Tuesday, September 22, 2009

























The following Story was written at the request of Summer's Eye Clinic - Animal Eye Care - in Fremont. I thought it was worth posting here. See my archives for video's of Summer in action.

September, 2009

It’s hard to believe that Summer just celebrated her 12th birthday and that it’s been just about 2 years since she lost her eye sight.

She is one happy girl and her blindness does not get in her way. Where her eyes once helped her to find food, her nose and ears have taken over. Summer can hear a piece of rice fall on the floor and can catch cookies as you drop them towards her nose.

She finds balls in the garden where my 3 year old golden Mozie can’t. When we play fetch with Mozie, Summer often grabs the dropped ball before I can and then plays keep-away by trying to hide the ball in her bed.

When Summer first lost her sight I put in a ramp for her to get out into the yard. Today, the ramp is gone and she manages to get out through the doggie door and has no problem getting up and down the steps without assistance. She goes for walks and looks forward to weekend romps to the coffee shop with her doggie friends where they all wait at the back door for their cookies.

Summer has not lost her love of balls. It was a very hot day and time to try out the kiddie pool. She had a blast. She went back and forth from the pool to the lawn fetching the balls as I dropped them in the water. She was so exhausted I had to make her stop.

For anyone facing this decision, it’s not an easy one. I was so fearful that Summer would be depressed and her quality of life would suffer. I was wrong. As you can see by these pictures Summer is one amazing happy dog! She still occasionally bumps into things and at times gets so excited about getting a cookie that she will get lost and lose her way, but she quickly regroups and finds where she was originally headed.




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