Last Thursday I drove to our vet clinic in Helena to get Buddy and Jake, the two blind dogs who arrived from Nashville on November 6th. After picking them up at the airport in Bozeman that day, I had taken them to our vets for medical checks, eye exams, and blood panels. After a week at the clinic, it was finally time to bring them home to the ranch. We put them in our isolation cottage and yard for their first few
days here, to give them a chance to acclimate themselves and get
acquainted with us.
Between their stay in the private boarding kennel in Nashville and the time spent at our vet clinic, we figured they had already completed a two-week quarantine period after getting out of Metro Animal Control in Nashville. (We typically isolate our new arrivals for two weeks for health reasons.) So today, on a quiet Sunday, we were ready to let them out to start exploring and meeting some of the other animals.
Alayne and I walked them over to a large 1/2 acre (.20 hec) yard that sits between our house and the various yards around Widget's House, our main dog building. I took the photo above of Alayne with Buddy on the left and Jake on the right this afternoon. I managed to get those adorable simultaneous head tilts by making ridiculous high-pitched squeaking noises from behind the camera. (Alayne does not respond to those noises.)
Our vet, Dr. Brenda Culver of Montana Veterinary Specialists, determined they are both blind from a retinal atrophy. In addition, Buddy's right retina is starting to detach, which Brenda thought she detected with the slit-lamp and confirmed with an ultrasound of his eye. But at this point both dogs have comfortable eyes — their intraocular pressures (IOP) were normal — and there's nothing we need to do besides continue to monitor them. Down the road we may see other changes, like cataracts developing, but for right now they're fine. Their blood work, Brenda said, looked great.
The boys had a wonderful time this afternoon exploring their new yard and doing the usual "getting-to-know-you" introductions across the fence. Here's Buddy meeting that other southern hound dog, Trooper from Louisiana — please note how high both tails went up:
Since Trooper can see, all the blind dogs at Widget's House were hounding him (so to speak) for a full report on the new arrivals — looks, size, breed, coloring, etc. The blind Poodle sisters from Texas, Molly and Priscilla, had only one question on their mind: "Just how cute are these new boys?" (They might be getting a little bored with their two-timing Cajun boyfriend.)
After some more introductions at the fence, off they went to check things out:
Here's a close-up of Jake:
Both dogs are very, very skinny, so we've got some serious weight gain to work on with them. This next shot gives you a better idea of how thin Jake really is. Yikes, look at those ribs:
And this one will show you how skinny Buddy is (click on image for a larger version):
That's blind Babe from Washington state in the background on the left, and Trooper is on the right — no doubt nervously keeping an eye on the potential competition in the yard next door.
Both dogs are very sweet, and as you can see in this last photo, Jake was ready to give some kisses during the photo session with Alayne:
Thanks to the efforts of Simone R. in Washington, D.C., and the attorneys in D.C. and Nashville, these blind boys finally got the chance to start their new life here in Montana.
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