She Can See Again

Our new arrival, blind Allie from Virginia, is no longer blind! Those thick, diabetes-induced cataracts are now gone, thanks to eye surgery performed by our veterinary ophthalmologist in Burlington, Dr. Sarah Hoy.

During her first few hours at home after I brought her back from the hospital, Allie stood in the living room and just stared at the other dogs. She “knew” them — Allie had been with us a few weeks by then — but she had never actually seen them before. We watched her look at them, and we got this sense she was thinking, “Oh, so THAT’S what you look like!”

The next morning, when Alayne took her for a walk down our drive, Allie would stop periodically and gaze around at the snow-covered trees, then look up at the sky. She’d stand there like that, taking it all in for a few minutes, then get ready to move on.

We can only imagine what it must be like to get your vision back and see the world again.

Allie is one of the sweetest, most affectionate and loving dogs we’ve ever had the pleasure of taking in. She’s pure joy to have in our lives.

She’s also, dare I say it, becoming another Darla … able to get me to do her bidding by looking at me with those beautiful eyes. She stares, I yield. Allie is never far from my side, and prefers the bed behind my desk for sleeping to all the others in the living room. I already have one constant by-my-side minion, blind Millie the Lab, who has graciously allowed Allie into the club.

Allie is also crazy about going for a daily walk, and every afternoon around 4 p.m., she starts hounding us to take her out — it doesn’t matter what the weather is. (The other dogs are like, “Uh, no thanks, we’ll wait for spring.”) She sees us getting ready to go outside for barn chores, at which point she gets excited … jumping up and down, woofing, and pretty much becoming a wee-bit bossy, because she knows the walk is coming soon. After we get done with the barn, I come back to the house, put her on a leash, and off we go.

Allie will continue to see Dr. Hoy for regular re-checks of her eyes, and our internal medicine specialist will continue to monitor and regulate her diabetes. But so far, she’s doing great!