We took Penn_E to the vet today. She’s reached a milestone, essentially completely blind. She’s a happy, spoiled dog and so it’s difficult to believe or accept that she can hardly see. When she’s on familiar ground you might not notice. She bounced down stairs and jumped curbs flawlessly on the short walk to the vet’s office. She negotiates up-steps by lightly touching each with her nose then extending a paw up to the next one before she jumps. We don’t know how she manages down-steps or knows when to jump at a curb.
Our vet’s name is Haggai. He cures exotic animals for free and we understand he owns two mules. (Is there a need to say more?) In his office during our visit were a wounded pigeon, the off-duty Israeli soldier who had brought the bird to Haggai’s office, and the soldier’s mother. We talked. Mom made Aliyah about thirty-five years ago and married an Israeli. Her five children including her youngest son, the soldier, were born here. They spoke excellent English and their Hebrew sounded flawless. After the small-talk we moved on to local politics.
