Oakley Update...Miracle on Cedar Creek June 1, 2010 - Page 2

What a great story and there are good BYB (hobby breeders doing a good job) and scummy BYB. 

Annie Oakley is very well put together.  Obviously, she was born with absolutely proper German Shepherd temprament. 

What a great story.

Pharaoh says that "Annie is hot!".

Michele

I can't wait either.  It's going to be wonderful to meet some of the people I've been chatting with for so long.  I just hope I can scrape together a couple hundred dollars for the gas, round trip. 

Still, I'm very proud of Oakley.  I guess I figured that being blind, she might not really be a defensive dog, so when she showed that Friday night, it surprised me.  My last GSD, Prince, was a coward through and through, and though we were never threatened in any way, he wouldn't fight to protect even himself.  He would tuck tail and run.  So to have a GSD with a more normal temperament is somewhat new to me, and I'm enjoying watching her grow, and mature. 

Crys

Michele,

Tell Pharoah that she appreciates his compliments!  If she could see him she'd think he was hot, too!  I think he's a looker, myself!

You know, I think back to the two times when she was younger where she panicked and freaked out, yelping and carrying on, and wonder just what that was about.  Once was near a cat, and the other time was near a basketball. Neither bother her at all, besides those times...She even cornered our old cat on the porch, and upon trying to sniff it, got popped on the nose for her trouble.  Her response?  SHe promptly dropped into a down, and looked in my direction like, "Hey, it hit me."

She didn't attack the cat, and was very shocked when it suddenly wasn't there when she tried to sniff for it again.  ANd the balls, she now plows over the top of, doesn't even stop to check them out.  I've seen no fear like that in months, so I think it was a fluke.

What a dog!

Crys

Crys, she is one special dog! Give her a kiss on the nose for me.
Always,
Cee

Thanks for the update on Oakley, Crys.  Man, you can be proud of her.  Everytime I read about her, it just makes me feel good. 

Thanks for the kind words, Cee and Luvdemdogs...

Oakley is very special to me, and I am so glad she is here.  She's taught me a lot...Although we had a blind dog before, he was a crazy standard poodle, and was nervy.   To have a blind dog that climbs, jumps, runs full out, all without fear, goes into new places like she's been there a million times, and is always ready to go with me somewhere, taught me a lot about overcoming what seems like insurmountable issues.

I wish I were her, sometimes.  She's not afraid, just does what comes naturally.

Crys

She is an awesome dog and you are doing a great job with her.  That is a great story and I would definitely trust her instincts.

Jim 

Thanks, Jim.

That means a lot, coming from you, and I really mean that. 

The odd thing about the guy that was following me down the road is that he wasn't using any lights at all.  He was wearing a reflective vest, and a light gray hooded sweatshirt, but most everybody out walking at night carries a flashlight or a headlamp, such as the LED one I wear.  It's DARK until you get into the city limits, so it just struck me as strange., Though to be perfectly honest, no one thing struck me as weird about the guy, beyond the absence of a light  Oakley sure didn't care for him following us like he did, but other people we passed, both in town and outside of it, didn't bother her.  She knew something I couldn't, apparently, though I did notice that he kept glancing over at us while he walked past.  I think he was nervous about the dog.  Of course, I have no way of knowing what he was really thinking.

The GSD is truly an amazing dog, and Oakley is no exception to that rule.

Crys

Okay...Here are some pics of Oakley trotting beside me when we jogged part of the way on our five mile jaunt the night before last.  It will give a better idea of her structure, seeing pics of her in motion, rather than standing.  They could be better, but since I am the only one who takes pics, and I was on the other end of the leash, I can't be as picky as I'd like to be.



When we started our walk, we were actually jogging, but because my gait is not as effortless as hers, soon we were down to walking, above.



Aside from the odd reflections from her eyes, I thought these pictures turned out pretty well, considering that I couldn't not see her through the camera, until the flash went off.  So some of these have ears trimmed off or other parts, but hey, I don't get the option to do the long walk every night, or earlier in the day, so I take what I can get.  This particular night, it was snowing and raining at the same time.  Can you tell she is blind from these pictures?



The odd white blobs to be seen here and there are snowflakes...Snowslushballs, is more like it!  No ghosts or any other weird phenomenon.



Yes, I know, snowflakes don't fall up, but hey, the camera was going down when the pic was snapped, so the snow was going up.



In this last one, you can see the way she carries her left ear...It's leaning toward the right one, almost in front of it, because she's alert to something.  I doubt very much that it will ever stand straight, but I'm not that incredibly worried about it.



So there we have it...I finally got the photos posted, a bit late, but here they are. :-)

Crys