Poor Lily, she’s seven years old and physically healthy, except for her eyes. Two weeks ago, she lost her second eye because of glaucoma. She still wears a “lampshade” so she can’t scratch at the stitches from her surgery. The lampshade also keeps Lily from banging her head into walls and furniture as she tries to navigate around her home.

I spent three days at Lily’s house, as a guest, and it was pretty amazing to watch Lily cope with her new situation.

As you would expect, Lily bangs into things – walls and furniture. But she doesn’t get discouraged. She manages to work her way around the obstacle. What gives Lily “direction” is usually the sound of a human voice. Wanting to be with people, she follows the sound of voices until she reaches the same room. Then she waits until she can feel soft carpeting under her doggie paws and then she curls up on the floor, enjoying the respite from walls and furniture.

Just in the time I visited with Lily, she learned to follow the path from her owner’s garden back to her home. It’s a well defined dirt road, and Lily has already learned, by the feel of the path, to find her way from the garden to the house.

In a loving partnership between owner and dog, Lily has learned to follow her owners’ (my sister, Eleanor and her husband, Ignatius) voices, as they steer her along an uncluttered path to get where she wants to go.

We have this ongoing debate about “How smart are dogs?” If you read this blog, you know I am on the side of “smarter than most people think.” This story about Lily probably isn’t about “smart.” It’s more about courageous and resourceful. Regardless of how smart you think dogs are, you can’t deny that they can be incredibly brave and clever.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 7:19 am and is filed under Appreciation, Dog Bonding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.