We adopted Ozzie from our local Humane Society (Humane Society of the Palouse) in March of 1996. Ozzie, a cocker spaniel/golden retriever mix, didn't have birth records, so we gave him a birthday of June 1, 1995. He is named after the St Louis Cardinals shortstop, Ozzie Smith. Our dog's favorite activities are chasing squirrels, going for walks, riding in the back seat of the car, and being petted. He has quite the vocabulary; not only can he recognize many words, he has learned to s-p-e-l-l.

Background, week of Friday, August 25, 2006
A happy dog, Ozzie's tail is almost always wagging. We had a hot summer in 2006 and noticed in mid-August that he seemed to be panting more and he had gained some weight. We attributed the panting to the heat and decided if his panting didn't stop, we would take him to our veterinarian. But on Saturday, August 26, 2006, I took him for our usual afternoon walk, and Ozzie walked into a nearby parked car. He looked back at me like something was wrong, but I assumed he was being his usual absentminded and just wasn't paying attention to where he was going. That evening we noticed Ozzie was blind, he could not see; he sat in the kitchen lost as to what was going on. He would look where he thought we were, but we weren't there, and his eyes were blank.

We called our local veterinarian at her home Saturday evening and told her Ozzie lost his eyesight. The week of August 25th continues on the Week of August 25th Blog