
12:28 by Lottie. She was on the floor, flailing around. I jumped out
of bed and ran to her, she was having a seizure, crying, panting,
jerking swinging legs, drooling. I thought she was going to die. I
held her, did energy work, prayed, did reiki, yelled at her and
commanded her to NOT die, and eventually something kicked in and she
came out of her seizure. Once she was over the Grand Mal portion, she
got up and started running around the room, jumping on and off the bed,
leaping over the other dogs, running into the closed bedroom door,
falling to the floor. This, I have discovered in my fresh research, is
called the Post Ictal period. The whole thing seemed to last FOREVER,
but I'm sure it was less than 10 minutes. It was a long time, though.
I have seen seizures in dogs on several occasions, but this did seem to
last an exceptionally long time. Maybe just because it was my sweet
little Lottie Moon, but if it happens again, I will try to remember to
video it. IF it happens again. I'm hoping NOT. Because she has night
terrors almost every night, my initial thought was that this might be
related. I don't know, now, more research is needed. In the meantime,
I think I will call my phenomenal holistic vet and see what she
recommends.

Esoterical Musings

Ever since I got Lottie, and actually even before when I was just thinking about getting Lottie, I have become aware of many references to blindness, and also deafness, that meet me everywhere.  Is this more than normal, or am I just aware?  Because I fully believe that I’m to pay attention to things such as this, I do take note and think about every reference I see.  I know I’m supposed to have Lottie, I just don’t know yet the grand plan.  Last week in my Shamanism class, we discussed “sitting in silence”.  Our meditation was to go, in our minds, to the Cave of Silence, and sit in complete silence and darkness, to see what comes to us.  My personal vision during this journey was that the silence wasn’t really silent, it was more like an energizing humming, and the darkness wasn’t really darkness, it morphed in my mind into a bright white speckled brightly with rainbows of colors.  So my message was that there was really no difference between the dark and the light, both are core and central to the soul.  Throughout it all, I thought about my Lottie.  How her world is so different from mine, full of silence, and her vision is so sparse.  Yet I’ve seen through her that her world is not void, but full.  She is one of the happiest, most joyful dogs I’ve ever met, and she runs and has fun and learns and loves and plays and gets on with her life better than most.   Maybe my journey of silence that really wasn’t, and darkness that really wasn’t, was just one more way to help me understand my Lottie Moon.  One more way to help me understand the blindness and deafness that each of us that have fully functioning senses can still have, if we remain in an unenlightened life.

  


Lottie the day she entered the shelter,
approximately 6 months old

 

Lottie 8 months later at Dog Scout Camp



I have a bracelet that a friend made for me out of black and blue and purple beads and actual quartz crystals.  The tag she had attached to it read,  “Darkness – go into the darkness and find the stars.”  How appropriate. 

The past few years have been difficult ones for me, filled with a devastating divorce, insecurity and uncertainty.  Dark times, scary times.  And here is this little white dog, showing me in so many ways that the darkness doesn't have to be scary, if you approach it with joy and fearlessness.  In the darkness, there are brilliant, heavenly lights called stars.  Enlightenment coming from darkness.  Thank you, Lottie Moon :-)



Show time!

  

Lottie riding with Punch to Cincinnati



Last weekend I taught a seminar on dog communication at Dog Scouts Troop 107 in Cincinnati. What a great honor to help a great organization and also meet some wonderful people!




I brought Punch with me, because he is such a calm, easy boy. Lottie came along for the ride. My plan was to leave her in the car, which I did while I was speaking, but during our introductions, one of the women mentioned that I had the first blind/deaf Dog Scout, and everyone was interested. So I brought Miss Lottie in and she got to demonstrate her tricks and skills. I didn't have any treats with me (yes, no one needs to tell me I'm a bad mommy), so I grabbed a handful of trail mix from the people-treat table, and used the peanuts from that to get her interest in performing. She spit out the first nut I gave her, but then had second thoughts and ate it, and after that she had enough interest in these new dog treats to keep working, but I think she was really hoping there was gonna be some cheese or chicken appear at some point. Since raisins and M&Ms are bad for dogs, and they were part of the trail mix, I got treat, too
 :-)
Lottie did beautifully. Her stay, as always, was adorable. And the super-cool part was that a reporter was there from WLWT news, and he filmed the whole thing. Hopefully Lottie will make the story!