For the next couple of months, I heard horror stories about the Little Pest - barking at anything that moved and being mean to strangers. Come Thanksgiving, I finally had the chance to meet her at my aunt's house. Upon arriving, she jumped on me, wagged her tail, and started giving me kisses. Not quite the Little Terror I was expecting. Being small of size and only jumping on people when she is happy to see them, my sister encourages the jumping.
With about everybody who meets Missy, they are impressed with how well she gets around. We usually have to tell them that she is blind because it would be hard to tell otherwise. Many often say, "Maybe she can see a little...?" and of course Missy conveniently runs into something immediately afterwards. (Although there is a theory that she is aware of people catching onto her lies, so she will fumble when necessary.) We have determined that she is able to see bright lights. My older sister discovered this when taking a picture of Missy on Snapchat and the very bright flash went off. Missy perked her ears up and stared right into the flash. On our roadtrip from Seattle to San Antonio and back in the winter of 2015-2016, I had to snuggle with Missy in the backseat for the majority of the trip, and I was able to observe her affinity for staring at the sun.
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| Missy would wait on that chair in San Antonio when her mommy went out. |
When exploring a new environment (such as a house), she travels around the area, getting to know boundaries and furniture. Once that is accomplished, she has a good sense of every leg of furniture and usually knows when to watch out for an obstacle. Some time after the initial run-through (hours, maybe days later), she does a second run-through where she does an exploration of any nook and cranny she can access. It's a quality that is pretty cat-like.
It is not her blindness that makes it difficult for my sister to care for her, but the impact of her life before being adopted. We have our theories about her history, such as her possibly being a designer dog meant for breeding (she's very well-built) and being neglected by her owners. We know that she has chihuahua in her, but we can only speculate what else. I think (miniature) pinscher and Shiba Inu. Whether or not it would be worth paying for lab results depends on if my sister gets too tired of guessing. Before being put into the shelter, Missy got pregnant and went to a foster home where she had the puppies and began house training. Of all the years of being domestic, she had never been potty trained. My sister still struggles to make sure she does not have an accident in the house. The biggest difficulty with Missy is that she can be aggressive towards other dogs and humans. That's why I was wary about meeting her for the first time, but we think she can sense when someone is related to her owner, which is why she was so nice to me.
We never know who Missy will choose to be aggressive towards, so we take precaution with everyone. Surprisingly, she does very well with children. My sister was shocked to learn of her aggressive behavior since she was so sweet towards her from the very beginning. Missy will not attack, but growl, bark, snarl, and hunch down at new people. If someone tries to reach towards her, she jumps back. Missy's bites, luckily, are not bad enough to tear skin - she's just too small. However, my sister has to be careful with Missy around people for many reasons, including the consequences if Missy were to bite someone and they filed a claim. My sister has been working on socializing her. Since my sisters and I brought up our family dog, Brooks, from San Antonio to Seattle, Missy got some experience with socializing with other dogs. Sadly, we put Brooks down about seven months later. Missy has made a couple of friends and does better at dog parks.
It is not Missy being unable to see that is the problem with taking care of her, but that is what people see when they meet her. We have found that people are quick to coddle Missy because of her blindness. While at the animal shelter, Missy was not allowed outside because the staff feared for her safety, ignorant to how well she gets around. It would have been more productive to allow to her socialize with other dogs. I do not think her being blind is the biggest contributing factor to her aggressiveness. I have actually gotten to know another blind dog who is a love bug.
Coming to my aunt's apartment in the LA area, I got to meet her new dachshund, Liam. Unlike Missy, he is a real sweetheart to both humans and dogs. Like Missy, he's also blind, and has been so since birth. His story before my aunt adopted him is somewhat sad too. He had been at a shelter where he was deemed "unadoptable" because of his condition. Fortunately, the woman who runs a dachshund rescue found Liam and took him in, then gave him to my aunt. Having a conversation with my aunt and uncle, caring for Liam is practically no different than caring for any other dog. Sometimes you have to be more mindful of the layout of your dwelling, and guide the dog while you're taking it for a walk ("Up!" or "Down!" if there's a step it has to take), otherwise, it is not significantly harder. My aunt and uncle are no strangers to how heartless people can be towards animals. There is a snake my uncle that a breeder gave to him for free because it was the "wrong color." If my uncle had not taken it, the breeder would have "destroyed" it.
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| Liam |
We downplay their strengths and exaggerate their weaknesses when we should really be paying attention to their actual needs. My aunt's other dog, Duke, is gradually becoming blind. As a dog who will need to learn to rely on his other senses to get around, he will probably have greater trouble getting around. It does not mean that Duke should be treated any less of a dog or that he is somehow defunct. It just means that those around him have to learn how to accommodate his needs. Human or animal, we have to get into our heads that each one is different, and it is our duty to them and ourselves to give them respect they deserve.
If you are interested in adopting a blind dog or reading up on how to take care of one, you can check out these resources:
Blind Dog Rescue Alliance
Tiny Dog Rescue & Blind Dog Haven
Pets With Disabilities
BlindDogs.net
BlindDogTraining.com
