Are there are times when you look at your pet and think “I wish I could sail through life like you, living in the present and exuding joy at the simplest of things?”
Well, I’d been having that with Ebony… until those semi-serious feelings of envy were tempered by sadness when a trip to the vet last week uncovered a heart tumour.
I can’t recall introducing Ebony to you all, so here is the story of her short time with me: she was a 13-and-a-half-year-old Peke (sorry), and she was was adorable. She had the confidence of a girl treated like a princess for her entire life, and she expected no less from me.
Her previous owner passed away and she came into my life almost a year ago – but it wasn’t all plain sailing…
Difficult decisions
Ebony arrived with only one eye. That eye was huge and protruding, and sometimes looked like it had prolapsed. As a flat-faced breed this “normal” feature meant she couldn’t close her eyelids fully.
I organised for surgery to help her close her eyelids and decided, also, to remove the nose roll that was poking hair into the eye. While this may seem a lot, I really wanted to give her the best chance for her one remaining eye and, hopefully, save her sight.
Sadly, this was not to be, and over the summer her eye deteriorated. She lost most of her sight in it, and then it became too painful for her to bear, so I made the difficult decision to have it removed.
This decision was really hard to make, but I spent a good deal of time researching blind dogs and ways to help her cope. Her surgery took place in November, following which I had a totally blind dog. Not surprisingly, I was very worried about how we would both cope.
Blind acceptance
I can report that, of the two of us, Ebony coped far better than me. She walked off-lead on the beach every day and had an air of supreme confidence in all things.
I pushed her to the beach in her buggy, and she always stood up at the front to survey her kingdom and meet the many people who wanted to stop and admire how gorgeous she was.
If I could have 10% of her self-belief and conviction for enjoying life then I would be an amazing human being. Every day Ebony gave me a reminder to face life head on and enjoy the moment.
She was a true advocate of living in the present – whether she could see it or not.
RIP
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