Blue Belton Buck: A Setter with Soul to Spare

Drew and I picked up a very special new foster last night from the shelter. Buck is a 9 year

Buck's pitiful shelter intake photo

old, 

purebred, blue belton English Setter. He is blind. Buck's story is really sad: his owners of nine years surrendered him to the shelter as a euthanasia request because he is no longer able to see. Buck is blind due to advanced cataracts in both eyes; had his owners treated the cataracts, he'd still have his sight. Turning him in to die alone in a shelter - and not even having the decency to take him to the family vet for euthanasia if that's what you've decided on - is beyond my comprehension. You don't just discard a living creature like that, right when he needs you the most. I hope nobody's there for these people when they get old. I'm not sorry.

How do you say no to this?

I saw Buck on the "needs rescue" list and I knew I had to meet him. I visited Buck for the first time last Tuesday. It took all of five minutes for me to totally fall in love with him. When we entered the courtyard, Buck seemed pretty spooked as he bumped into walls, fences, chairs, and even knocked over a broom. He didn't respond to whistling or other "come here" noises, so I tried his name. I'm used to dogs not knowing their names at the shelter, but I forgot Buck lived with someone for nine years and of course knew his name. As soon as I said, "Buck!", he stopped stumbling into things, turned around, walked straight up to me, and rested his head on my knee. His expression said, "That's me! Somebody knows me!". I've done a whole lot of rescue, but this is one of the most poignant moments I've experienced so far. My heart just melted. As if that wasn't enough, when I sat down next to Buck a couple minutes later he backed right up into my lap and sat there happily for the rest of our visit.

Of course, St. Francis Animal Protection Society stepped in once again and saved yet another life. Thanks to them, Buck is home with us. Buck got neutered and had a mass removed from his chin yesterday. When he got home with us. Buck met our dogs, explored the backyard, went up and down all the stairs without any major wipeouts (on-leash, for safety), got cleaned up and tucked in for bed. What a day! He did pretty well in the crate overnight. No barking, just a bit of squeaking and stressing. We can work with that. He'd do just fine sleeping on a dog bed outside of the crate, I'm sure, but we have so many stairs that I want to crate him for safety purposes while we're gone until he gets used to them. Ultimately, he'll be able to have free roam with the rest of the pack. He's such a good boy.

Exploring the backyard

Today he's settling in some more. He's totally housebroken - no surprise since he lived with people for almost ten years. He's a little clingy because he can't see where anyone is, so he'll whimper if I walk away and is still afraid to try and follow me. That will improve as he becomes more confident and gets used to this new environment. I don't expect a blind dog to adapt to all the nooks and crannies of a three level townhome overnight. It's definitely not the easiest place to navigate by scent and sound alone. He's doing quite well, all things considered. Check out this video of him conquering the little concrete steps from the garage to the backyard (he's still reaching, but he didn't miss any!):

Plz lady, can I keeps dis rug?

Buck loves the white shag rug in the living room. He's obsessed with rolling on it and rubbing his face all over it. He pretty much thinks it's the best thing we've got. He's content to lie on the rug by my feet while I'm on the couch. We're anxious to get the biopsy results from the mass he had removed yesterday. I'm hoping to hear something by the end of the week. We'll see. We had it taken off because it kept opening up and bleeding. Hopefully it was just a benign old man growth. I'll let you know when we find out.

I called the eye specialist this morning. Buck is going in next Friday, the 16th, for a consultation. The doctor is going to look at his cataracts and see if there's anything we can do for him. He hasn't been blind for long; he lacks developed navigational and coping skills. I'm not too hopeful that removing the cataracts will be able to reverse his blindness at this point, but we'll see what the vet says. I don't know much about eyes, but I'm looking forward to learning a lot. At the very least, we need to know what he's dealing with and if there's anything we can do to help him. His eyes are a bit red right now, but I'm hoping it's just from stress and not irritation. I'm trying to clean his tear stains, but not much luck so far. I've wanted to foster a blind dog for a while now, so I'm happy to help Buck and learn a lot along the way.

It's going to be a while before Buck is available for adoption, but we are happy to have him. He's a wonderful dog: so sweet, gentle, well-behaved, and of course absolutely beautiful. Check out Buck's Facebook page and stay tuned for pupdates as we move forward: https://www.facebook.com/bluebeltonbuck