A Visit From Betty

A Visit From Betty

I need to update everyone on Betty. Betty was Blind Betty, then Bling Betty and now she is just Betty. Betty can see again, sort of. We don’t know how long she was afflicted by blindness from cataracts, which we had removed. Her eyes were so messed up that during the surgery it was decided that removal of the cataracts would allow her to see distance, but she would never have total clarity at close range. This has functionally left her in a much, much better place because she can now walk around freely without bumping into things every two steps. We have a medium-sized sprawling one-level home where the only area at a slightly different level (by 1.5 feet) is the travertine marble front door entry and powder room. That is the only area of the house that Betty does not roam. We use a small folding gate to keep her in the kitchen/dining room area at night, mostly so Kim can sleep and not be awakened by Betty rising too early and being unsure if it is daytime or not (more of a problem when she was blind than now). Otherwise Betty has her run of the house.

After Kim has given Betty her breakfast and morning insulin shot (her diabetes is under control but needs even more of a dose twice daily), Betty comes to the northern end of the house to find me. She literally just comes to make sure I am here and well and to get a friendly snout scratch and nuzzle (she tends to have an itchy snout for some reason and is forever looking to rub hers out against the upholstered furniture to get relief). Once Betty has determined that I am fine and that I still love her, she returns to Kim, the center of her attention and her primary caregiver. This is an interesting phenomenon to me even though other dog friends tell me it is not so unusual for a dog to do this. Betty lived in a very confined and uncertain world where she cowered her way through her day, trying to stay to herself and not let the hubbub around her (presumably in the streets and then in the shelters and foster homes) interfere with her existence. From what I can tell she had little to live for and yet what little she had she was grateful and wanted, by instinct, to maintain it as best she could.

She was never a mean or nasty dog, and she was mostly quite docile and accepting of her fate. But she was also quite defensive of what little she had, mostly in terms of food or whomever was providing her that food (which was changing with great regularity). There was little or no constancy to her existence and that has now all changed. She gets two healthy meals per day, which alone has given her back a rich white coat of hair. That food insecurity is hardwired to an extent and while she doesn’t gobble her food quite like she used to several months ago and she takes her treats with less vengeance when she couldn’t quite see them, she still appreciates everything she is given and never leaves a speck of it unconsumed. For a small and still somewhat skinny dog, she is very well fed now and sleeps in a bit in the morning with the assurance that breakfast will come. She gets a bit prancy and anxious at dinner time, but she is also so much more active during the day because she can be, and it is understandable that she consumes more calories for the energy she now expends wandering and even running more outside.

It is interesting to watch Betty outside because her newfound sight allows her to explore the world in a way that she was unable to presumably for a long time or since her early youth. No one would mistake her for being rambunctious, but she does have more wide-eyed curiosity than before and she can now connect all the smells she was used to finding (her sense of smell is naturally very intense) to the physical visage of the objects generating the smell. It reminds one of just how much smells play into a dog’s life in ways that we humans barely utilize unless they are particularly pungent or intimate.

Betty goes on perhaps three long walks a day in addition to occasional outside visits for bathroom breaks. One walk a day is with Colleen, our dog walker, who we have purposefully accustomed her to so we can leave her with Colleen on occasion when we must leave her. Actually, Betty does relatively well left alone for several hours. She is even OK being left in the car if needed since we have a car bed that she has become quite used to. We take Betty on many errands and trips in the car, not that we are taking too many trips these days of stay-at-home existence. Betty is quite happy with us staying at home and is starting to consider it the norm. She is also very easy-going about visitors and even other dogs in the house (so long as no one bothers her too much). She is happy to share her home and does not make it difficult for workmen or cleaning people that happen to be here for one reason or another. I guess that territoriality is not a trait that she ever had the luxury to develop and that she is happy to have her regular caregivers nearby and a small warm spot (or sometimes cool spot) where she can curl up. Her needs are minimal and her expectations are quite low.

Perhaps these days of quarantine have caused me to be more observant of mundane things, but I have taken notice of all of Betty’s actions. She shows her happiness and her pleasure with her new circumstances every day. She is playful and happy in a way that is both noticeable and either new or reclaimed by her. She sleeps calmly curled up (the fetal position more pronounced than perhaps with a more confident animal that did not live with so much risk). In fact, she sleeps the way I see pictures of wild animals like foxes and wolves sleeping, curled up tightly to protect their extremities from whatever might befall them. This is her life now. She sleeps soundly at last. She eats regularly and with healthy consistently good food. She gets treats for good behavior, for abiding with her eye drops or medical attention needed and occasionally for nothing in particular but to please her. She is always pleased by incremental food of most any sort. I have never seen her turn her nose up at anything. She is a model of gratitude each and every day and is happy to show her affection for both Kim and I as the understood font of her good fortune. We can all learn from Betty. As I said, I am happy to get a visit from Betty each morning, if for no other reason than for it to remind me that keeping your expectations low makes life seem much more fulfilling and gives us access to more peace and grace of the sort that Betty now enjoys.