The Dachshund ranks expanded yet again, with the arrival of blind Lucy on Friday. She came to us from Riverside Rescue in Vermont, the same local shelter that had asked if we could take Roo, the Chihuahua born without front legs. Lucy came from a puppy mill situation and was born with microphthalmia, which means her eyes never fully developed. While she can hear, Lucy seems to have trouble determining the direction of sound and can't quite get a fix on where it's coming from unless she's very close to the source. (This is different than the deafness problem we've reported Dexter having, which is CSH, or canine selective hearingitis.) So she will often run around in circles trying to get a fix on the sound.
As you can imagine, given their recent close encounter with a too-adorable Chihuahua, the Dachshund contingent was delighted to see another of their kind arrive.
Lucy is a pistol — full of energy, always in motion, and quite the intrepid explorer. The only time she seems to be still is when you pick her up … she loves to be held and cuddled. But when she's not in your arms, she's scooting around. In fact, we almost named her Scooter because she has this endearing habit of tucking her butt underneath her and then scooting forward at 100 mph. (Her name was … yes, Stevie. Been there, done that. We named her Lucy.)
She gets along great with everyone, and although she's a bit timid around the other dogs, she's fine letting them check her out, sniff her, and be around her. But I have a feeling it won't be long before she's romping and roughhousing with some of the other little tykes.
Sharon at Riverside thought Lucy might be a piebald Dachshund, though I'm not so sure she isn't the product of a double dapple breeding, which would explain her disability … and there's even such a thing as a dapple piebald. (For much more detail on colors and patterns in the Dachshund world than you might want to know, see this site and this one.)
On Saturday afternoon, Alayne and I were in our offices on the second floor of the people wing when Lucy suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. We hadn't thought about closing the gate to the stairs because we didn't think she'd take her exploring that far that fast, but there she was … as proud as she could be that she found new territory. (The gate now stays closed.) That's her nature: Inquisitive, fearless, energetic.
The Beagles are wringing their paws over the arrival of yet another Dachshund, which brings the total to eight. Oh my!
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