kickaha | More on Susie...

Thank you all for the well wishes... I thought I'd add an anecdote. :) Susie's eyes had to be removed when she went blind due to glaucoma, and replaced with beautiful hand-painted artificial ones that were just amazingly lifelike. (She had a couple of extras that didn't fit right - she gave them to me, and they ended up in ice cubes in the punch at a Halloween party... she *cackled* when I told her what I'd done with them. Yes, it runs in the family*.) She would orient on you nearly perfectly when you spoke, and her eyes moved like natural ones - to the point that many people had yelled at her over the years for bringing her dog in 'where it wasn't allowed'... not realizing it was a guide dog. A few had even argued with her over whether she was blind, for chrissakes.

When

gingko and I were married, we went out to WA to visit family, and

ginkgo's parents went out for the reception and to see this crazy group of folks I'm related to.

We were all, with the exception of Susie, who was sitting across the room, clustered around a photo album at my grandparent's, when my father-in-law became quite upset, and, thinking we were all being *horribly* rude said in a loud voice, "Don't you think Susie would like to look at these as well??"

Beat.

Beat.

Cue peals of laughter. My father in law was mortified, but Susie thought it was a beautiful compliment.

*We used to pull pranks on Susie, because she would have been pissed off if we treated her any different. I have an uncle who would come up to her guide dog, put his hands over its eyes, and say "Guess who, Susie?". One night at dinner I was cutting pie for dessert, and Susie asked for 'a small piece'. I asked 'how small', she said 'as small as you can make it', so I gave her an empty plate.

It took her a minute to realize why she couldn't find the pie on the plate, and everyone lost it laughing.

A couple nights later I was coming home late after being out with friends (I was living with Susie and my grandparents that year), and was quietly making my way through the house in the dark when I tripped over the furniture that was normally against the wall. From Susie's room in the back I hear "GOTCHA!". Yeah, she could hold her own juuuuuuuust fine in my insane family.