If you can believe it, it has been almost 3 months since Henry's last eye exam. We are on an every 3 month schedule to ensure the health of his remaining eye. Dr. Denis said that his eye is stable. And we take that as a good thing. We know it is not going to get better but it still can get worse, but it's not. His eye pressure was good, too. (Which means no glaucoma.)
We also had a chance to talk to the eye vet about how Henry experiences the world. He is blind, but he has some light perception. Its sorta like closing your eyes and being able to tell if you are in a well lit room or a completely dark room. You can't make out any shapes or figures, but you are able to get a feel for how much light is in the room. Also, if someone walks on front of you or blocks the light, you will be able to tell.
We suspected this was the case for Henry based on his behavior, but it was good to have the vet validate it. Sometimes, Henry is so on point that it seems that Henry must be able to see something, but in fact he is just getting much better at interpreting his light perception.
We are very pleased that his eye is stable and as healthy as possible right now. Stay strong, Henry boy! #HenryStrong #VisuallyImpairedPug #HenryIsAGoodBoy #GoodPug
Well, today Henry the Wonderpug is 13 years old! Happy Birthday, sweet boy! We know that this birthday is already better than last year! Last year on his birthday he was having his eye removed! #Enucleation So, we know that today HAS to be better than that!
I think we shall celebrate by going for a walk and maybe a little extra protein. One day of a little extra meat shouldn't be too bad for you. Possibly an extra long car ride will also be in store. May all good things come your way this year, old man. Being 12 for you was kind of stinky, H. So, this year, let's make your teens be something magical. We love you, Doody Boy!
At a nearby shopping center there is a walking path that Henry has been to a time or two. We took him there right before the time change and we did not beat the darkness. As we walked, night fell hard upon us. Even though Henry clocked his head once real good on a picnic bench and crashed into a high curb we still considered this walk a success. Since there was minimal daylight we did not get photos.
Well, we went back to this path this weekend and had Henry pose for the camera. He got a little bored of this (hence the yawn photo) but eventually he gave a blog worthy photo. The path is about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile long and Henry walked the whole thing! It is extra wide which allows him to do his stagger walk without huge threat of falling off the edge the sidewalk. There are some grassy areas that he enjoys and ample bushes that he appreciates the opportunity for releasing urine upon.
In Henry's heyday, he was a "one way" type of guy. If you went one direction, you could not expect to bring him home the same way. So, we always had to find "loops" so that he could do the complete circle since we knew we could not go up to point A and back the same path (even if on opposite sides of the street he would know it was the same way home).
We started to wonder now.....was Henry getting this way with not being able to go to the same PARK TWICE?! It seemed his new favorite was Doris Leeper but then when we took him there the second time it was an epic fail. So, we wondered if not only could he not take the same way up and back could he not even repeat a loop?! We were thankful to realize that this was not the case as he has successfully navigated the Pavilion path twice in a row! So, Doris Leeper day was more of an off day.
Since finding Doris Leeper Park (the park that began building Herny's confidence again) we became excited that it may be our new "go to" park for Henry. So, we took another trip there and sadly we did not have the same wonderfully positive results as we had the first time. This is probably our own fault, though. We are still trying to gauge Henry's energy levels and untangle what determines if he is going to have a confused day or a coherent day. We really are not sure what exactly makes the difference (or if there even IS any rhyme or reason to what determines this).
We attempted the walk on a late-ish afternoon (usually a prime time for him) but on this day, he should have maybe just stayed home. He had little interest in walking and when he did want to walk it was just the circling and pacing that lets us know that he doesn't really know where he is and at that point we are not sure what he wants. Henry is approaching 13 and can no longer see, can barely hear, still suffers from anxiety and likely has doggie dementia.
So, most of this second trip to Doris Leeper was short stints of sniffing and just standing around and looking at each other and ultimately ended in Henry's chauffeurs taking turns carrying him the bulk of the walk. One would think that our biceps would make a body builder envious but yet somehow that is not the case.
After this unusual walk we simply drove around and let him enjoy the wind on his face. We try so hard to do our best for Henry. The challenge now is trying to figure out what it is that makes him happy. It's not so much that he is unhappy (except when he is home alone) but that it is difficult to see that he is actually happy vs. "just here". We will keep trying and also keep trying to stay positive knowing that he will continue to have good days and not so good days. If only he could tell us what sparks each of these days we would indeed move the moon and the stars to make all the bad go away and draw the happy closer.
Today, Benny would have turned 13 years old! There is only one thing I miss in these pictures, and that is Baby Benny. The snow, I don't miss that one bit.
But since it has been such a snowy winter in many places, I thought we would share our favorite Baby Benny snow pics. In Benny's young and wild pug days, the snow never really bothered him. It always seemed to get him fired up and make him want to run around. When we got a lot of snow he loved to run up and down the snow piles created by the snow plows.
I can only remember one really miserable time. We had taken the boys out after we had quite a bit of snow and it was still actively snowing. The snow was too deep for the boys to easily get around and it was super cold out. Their paws got too cold and we quickly went back inside to warm up.
But, give Benny a light dusting and he would run around like crazy!
So for all of our OBP friends that have had enough snow this year, I hope Spring has finally come and is melting away all the white stuff that old man winter brought you.
Happy Birthday Baby Benny! You are missed more than you will ever know.
