Thomas, Chari, & Lady Belle's Blog (13)

Belle Here - coming to you from the other side of the rainbow bridge.

Now that I'm settled in Doggie Heaven, I thought I'd spend some of my time advocating the rescue of blind dogs.  While this may be a bit off task for this site, I'm not off task.  I am a first generation Labradoodle.

My Facebook page is chocked full of tips on adapting to a blind dog - like me.  You can get to my page through the following link.…

I want to add my thoughts to Belle's goodby post.  

The decision to put Belle down was one of the hardest in my 71 years on this earth.  Why?  Lots of reasons.  At 5 1./2 she was way short of her life expectancy.  Her first two years were with an owner who gave her up then in and out of shelters.  So her good life was limited to around three years.  The is not a lot.  There was a long shot she could make it with diagnosis and treatment.  But I would have had to leave her at the pet…

Hello, Lady Belle Here,

You might recall my blog posts under the handle "Adventures of a Blind Doodle."  You will find my first blog post here.

http://www.doodlekisses.com/profiles/blogs/lady-belle-adventures-of-a-blind-doodle

If you don't feel like digging through all those posts, Here is the Cliff Notes version:

1.  I was born sighted but in the first year caught…

Lady Belle – Adventures of a Blind Doodle - #6 – Wedding Bells

Belle here,

I thought I’d catch you up on events in my life in the last month.  We settled into a nice routine.  Mom, dad, and I get up in the morning.  That means its “walk time.”  So we go on a long walk.  Almost always both mom and dad are with me.  Lately dad’s been relaxing the leash to let me explore and sniff a bit.  I know this route so well, I lead the way.    Lately they’ve been asking me to stop and sit…

Hello, Belle here,

It had been a fairly dull week until Monday.  Dad Tom was working at a banking school in Madison and wasn’t around nearly as much as I’d like.  Yes we walked 2-3 miles in the morning.  But not only wasn’t he around during the day time, my huge dog park was closed.

But yesterday was a very special day.  Banker school is out so Dad Tom was around.  We went on our morning walk.  Then after I had a chance to rest, he started working with me on “Sit” and “Lay”. …

Belle here,

Another week has gone by.  This is a picture of me enjoying MY deck.  I’m gaining confidence that I’ve finally found my forever home – enough that I’m beginning to reveal my naughty side.  Everyone thinks I’m so sweet and nice – especially my fan club members.    But before I went blind I was a feisty little girl.  I can feel my mojo coming back.…

You’ve heard Belle’s side of the story of her first two weeks.  Let me share mine. 

If you’ve re-homed multiple dogs, you begin to understand you don’t really know what you are going to get.  If you’ll give me a bit of latitude on the definition of re-homed, I’ve re-homed my last four dogs, the last two of which are rescues.

Dancer was bred to be a show dog.  As pure-bred collies go, he was drop dead gorgeous.   The problem was this dog was built to run.   He was way too much…

Lady Belle here,

In my last post I filled you in on my first two days in my forever home.  Today, I’m celebrating my two week anniversary.  I’m proud of the fact that my blog has a lot of readers.  Many of you are giving my new dad advice on how to bring me up.  It’s funny to watch him continually reevaluating how he’s doing things.

I want to share a funny story with you.  I heard dad saying the other day that our morning aerobic walks are designed to build MY cardiovascular…

Google the terms “dog” or “canine” along with “cognitive maps” or “mind maps.”  You’ll be surprised as I was at how little is out there.  There are some technical manuscripts discussing theories on how the information is actually stored.  I don’t care how the information is stored.  More important to me is what is stored and how to make use of cognitive mapping in adapting a blind dog to her environment.…

Hello, Lady Belle Here, 

In my first post I filled you in on my first 2 ½ years – Life with a family, going blind, being turned in to a shelter, adoption 1 for 90 days, back to a shelter, then being rescued by my foster mom, Melissa.  I ended the post with a statement that my life was about to change again.

About this name thing. First I was called…

I know these blog posts are coming fast.  But Belle and I are trying to catch up.  Right now, her posts are about 10 days behind today.  Changes are happening so fast right now that 10 days is a big gap.  Once we’ve caught up, the posts will slow down.  For now, enjoy the ride.

In her next post, Belle will talk about her first two days in her forever home.  Blind dogs, especially those that were born with sight, go through a significant transition as they adapt.  We can help them…

Hello.  Lady Belle here.

I thought I’d introduce myself.  My name is Lady Belle and I am a first generation Labradoodle.  That means one of my parents was a purebred Labrador retriever and the other was a purebred Poodle.  In my case the Poodle was a Standard Poodle, so I’m a big girl, around 65 pounds.  I like to think I got my brains from the Poodle…

Background

As I write this it is Saturday, July 26, 2014.  A week ago today my wife Chari and I drove 900 miles round trip to southern Illinois to pick up our newest family member, Lady Belle, a 2 ½ year old Labradoodle rescue.  We went through an application process, had references checked and were selected to adopt her by the…