March 22, 2011

Lethal white? Nope, just awesome.

We brought home our new dog on Monday, after a 700 mile round-trip adventure to the soviet block nation of Minnesota.

We have named him Wash, short for Hoban Washburne, the sweet, goofy red-headed pilot in the Sci-fi series "Firefly", by Joss Whedon. He’s funny, smart, and a total snugglebug. We’ve fallen in love with him, charming and good-natured as he is, and he’s been settling in marvelously. I have to admit, we’ve been spoiling him a bit:) Not bad for a dog found as a stray in North Carolina that ended up on death row. Personally, I can’t fathom why anyone wouldn’t want him.

Then again, people suck. Maybe they didn’t want him for the simple reason- He’s partially blind and partially deaf.

Wash is a red homozygous merle Australian Shepherd, mistakenly called a "Lethal white" Aussie. What this means is that both of his parents were merle in color, either red or blue, and he has inherited two merle genes. This causes irregular pigmentation and excessive white in his coat. It also causes hearing and vision impairments, with varying degrees of severity. Wash has blue eyes, both suffering differing degrees of microopthalmia, meaning the eye is smaller than normal and slightly sunken. His right eye has an irregular pupil that is dropped and has a starburst pattern, rather than being round.

Monday night, we discovered that he is night blind, so we bought him nite-lites for around the house. He also seems to have a certain discomfort in bright lights, like headlights, possibly caused by iris coloboma, a defect where the iris does not contract correctly to protect the eye from intense light. The skin on his nose and face is very pink, and will probably need sunblock in the summer.

His hearing is pretty good, but he has difficulty in recognizing the direction that sounds originate from.

Wash has shown such adaptability and sweetness in the face of adversity. He functions almost entirely like a normal dog, with only slight modifications to his environment(like the nite-lites) and he’s a blast to be around. He loves to wrestle with our niece’s Lab and they tear through the house like wild animals! Our Stella loves him but has no idea what to do with him; he’s like the annoying little brother she never had and never wanted. Sometimes she gives me this long-suffering look and sighs, as if to say, "Boys are stupid. Throw things at them." LOL!

I say again, people suck. Just because an animal isn’t perfect, they throw him away. And to think that some people are deliberately breeding homozygous or double merles just to get what they call ‘rare’ white Aussies, then they cull the pups with any abnormalities, which are numerous. These people ought to be ashamed.

I found a poem on a support site for people with blind or vision-impaired dogs. I thought I’d share it here.

I cannot see you Mommy, when you cuddle me so near.
And yet I know you love me, it’s in the words I hear.
I cannot see you Daddy, when you hold me by your side
But still I know you love me when you tell me so with pride.
I cannot see to run and play out in the sun so bright
For here inside my tiny head it’s always dark as night.
I cannot see the treats you give when I am extra good
But I can wag my tail in Thanks just like a good dog should.
"She cannot see. The dogs no good" is what some folks might say
"She can’t be trained, she’ll never learn She must be put away."
But not you, Mom and Daddy You know that it’s alright
Because I love you just as much as any dog with sight.
You took me in, you gave me love and we will never part
Because I’m blind with just my eyes, I see you in my heart.

I’m gonna go love on Wash and Stella now. Pets are a blessing. I just wish more people saw them that way.

-Rebecca