One of our little dogs (refresher: one of five--this one is named Zorra) is blind now. All but completely. She still shows a vague, severely delayed reaction to sights during the day, but at night she's lost. Her pupils look like storm clouds and her gaze is unfocused. She slips when you put her down if she doesn't have time to get acquainted with the floor first.
The signs had been showing up in the week or so before now--she took her sweet time avoiding the lawnmower, and nearly crashed full-speed into my unmoving leg as I stood in the kitchen. Then all of a sudden, Saturday morning, she was bumping into walls and moving slower than she ever has. It's hilarious and sad at the same time. It's one of those things where it's really pitiful, but everyone knows they'd be laughing at it if it were on TV, you know?
It doesn't help her case that she's been the weird one all these years. She's the one who did the most barking at night. She's the one who weighed the least, suddenly became the heaviest, and then suddenly became lighter than before. She's the one who flips out over dog treats and seems to live for no other reason than to get another one the next day. So she's always been something to talk about and never attached to any one person in the house like the others. She's getting her due sympathy but it's understandably not the same as if, well...
...
Muff is older than Zorra by two years but has shown practically no signs of aging compared to the others. She's active, expressive, loves to play... but she has a faint cloudiness in her eyes that you can see in the light. I'm so attached to her and I fear how broken she'll be if she also goes blind. She has better natural protection from the sun and spends more time inside... but it's probably going to end up happening eventually, and that sucks. But when it does, I'm just gonna have to accept it and deal with it.
