whatstrinsayingtoday

Today I took my dog to the vet. This is a pretty normal thing for most people with pets. For me, this is like organizing a caravan to travel from Los Angeles to New York City. The difference is that my dog is blind, deaf, and the size of a miniature horse. His name is Obie. He is a lethal white catahoula with no eyeballs at all and only one ear with all of the working parts. The trouble is that those parts don’t work. We were going to the vet because he has a surgical incision that got infected. Taking Obie to the vet requires getting a babysitter because he is too nervous to ride in a car with a lot of people in it, containing my other dog, Taz, who is convinced that he is entitled to go everywhere that Obie goes, cleaning out my van, putting down towels all over the inside, and somehow restraining him because I have yet to find a method that works for everyone. This said, Obie is probably the sweetest dog that a person will ever meet. When I got him as a puppy, everyone that I consulted told me to put him to sleep, insisting that a blind and deaf dog would have no quality of life. Well, I thought that this was crap because if we were going by that standard, why is Helen Keller in the history books? I am not comparing Helen Keller and my puppy, what I am saying is that everything deserves at least a chance. We were even told by the vet that he had a good chance of dying of the smallest illness because of the lethal white genetic mutation. One week later, Obie’s sister died of parvo and Obie pulled through it all by himself. We took him to the vet and had him stay overnight but he was already eating again by the time that we did that. We have taught him how to walk on a leash, how to walk up stairs, how to sit, and how to shake hands. He is loving and energetic and, amazingly enough, he is hilarious. Seeing Obie grow has been an enlightening experience. He does everything with such a joy for life that I want to let everyone know that even animals that no one looks at twice are capable of amazing things. Obie is simply the best dog that I have ever had and I am thankful that he is a part of my family and my life.