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 :-)