Sid - my new blind buddy.

[PrincessPeach]

So after a trip to a vet and a speedy recovery, we have come to realize that our cute little looking backwards kind of buggeyed buddy can only see shapes and shadows out of one eye and he has absolutely no depth perception. He is actually about 10 weeks old not 8 like I'd guessed from his size. He only looked so small because of how dehydrated and malnourished he was. After about three days with the bottle we moved onto solid foods and refuse our bottle now. We drink water from a tiny dish and eat our food from its tiny match. We won't jump from one place to another. He's being quarantines to his new parents or whatever pice of furniture they are on. We did let him down one evening which resulted in the horrifying experience of running full speed leaning to the left into walls and furniture. This is where my problem lies. I want him to have as free of a life as possible. How should I facilitate this. He will not make it in the wild being this blind but he will want to be a wild squirrel. How can I keep him safe and let him live his life? Any suggestions or ideas? At first I thought a tiny helmet would keep his little brain safe but I highly doubt he'd appreciate that. My sister gave me the idea of a harness with a bumper guard which I will try but I'm worried he will either remove it or it may get caught on something. What do you think? I'd hate to have to pad every surface he could bonk on in and out of my house....

On a fun side note, Sid and our blue heeler Spot have become good buddy's! Spot being our largest animal now low grumble growls at the cats and other dogs if they get to close to the new baby and he allows Sid to touch him which he usually doesn't allow with any of the other animals. Our momma chihuahua thinks he's her puppy and started licking his bum to stimulate him even though he doesn't need it anymore. I am happy that the dogs are doing so well. The cats are confused but being kept at bay by fake grooming by my husband and I. We pretend to groom Sid so they are starting to think he's a new kitten. It's a slower process but so far we have been doing very well. I think in a couple more weeks Sid will be fully integrated with everyone and they will all keep him safe like we do. I'm glad we found him and that we can care for him. I just wish I could think of a good way to keep his head safe when he's exploring. Thank you all for your advice when we found him. I was so worried.

[Chirps]

Awwww, he's precious! I'd be super leery of the other animals around him, especially a blue heeler, but then there are a zillion stories out there of amazing interspecies relationships, so maybe this is one in the making.

As for him zooming around into things, that's a tough one. If it was me I'd start with maybe a small area that you can pad all around, so he can learn the "boundaries" without banging his head, then maybe expand it a bit and let him get used to the new area? If it's too hard to protect a large area, maybe just as big as you can manage and see if it's enough to give him the exercise/run time he needs without putting him in danger of injury.

Maybe he'll learn in time that he can't just go careening all over the place, and you will just have to protect him while his young exuberant self is figuring that out. Maybe Spot will become his seeing eye dog. A goat became a guide for an old blind horse buddy, so it could happen. I'm just worried about the predator caring for the prey animal though.

[PrincessPeach]

Awwww, he's precious! I'd be super leery of the other animals around him, especially a blue heeler, but then there are a zillion stories out there of amazing interspecies relationships, so maybe this is one in the making.

As for him zooming around into things, that's a tough one. If it was me I'd start with maybe a small area that you can pad all around, so he can learn the "boundaries" without banging his head, then maybe expand it a bit and let him get used to the new area? If it's too hard to protect a large area, maybe just as big as you can manage and see if it's enough to give him the exercise/run time he needs without putting him in danger of injury.

Maybe he'll learn in time that he can't just go careening all over the place, and you will just have to protect him while his young exuberant self is figuring that out. Maybe Spot will become his seeing eye dog. A goat became a guide for an old blind horse buddy, so it could happen. I'm just worried about the predator caring for the prey animal though.

I completely understand your worry. He isn't allowed unsupervised visits with any of the other animals. We always have two of us on guard duty with Sid when he is awake. We don't leave him by himself at all either except when we sleep and he goes into an enclosure then. For his safety not s ok we can pen him up. The padded pen is a wonderful idea. So far I've been forcing him to stay on whatever furniture he is on when he's up. Mostly the couch occasionally the bed. We were very worried about having a house full of predators too but so far it's working out. I hope Spot does seeing eyedog for him today he lifted him onto his nose and was very happy that Sid was on his face. It was quite cute. He seems to really like Sid which I wasn't expecting. We went through the same integration process with the kittens. We took 5 newborns in and had to bottle feed and do the stimulating thing for them. It took a lot longer with the kittens for Spot than it has with the squirrel. I'm attributing it to having already gone through the process before. Heelers are very very smart dogs so I imagine he has a pretty good understanding of a new boy now. Atleast that's how it seems. Momma dog has had puppies and kittens she's cared for already too so she's all about new babies in the house. It's quite an interesting experience to say the least lol.

I love your padded playpen idea. I could get one of those outdoor puppy pens and pad it for him and give him some nature to climb on inside of it. That is quite brilliant! Thank you!

[Buddy]

He is adorable! :blowkiss And yes, padded playpen sounds like a great starting point! :w00t