Here’s Winnie!

This elegant girl is Winnie, a blind foxhound who came to us in late October from Massachusetts. Her owner was a young man who had lost his housing and wasn’t going to be able to keep her.  When he contacted us to ask if we could take Winnie, I looked at the photos he sent and immediately thought of our beloved foxhound Maple, who we tragically lost this past February just a few months after she arrived. It didn’t take us long to say “yes.”

Winnie is 8 years old and went blind from progressive retinal atrophy, when the cells in the retina begin deteriorating. It’s a gradual process but blindness is the end result. There is no treatment. She subsequently developed those impressive cataracts you see in her eyes in that photo.

I took her to our veterinary ophthalmologist in Burlington a couple of weeks ago for a comprehensive eye exam. Her eyes are very comfortable at the moment (PRA in itself isn’t painful at all), but she was also diagnosed with early/mild onset of lens instability. If the lens detaches, it can become very painful and she’ll require emergency care. So Winnie is on a daily eye medication to minimize that risk. She’s also at risk from glaucoma, secondary to those chronic hyper mature cataracts, so we give her a different eye medication for that as well.

Our primary care vet in Littleton also did a full physical exam and blood work, as well as an expanded tick panel. Winnie’s results were good on all accounts.

So she’s one healthy girl with some eye issues!

Her previous owner got her from a shelter in Virginia. We suspect she flunked out of foxhound school, either because her eyesight was already diminishing or she just wasn’t the type to go racing through the woods chasing a hapless fox or other game. Her ear notches are identical in length and placement, so human caused. This is something that some hunters do to be able to identify their dogs in a pack, though this practice is certainly not acceptable or condoned by the reputable foxhound community.

And though she loves to be outside, she is quite fussy about the conditions. She would definitely rather not get her feet wet or muddy, thank you very much.  This is one reason we can’t see her coursing through the woods in pursuit of game back in the day!

She gets along great with everyone, and is quiet and impeccably house trained (always a plus for a new arrival).

Despite her vision loss, Winnie is playful, loves to roughhouse with me, and tosses chew toys around in the air.

I took this photo a couple of days after she came. She’s definitely a ‘daddy’s girl,’ I think because her previous owner was a guy, too. She likes to come up to me when I’m at my desk and start rubbing her head on me. That’s her signal for “playtime,” when I’m supposed to stop whatever I’m doing and focus on her. Of course, I do, because that face is irresistible!

Here she is in the dog yard the day she arrived. Even though she and Maple had different coloring (Maple had the more classic tri-color of white/black/brown), they shared the same body type and — much to our delight — the same adorable personality traits.

So that’s our final (we think!) new arrival for the year — seven total in 2025, starting with our little munchkin Peanut back in February. We’re delighted to be able to give them all another chance at a wonderful life here.

And on that note, we wish you all the best this holiday season!