Follow Up: Lexi

I'd like to share a special needs adoption experience, because our recently adopted Lexi from Northeastern Boxer Rescue is nothing short of a gem!  Lexi's total blindness has been no problem whatsoever -- either for us or for her.  This is early March, 2002, and Lexi was adopted in August, 2001.  

Nothing (NOTHING, including a million dollars, tax free) would make me give up this most wonderful companion, sweet soul and 100% family member.  I've never seen such an open window into the mind of a dog as I have in learning from Lexi.  Her blindness is not a problem.  However, it is an entry into what dogs are all about.  A blind dog finds ways to communicate with you because it's critical to them.  I would imagine a deaf dog or a dog with
another missing sense would be the same.  There's a dependence issue and a consequent communication that you just develop.  I'm Lexi's "seeing eye person."  

Lexi is a very intelligent animal, and would have been in any event, but I suspect her intelligence has been augmented by her missing sense.  She listens more, she observes more, she follows more.  You don't let a blind dog run into a barrier, you say something ("careful" covers it here.)  She veers off, and treads lightly after hearing that.

I would think with a deaf dog, there would be visual checks instead of Lexi's waiting for verbal confirmations.  After all, you are their road to safety.  It doesn't take them long to bond with this extremely valuable helpmate, and the relationship deepens from there.

The human-dog relationship goes back so far in our mutual evolved species histories that  special communications among our two species has become phenomenal.  We see and hear about "cadaver dogs" and "bomb sniffing dogs" and all sorts of dogs.  I'm just a person.  I've always hosted dogs.  Lexi is the first blind dog I've hosted.  Let me tell you, the communication with this wonderful, irrevocably loved family member animal is the best I've ever
been able to achieve, and it comes about naturally.  

I'll always, until I die, have a special needs dog.  S/he could be hearing impaired (in which case we use signals) or sight impaired (in which case we use sound).  I've never had a more special relationship with any animal than I have with Lexi.  I love this dog.

Her profile:  "Lexi, age 3, beautiful and 100% blind, fostered Rochester, NY."

Lexi's  original information   

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