My husband and I lived in Jersey in the Channel Islands for 18 years. We met there and got married there; our children were born there; Pickles (our black cat) and Luna (the Siberian Husky) were born there. We lived in a little 2-bedroom cottage in St Helier for 14 years.
Before Pickles, we rescued an older black-and-white cat called Jellytots. Our children learned how to be gentle and respectful with him; not disturb him when he was sleeping or eating. A couple of years later we got Pickles.
Jellytots died of old age. He was such a gentle soul and is dearly missed by us and Pickles. I’m glad that he got to spend his senior years in our family.
A few years later, we got Luna. Before bringing Luna home, we got her scent on a flannel and marked it around the house for Pickles to get used to. Pickles was not happy initially, and he took a while to accept her. With careful introductions and training, we helped them live harmoniously.
Luna came into our lives in March 2017. She was a curious, mischievous bundle of energy and fun. A beautiful example of a Siberian Husky, with black, grey and white fur, with black fur around her pale blue eyes like eyeliner. Her antics made us laugh and taught us that we may have puppy-proofed the house, but we hadn’t Husky-proofed it!
We found an excellent positive reinforcement dog trainer and discovered how smart Luna was. Luna was a big hit with our trainer, even when she set off the other puppies in the class by singing to them. The training was invaluable and gave us lots of tools to help us build our relationship with Luna and encourage the behaviours that we wanted.
The whole family went to the puppy training classes, so we all learned the cues and were on the same page about communicating with Luna. It was great fun. The whole family would walk together in the evening and on weekends. Our children learned how to interact safely with dogs.
We learned how to turn the training into games. The kids got involved in training games with Luna. The kids even learned how to walk Luna on a loose lead.
We would play hide and seek with Luna at home, the kids would hide, and we would say, ‘Go find xxx’ and Luna would run to find them. We took the games to the woods, the sand dunes, and the beach. The kids were always in the sea, and Luna would be in there with them. We were always out and about as a family with Luna.
We went through the ‘teenage phase’ with Luna; her training seemed to regress, and she made us question our life choices. I contacted our trainer and advised to go back to basics in training and keep going. We did; it was hard work, but we figured out how to motivate Luna to do what we asked. Huskies are not people-pleasers but will cooperate if you find their motivation.
Everyone said that Huskies could never be off-lead, recall was impossible, and were too difficult to train. I didn’t believe it. I had seen an older gentleman around Jersey walking a Husky off-lead; when I asked him, he said lots of consistent daily training. Luna had previously had good recall – until her teenage phase!
When I asked my trainer about recall training, she said that Luna was a dog first and then a Husky; of course, she could be trained. And so began our second training session. Learning strategies and techniques for Luna. I was determined to let Luna live and run – but safely. This is also when I began to learn about dog training and started my dog-walking business. It was so interesting and time-consuming, but it was most definitely worth it.
Luna was with me all day, every day, and would run and play with different dogs every day. Her brother Ralf joined us on our walks, and they had the best time. They would chase each other around and play with the other dogs running and chasing. Luna loved running, chasing and being chased.
We started teaching her left and right, stop and walk on. We were thinking about getting a pulling scooter because Jersey has long stretches of beach, and Luna would love pulling a scooter.
Then, I noticed that Luna started to get a bit lethargic in May 2019 and didn’t like her head being touched anymore. I took her to our vet for a check-up; the vet couldn’t find anything. The weather was hot, and he thought maybe she was feeling the heat. I wasn’t convinced, but I would keep an eye on it.
Then I noticed that her left eye looked odd. The pupil wasn’t working the same as the right eye, so it was another trip to the vet. Apprently, the pupil can do this if the dog bumps its head.
I wasn’t convinced, but I monitored it. A few days later, I noticed her eyeball looked swollen. So, I made an appointment with a different vet at our practice. They checked the eye pressure, and the pressure in her eye was raised. We got eye drops to reduce the pressure in the eye and had to go back in a few days to get it checked.
This started weekly visits (sometimes bi-weekly) to the vet to check her eye pressure and ensure the eye drops worked. Luna was so good during all these visits – and there were many vet visits. She sat there and let them examine her, put drops in her eye, and do pressure checks. She never made a sound or snapped. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a good girl. All the vets who examined her would comment on how good she was. And she saw ALL the vets in the practice.
We continued with the eye drops; at one point, Luna had 3 different eye drops that had to go in her eye 3 and 4 times a day and had to have an hour between drops – it’s a good job that I was flexible with my working hours. I felt so bad for Luna; she didn’t like the drops, and she didn’t have the same zest for play because of the pain that she was in.
My vet was amazing; she was always willing to fit Luna in at a moment’s notice. She also contacted an eye specialist in England to get advice on the best process for Luna. In October 2019, we arranged to take Luna to an eye specialist in England for a thorough eye examination, as there wasn’t an eye specialist in Jersey.
On our travel day, I took Luna for a good walk as I knew she would be in the car for the 4-and-a-half-hour ferry journey, then another couple of hours driving to Hertfordshire. I felt something was wrong; she was playing with a dog and tripping over him. Luna has always been very spacially aware, which was a red flag for me.
I got the ferry from Jersey to England which was daunting, as I had to go to the car deck during the journey to put drops in Luna’s eye. Plus, I had never driven from Poole to Hertfordshire on my own with Luna before. But it was okay; Luna did really well on the ferry, and the staff were great about letting me down to the car deck to give her the eye drops. The drive wasn’t too bad, and I stopped a couple of times to let Luna stretch her legs.
I booked us into a hotel close to the eye specialist. The following day I took Luna for a walk before her appointment. The eye specialist was a lovely man and examined Luna’s eyes. The pressure in her left eye had caused the lens to detach, and she was blind in her left eye already. This explained her tripping over her doggy friend!
He confirmed that she had primary glaucoma; it was genetic. Her left eye had to be removed as the pressure in the eyeball was causing her so much pain. He explained that pressure above 25 was like experiencing a severe migraine – the pressure in her eye was above 60. Bless her; she was in excruciating pain but was still such a good girl. She allowed him to check both eyes.
He also warned me that within a couple of years, her other eye would need to be removed. The eye drops simply treated the eye until it had to be removed. I was devastated. I left her at the clinic to have her eye removed. I cried on the way back to the hotel, and I cried to my family over the phone, telling them the sad news.
We honestly thought that within a few years, our fun, playful girl would have to stay on the lead for the rest of her life and wouldn’t be able to run or play anymore. We were devastated; she was so young, not even 3 years old yet. We worried that this may cause her to lose confidence and become reactive.
I decided to do some research on dogs becoming blind. I was still worried, but I had some hope. I had already started teaching Luna directional cues, so it was time to embed that training. I read about training blind dogs and how to help them adjust to being blind. It felt overwhelming at first, but I felt a bit better having a plan or an outline of a plan.
I collected Luna from the clinic and had a chat with the specialist. He was so kind, and gave me lots of advice and drops for her right eye to start using the moment it began to change. My heart broke a little when I saw Luna in her cone, with her left eye area shaved and missing an eye. As soon as I spoke, she rushed to me, and I sat for a bit, petting her.
I knew that I had to suck it up and act normally for Luna, our dogs so easily pick up our emotions, and I didn’t want to transfer my upset or worry to her. She was going through enough. So I put on my happy voice and took her for a walk to let her toilet before our drive to Poole for the ferry. Luckily, she was still quite drowsy from the anaesthetic and slept most of the way.
I had a hotel booked near the harbour in Poole for our ferry journey the next day. Luna had come around a bit more from the operation and was very insecure and clingy. It was totally understandable; she needed time and comfort to adjust. I booked in and took our things to the room, let Luna sniff around the room, and then took her out for a stroll.
Within half an hour, Luna perked up and started to be curious about our surroundings. I gently chatted with her the entire time – people must have thought I was mad, but I didn’t care; I wanted her to relax and enjoy the evening stroll.
That evening, I got an email from the ferry company saying that the stormy weather in the English Channel had cancelled our ferry. I had to get another night at the hotel and try to get on the next ferry home.
I spotted what looked like a lovely wooded walk around the harbour next to our hotel from our hotel bedroom. I decided to take Luna for a bit of exploration the following day.
To my surprise, Luna wanted to say hello to the other dogs we encountered. I was so happy that she was being her usual self! I couldn’t let her off to play with them; she had stitches and a cone on. But it was reassuring that she wanted to play; it meant she felt better. It meant she wasn’t in as much pain.
The stormy weather continued in the Channel for a few days, so our stay in Poole was extended. Luna got to know the staff in the hotel, who all adored her and made a fuss of her! Luna also got to know some dogs along the wooded walk next to our hotel. Many people wanted to know what had happened to her eye and commented on how well she was adjusting.
We finally got home, and we were both relieved to be back. I think this is when Pickles really warmed up to Luna. He curled up beside her on the sofa, and they napped together. Their relationship has gone from strength to strength.
Back home, it was time to step up the training for Luna. I started giving directional cues as we were doing things. When she was walking upstairs, I would say ‘Up Step’; when she was walking downstairs, I would say ‘Down Step’. When she was about to jump into the car, I would tap my fingers on the ledge of the boot; when she was about to jump out of the car, I would tap my foot on the ground.
When we were out for a walk, if we were turning left, I would say ‘Left left’, and if we were turning right, I would say ‘Right Right’. I decided to use the word twice for left and right because these are words that you would also use in a conversation, and I didn’t want to confuse Luna. It also got us into giving vocal directional cues while walking her. We needed to get into the habit, too.
Luna adapted well; she adjusted to the change in her depth perception; in no time, she ran around and played with her friends again as if nothing had happened. It was back to our usual routine of walking with our doggy friends every day. It was going well, then Covid-19 hit.
2021 was a big year for us as a family. We discovered that our landlord needed us to move out of the cottage we’d lived in for 14 years. When we looked for other accommodations, we found that properties that allowed children and pets were well outside our price range.
We discussed it as a family, and none of us wanted to give up Luna or Pickles; they were part of the family. So, at the beginning of October 2021, we decided to leave Jersey. The girls were nervous about changing schools and leaving their friends but also looking forward to moving to the mainland. We gave them the choice of England or Scotland (I’m Scottish, and my husband is English). The girls chose Scotland, so we started to make arrangements.
Around the same time as the accommodation crisis, Luna’s eye started changing, and the drops were not helping. In fact one of the drops caused an ulcer to form on her eye, damaging it further. At the end of October 2021, Luna’s eye had to be removed; she was in too much pain.
As much as it upset us that Luna had to have her eye removed, it was worse seeing her in so much pain. We felt a little easier about it as we had been doing so much training with her. Plus, I had been speaking with a lovely lady with a blind Jack Russell (Rambo – so sweet), and he was living his best life. She gave me so much valuable and excellent advice. We had hope.
Our vet knew what needed to be done for Luna, so I didn’t have to take her to the mainland for the surgery. Which reduced the pressure as we had started clearing out and packing things for the move to the mainland.
I will never forget picking Luna up from the vet after her surgery. The vet led her to me, and she moved to my side as soon as she heard my voice. The vet walked us out to the car to help. I was giving Luna directional cues all the way, and when I opened the boot of the car, I tapped the lip of the boot, and Luna jumped in. The vet looked amazed and said, ‘Yes, I think you’ll be fine’.
Our home was chaotic, with boxes everywhere. I was worried about how this would affect Luna being blind. We took our time and let Luna adjust, and gave her directions around obstacles. We stuck to our usual walking routine and only went on routes she knew well. Surprisingly, she coped really well and, in no time, wanted to go off lead to run and play!
We left Jersey in December 2021. The plan was to stay with family in England for a few weeks and then move to Scotland. We stuck to Luna’s routine as much as possible, and she continued to amaze us with how well she adapted to her new reality. Consistent routine really helped Luna feel secure, and treating her the same as we always did helped her maintain her confidence.
Luna made some doggy friends on our local walk in England. Everyone was astounded by how confident and friendly she was and that she could still run around off lead and play with other dogs.
After sorting accommodation in Scotland, we scouted out some new walking routes. Luna has made lovely doggy friends here in Scotland, with beautiful, safe places to run and play.
Pickles is also enjoying our lovely countryside and has made some kitty friends of his own! Pickles has a best friend, Monty, another black cat who lives next to us. They sit in the garden together, judging everyone and being fed treats like the kings that they are.
During a lovely walk one day, someone mentioned that it was good that we didn’t put Luna to sleep because she is such a happy dog. Hand on heart, this had never entered my head. Apart from her eyes, Luna is perfectly healthy. I was shocked. It must have shown on my face because she then said that she knew someone who had their dog put to sleep because it went blind.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only person who had said something like this to me. That’s when I decided to push PawsRPals on Facebook and write articles to show that blind dogs (any disability really) can still live a full and happy life. And how necessary training is for our dogs and cats, and that behaviours result from an unmet need, which can be addressed kindly and safely.
Luna’s resilience and zest for life have inspired us. She doesn’t let her blindness stop her from thoroughly enjoying every day. It hasn’t dulled her curiosity and need for friendship. Luna is always happy to go and explore new places with us; her blindness hasn’t cost Luna her confidence.
I am so glad we gave her the time and training to adjust to her new reality. If we can do this, anyone can. Never give up hope; you can overcome most things in life with patience, consistency and kindness.
Our move from Jersey to Scotland initially seemed daunting and scary, but our whole family has settled well here, and we don’t regret the move. We all seem to be thriving.
Pickles and Luna’s relationship has gone from strength to strength. Our environment means that Pickles has the confidence to join Luna on her morning walks when he feels like it. This has probably been the most heartwarming thing to witness. We love it; it’s just the sweetest to watch.
