Diane and Tabitha

                              
                                                                     Tabitha

                                
                                                                     Phyllis

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Living With a Blind Animal & What You Need To Know

Just as with a deaf animal there needs to be a level of protection for the animal. Instead of startling from not being able to hear you, they startle from not being able to see you. So talking to them before touching them is very important. Always try to touch them in the same place just as you would for a deaf animal. Constant and consistant daily interaction with them is very important. It helps them to feel safe and gives them confidence because they have a life that they can trust and predict to some degree. Try to keep your home furishings in the same place so they can become familar with how things are arranged. They, like people will count steps and figure distances to objects in their living environment. Should things get changed, give them time to adapt and show them where things have been moved.

Many times another animal in your household will become the eyes for them and form a very close bond and friendship. It is a very special relationship to see.

Blind cats should never be allowed outside unless supervised and on a leash, so they are always protected from dangers they cannot see by their human caretakers. Dogs should never been let off a leash unless in a secure fenced area. I would recommend not taking them to a doggie play yard because they usually do not understand the other dogs there and this can be extemely frightening for them. Remember we have to be there eyes.

These very special animals will fill your life with so much joy. When we can reach out to these special animals and give them a place in our home andheart we grow in wonderful ways that will make us a better person, one that is more compassionate, giving, caring and loving to all animals that live here on mother earth.
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Helen Keller (1880-1968)
http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?sectionid=1
  
                    Encouraging Voices 
   "When I review my life, it seems to me that my
    most precious obligations are to  those  whom
    I have never seen. My  dearest  intimacies  are
    those of the mind; my  most  loyal  and helpful
    friends are those of the spirit.
    As I  wander  through  the  dark,  encountering
    difficulties, I  am  aware  of encouraging voices
    that murmur from  the  spirit  realm.  I  sense a
    holy passion pouring down from the  springs of 
    infinity. I  thrill  to  music  that  beats  with  the 
    pulses of God. 
    Bound to  suns  and  planets by invisible cords,
    I feel the flame of  eternity  in my soul. Here, in
    the midst of everday air,  I  sense  the  rush  of
    ethereal rains. I am conscious of  the  splendor
    that binds all things of  the  earth  to  all  things
    of heaven. Immured  by  silence  and  darkness,
    I possess the  light  that  will  give  me  vision a
    thousandfold--when death sets me free".
    
   Written by Helen Keller    
  


                   
                    Helen and her three dogs, Sieglinde, Darky & Ben Sith-1933