Cookie the blind dog
Cookie
came to us from a court case in eastern Montana. This blind
Springer Spaniel belonged to an elderly man and a family member
who were “animal hoarders.” This was their second
judicial proceeding in two years.
They had collected more than 50 dogs since a court ordered them to relinquish all but two animals in the earlier case. This time, one of the charges was animal cruelty. Again a judge ordered them to surrender their animals.
Cookie arrived at our vet clinic in Helena in good body condition but with one of the worst cases of dental disease our vets had ever seen. She had not been spayed, and it was clear she had delivered many litters of puppies over the years.
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When the defendants in the case surrendered their animals, 25 of them turned out to be puppies. Sadly, the authorities had a local vet euthanize 23 of the puppies. How many of those were Cookie's we'll never know.
But after an extensive dental, a spay and vaccinations, Cookie finally arrived at the sanctuary. We found ourselves face to face with a very sweet girl who thinks the secret to success in life as a blind dog is. .. wiggling.
Her motto seems to be ‘”Wiggle early, wiggle often, and good things will happen.”
In fact, her whole body seems to be a wiggling mass of Springer Spaniel, from the tip of her nose to her short little tail. We call her Mrs. Wiggles.
If the wiggling doesn't get the desired result, Cookie proceeds to Step Two: She rolls over on her back to get her tummy scratched. “Surely they can't resist this!,” she seems to say.
Her favorite part of the day is, of course, mealtime. Oh, boy! First she does her wiggling thing standing up. Then she drops her rump to the floor, pulls her front paws towards her, and sits staring intently at the floor. (You can see this in one of the photos above.)
Head down, tense with anticipation, she just knows her dish is going to arrive any second. You can tell she's coiled like a. .. well, like a Springer.
Cookie can't see a thing, but she sure can tell her life has suddenly turned around. Or, as she might put it, “I think I'm really a fortunate Cookie!”
