Smokey and Charlie the wobbly dogs
Just in case anyone thought there couldn't be any more wobbliness here than there already is, may we introduce … Smokey and Charlie! These two young pups – Charlie is the tan one, Smokey is the dark one – arrived from an Ohio shelter. They are little things – each is about 20 pounds, with small frames and long necks. We think they might be Whippet mixes.
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Images open in a pop-up window
They have cerebellar hypoplasia, the neurological condition that occurs when the momma gets distemper when she's pregnant. The babies are born with underdeveloped cerebellums, which is the part of the brain that controls balance and fine motor skills. Not every baby is affected equally … and some, oddly, not at all. In the litter of six puppies that was turned into the shelter, three were unaffected and one had the condition but was adopted and then, unfortunately, promptly euthanized. The shelter contacted us to see if we could take the two remaining boys.
The day after they arrived we sneaked around to the isolation yard and quietly videotaped them over the fence, while they were lying on their cot together. Once they saw us, they tumbled off the cot to wobble out to greet us. Then we carried them to the grassy area around our welcome center, and after they settled down a bit, we shot some more video. Here's about a minute of the video we put together:
March 2008
