i love animals

but i love dogs the best. i absolutely know animals and dogs in particular (i only know this because i am most familiar with dogs and not other animals) adjust. they get by. they have no choice. they just DO IT

this is a most wonderful tale. i wanted to share it in case anyone who reads my blog is going through this.
DON'T PANIC. really

(friends went to mexico a few years back. they have a pug and a bulldog. they left the dogs with his mother. while playing one day the bulldog accidentally took out the eye of the pug. yes, it really was play and yes it really was an accident. when the couple got home and for a long time afterwards they were horrified and panicked. no need. the pug, we'll call her lu, ADJUSTED JUST FINE. PLUS, she makes one HELL of a pirate at halloween)
Virginia, the Blind Dog
Posted by McLaren+Torchinsky

Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with a common-law wife, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap.


One of my dogs, Virginia, went blind late last year. I knew it was coming; she has glaucoma, and lost sight in one of her eyes a while before. We'd been keeping the other eye alive with lots and lots of medicine, but the vet told us it was just a matter of time. So, when the morning came and I found her running around crazily all over the house, nose to the ground, I shouldn't have been surprised.

Still, I was pretty alarmed. And while I read lots on the internet about this, and even saw the articles that said not to panic, the dog will adapt, those articles were almost invariably written by the sort of hyper-caring earth-mother women who could say taking care of a limbless, eyeless, incontinent sea lion was an easy, rewarding experience anyone could do. I didn't really buy it.

So, when she went blind, I did end up going a bit nuts. She's a profoundly sweet-natured and smart dog, and seeing her struggle, without benefit of understanding why, was wrenching. I looked into research into artificial vision, surgeries, other medications; everything was either a pipe dream, insanely expensive, and almost nothing guaranteed any vision retention. It was crazy, and while I was being an idiot, Virginia was out there, rewiring her little brain to make it work.
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