Louie Finds a Sleeping Hole

Book on table is 'How to Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You' By The Oatmeal. A Must Read!

Louie wants to sleep on the bed.
I don't care what time it is, what day it is and what else is going on. Louie wants to sleep on our cushy, queen sized, pillow-top human's bed. He would prefer to be under the covers. If there is no one around with thumbs he will carefully nudge apart the seems of a nicely made bed. He will toss pillows around with his face and scoop and toss covers with his nose until he can start to wiggle under the blankets. He's almost never got all the way under, but this method allows him to get his head and shoulders under and that is what really matters.

How do I know all this detail?
Well, I'll say to most fun part for me having a blind dog is watching him when he doesn't know he's being watched. When I hear something on my bed in the other room, if I walk very carefully and slowly and stand just in the doorway looking in, I have A front row seat to the 'Louie is home alone' show. Who needs a nanny-cam when you have a blind dog! I have quietly watched Louie 'make' our bed time and again, but what happens when it's time for my husband and I to go to bed? Bedtime always begins with us helping Louie down off our bed and asking him to find a dog bed. He will usually sniff the dog beds and leave the room. He likes the dog bed in the living room better.

Last night,
I got up at about 3am to use the bathroom. There was Louie, curled up in the chair. Again, this is pretty normal. Then it hits me, I don't think a dog who could see would chose to face the back of the chair. They would want to be facing out instead, so they could look around and have a quick exit should they need it. Louie is much more concerned about protecting his head and feeling cozy. That's why he loves to wear clothes and sleep with his head under the covers.

Louie shoves his snout way down into the  crack to the chair, breathing freely is not the number one objective obviously. He has always tried to bury his head. When he was a 8 week old puppy I would find him sleeping in the strangest of places, like with just his head shoved into the tiny space between the back of the couch and the wall. I thought he was just a weirdo, now I know he's just a big blind weirdo, and I love him so.

Join the Party!

Hello possible newcomers and friends.
Thanks for joining us. Recently, I seem to have made some connections with owners of dogs in similar situations as Louie. It's great to meet new people and dogs, whether it be in person or online, and hear their stories. I am inspired again and again to keep trying, do my best and just be happy. Louie sets a great example.

If you are just joining us,
and you are dealing with blindness in your pet, please go back to the first few entrys and read about Louie as a pup. There are a few entrys on dealing with diagnosis, surgery and adapting to blindness. I hope these stories will reach the people who need them, and I hope they will reach out to me as well. Pass around some positive energy, it's contagious. Flu season has nothing on this!

I want to engage even more.
The newest project I am working on is interviewing others who have dealt with eye problems in their pets. Please email me if you are interested in being featured in this blog and I will respond with a list of questions. I really look forward to hearing from all of you! lifewithblindlouie@gmail.com

Like us on Facebook.
Facebook is a great way to communicate and share photos. After liking our page, feel free to use it to show off your pets, blind or not, we don't discriminate!

Crushing the Grandparents

Louie is sleeping.
Here is Louie's face. Super close up. His lip stuck drapped over a leg. His right eye rolled back in his head and open just enough to show it's sunken pink inside. A face only a mother could love? I hope not, but maybe. I sure do love him.

Louie is resting on his favorite spot.
A person. If Louie could lay right on top of another large living animal he would, always. It is the best heating pad. Louie can't see that the place on the couch is not enough room for him to fit, he just goes for it and somehow it usually works out.

I got an S.O.S. text from my mom last night.
Louie was next door at my parent house for a visit. My text said 'You have to see where your dog is right now'. I went next door and found Louie fast asleep on the couch. He is not allowed on the couch at my parents house, well at least not when my mom is home. My dad is a pretty standard Grandpa kind of guy. Bad habit enabler of children and pets alike. Tell your kid they can't have candy? My dad will find a loop hole and sneak them some. Louie gets the most attention from my dad. Louie sleeps under the covers on the bed with my dad if he stays the night there when my mom is not home.

However, my mom was home.
My mom, sitting on the couch, my dad lying next to her with his feet in her lap, watching TV together. Nothing too out of the ordinary. An arrangement usually found on a night when they are home together.

The unusual part of this scenario was the 115lb pit bull sprawled across both of their laps pinning them down and no one could move. My mom's text was literally an S.O.S. call they actually needed me to help get Louie off so they could get up. Louie was fast asleep, snoring like there was not a care in the world.

Louie sure did look comfortable.
He didn't even mind that I walked in the door. He wasn't even interested to see who had just come over. Usually he gets up when he hears the door and barks a little a greets whoever enters. He didn't even mind that people were talking about him he just slept.

I help to Louie get off of the couch, careful not crushing any bones on either of my parents. Everyone thought it was pretty cute how he groaned when he got up he definitely didn't want to move he was very comfortable and very warm. I have no idea how Louie can even get in that position without people really noticing. Of course you see a big old dog there, but a first it's just a head in your lap, then also a paw and next thing you know you're pinned and somehow he just expands and gets heavier.

I envy how comfortable that he can get.
I envy how relaxed he can be, how oblivious he is with the rest of the world moving around him. I know Louie is comfortable in the moment and in that moment nothing else matters.

Taking a Walk in the Yard

How many animals do you see in this picture?

Taking the pets on a walk around the farm.
Louie gets his jacket on, well, I put Louie's jacket on him. Snorp is ready to run! Along come Halford cat-dog with his arch nemisis Meatloaf in tow. The sun is out. I am under the weather but need to get out of the house for some fresh air for a few minutes. Everybody's happy.

It's great to have a large enough yard that I can feel like I'm talking a stroll without even leaving our property. The animals love it too.

The picture on the left is a happy accident. 
I accidentally snapped the photo. Upon closer inspection when we came inside I noticed that it's a great shot of the whole group. Slow moving Louie there on the left, Meatloaf right up front and on the move. If you look closely just behind Meatloaf's head in Halford kitty. Where is Snorp? Why he is smelling the camera! The top right corner of the picture is dedicated to Snorp's black and white neck and a small part of his top lip. I love him and there he is!

Meatloaf is brave and curious.
It's actually hard to get a clear photo of her. Whenever I get close to take a picture of her, she quickly attacks the dangling strap of the camera. I try to remember to hold that in my hand instead, which often results in stingy kitten scratches. Meh. This was a great picture though, another accident. It was just before she started mauling me.

Louie seems to like to have his picture taken.
I think he just likes when I talk to him. I ask him to sit and stay, and he tries really hard to stand still for a while. I even got him standing close to the chicken coup with his head over this bail of hay. I like how it looks. I used to take pictures of him with his head poking thorough long grass. He would squint his funny looking eyes and look sleepy and sedated.

Vote for Blind Louie

I hope everyone voted! Well, actually I'm not sure how much I care. I know I'm supposed to, so it's more like a pleasantry "Hi, how are you?" kind of thing "Get out and vote!". Smiley face.

Write in candidate Blind Louie to win it! Although I, myself wrote in Alfred E. Neuman. I voted Mad. Who didn't, really?

Life has been cozy and slow lately. We've been spending a lot of time indoors. It's dark. I'm at work or driving to or from work for all of the daylight hours now. It's dark when I leave work to drive home since we changed the clocks back last weekend.

It's cold outside, I had a cold and was sick for a bit, there were rainstorms and windstorms, the kitten was spayed and had to be inside and rest. Louie does not like the cold. Louie does not like the rain. Louie is whiny. He cries and sits and stares. It's hard to tell if his eye really hurts or if he's just bored.

Tonight, as he sat half facing me crying. I sighed. I walked him into the bedroom and asked him to get on the bed. He jumped up and laid down. I pet him for just a second until he fell asleep and then I left the room quietly, going back in to check on him a few minutes later and he and Snorp are both asleep on the humans bed. I love him, like a kid, a family member, a best friend. I want Louie to be comfortable and happy.

Vote, or don't. It's up to you. We don't really have control over anything. Whatever happens, just try to make the best of it.

The truth of the matter is...

This is Louie.

Louis Bernard Swift Waschke.
It's been harder for me to write lately. I love writing about what makes me smile and laugh about life, and Louie, and life with Louie; but lately Louie has been on my mind for a not as happy reason.

Louie's left eye has been bothering him, well, pretty much forever. That is the case with both eyes. This is a part of life, but what I am referring to is since his pressure's been down. After we've had the surgery and glaucoma isn't hurting him anymore. The post-surgery days have been good and there were many, but for the last six months or more his left eye has been bad in a different way.

It's runny and gooey and sunken and small.
Louie's left socket ball isn't much of an eye at all.
Squinting and batting and blinking and winking.
His shriveled eye seems to be constantly sinking.
Deep back in to its socket it goes,
leaving his eyelashes to turn in and scratch him when his lids close.

Example of left eye, sunken and crusty.

Well alright then, that's how I'll describe it.
Forgive me if I'm strange or seem macabre. Please don't let this deter you from reading my blog (no! stop rhyming!). I want this to be a blog about happiness. I'm writing because Louie inspires me, everyday. I'm writing because I think if everyone could be a little bit like Louie, everything would be a little brighter and a little less heavy. Life is what it is and we have no control over what will come. There is no way to anticipate everything life with chuck at you. Louie lives in this very moment and only this moment. and that's why I love him.

Example of right eye, less sunken and clearer

I have been feeling down about the possibility of Louie having his eye removed.
That scenario has been on the table for a very long time. If you've read my previous entries about the surgery you know that we actually brought Louie in to have both eyes removed before discovering our doctor had a less invasive, less expensive and less traumatic alternative. The injections he had in his eyes were amazing! No more pressure problems, no more pain, but the more the eyeballs shrunk the more the left eye looked worse then the right.

It's always been the eye to give him the most trouble, that pesky left one. Damn it. I've said so many time he'd be better off if it was just out of there. I know it's a pretty routine surgery that our vet has done a bunch of times but it's still scary. Because I will chose to let Louie inspire me again, I'm not going to worry about it. I am going to act. My husband and I have decided to go in for a visit and talk about removing Louie's left eye. If it will make him more comfortable than that is all that matters, HE IS ALREADY BLIND! Louie will never be able to see again, his eyes are just for show and a disappointing show at that. Louie is fine with being blind, he's actually happy with it! We will love Blind Winking Louie just as much as I love Blind Louie, and he will love us just the same right back.

Happy Howl-o-ween!

Happy Halloween everyone.
Even if you don't like it, bah humbug to Halloween, good enough. But Happy Halloween to you anyway. Have some candy and laugh at people dressed up funny.

No one dresses up on Halloween where I work.
On the other hand, the major rental car company across the street that I work with daily, does dress up. I love seeing them when the stop by. There is just something about someone dressed in a silly costume in a room with conventionally dressed people. There is something even cooler about seeing that person, usually in crisp white shirts and tie, dress pants and shoes, dressed in a giant hand costume. This is a handsome young man. Professional, courteous and polite. Do I ask him if he wants a high five? He tells me that they all dressed up as the Addams Family at his place of business and he was Thing. Really cool! Solo though, he was just a guy in a big hand costume. Now take that image and add them having to conduct business with a customer while holding a clipboard is amazing. He was just as professional as usual. Watching someone act serious in a costume is amazing. This is now my favorite part of daytime Halloween. I wish I could have seen their costume with all the members of the Addams Family.

My co-workers wife brought in their little one year old boy dresses as a chicken.
So cute! I asked her what their dogs thought about him in the costume. I guess they hadn't been around him in it yet. After saying that, I realized that might not be as big of a deal at other homes. If I wore a costume, it would freak Louie out. It would take talking and sniffing and close inspection before he would understand what was going on. Just like the other day with the kitten's crate; he didn't know that it was empty until he looked at it the way Louie looks at things: with his face. (I love run on sentences and punctuation.)

Louie should dress up as an investigative reporter next year. He's always sniffing around and then barking about it.