There’s bubble wrap in just about every downstairs room at Karl and Terry Wiegelman’s house, but they aren’t moving. Or enthusiastic fans of loud noises. Instead it’s one of the precautions necessary in their current role as “seeing-eye people,” as Karl described it.
A fly on the wall in the Wiegelman home on any given evening would likely see a pair of dogs playing together, or chomping on dog bones, or snuggling with their owners. Either of them might briefly wander into the kitchen for a slurp from their water bowl, only to rejoin the family with tail wagging minutes later. For one of them, though, that simple act is a much more challenging task – and impressive feat.
Boe, the 8-year-old yellow lab the Wiegelmans are fostering from the SPCA in Concord, is blind. His cataracts are so advanced that a veterinarian couldn’t even see through to examine the retinas at a recent appointment. But he has adapted to his situation in remarkable ways, learning to guide himself around the house – with the cushioning help of the bubble wrap on corners and doorways – and even up the stairs at night to sleep at the foot of the Wiegelman’s bed.
“There is always that thought (in some people’s minds) – he’s blind, who is going to want to put that time in?” Karl said. “But it’s incredibly rewarding.”
It was Terry’s refusal to lose sight of what’s important to her through a challenging time that led to the first meeting with Boe. She had lost her job after 18 years and began volunteering at the SPCA after discovering three stray kittens near the Blue Seal building in Concord. Her first night on the job was her birthday, Christmas Eve, and a little more than a week later Boe was dropped off at the shelter.
His blindness is something of a mystery, as there were no vet records for the previous five years, but no mention of vision problems before that.
“I lost my job in October, and I started volunteering on Christmas Eve, because I wanted to do something that made me feel good,” Terry said. “I had only been there about a week when Boe came in, and I felt like even though they were doing the best they could, I thought maybe he’d be better off in a foster situation.”
The shelter did present challenges for Boe, who struggled to adapt to a foreign environment with so many other dogs and different people handling him on a daily basis. He was panting and drooling constantly and was generally “stressed out,” Terry said. The first few nights with the Wiegelmans were also challenging, as he remained anxious and drank bowls and bowls of water.
To ease his transition – and to discover how best to assimilate him – Terry spent the first five or six nights sleeping in the basement with Boe. Another concern for the Wiegelmans was introducing Boe to their current dog, Morgan, a 4-year-old fox red lab who can be cautious around new people and animals.
The dogs were first introduced at the shelter, and later outside the Wiegelman home, before sharing space inside, but the transition went smoother than Karl or Terry expected. The growth has continued in the month since Boe’s arrival, including their first play interaction a little more than a week ago. Boe still has a tendency to accidentally step on Morgan’s paws and tail on occasion, eliciting a few warning growls, but otherwise there have been no troubling incidents.
“One night he just started chewing on a bone, and from that point on it was like he was saying, ‘Okay, I’m okay,’” Karl said.
Karl and Terry walked Boe on a leash along the paths he would most often need to follow during his first week in the house, getting him used to the pattern, and he can now perform most every task he needs to on his own. They lined the walls and the corners of tables and doorways with bubble wrap to keep him from injuring himself, but he uses the walls as a means of guidance, brushing up against one side and then the other as he works his way down a narrow hallway.
He can also locate and navigate the stairs by himself, following along a wall until he hits a doorway, walking along a carpet runner until it ends and he feels his feet on the hardwood floor, and then taking two steps backward and proceeding up.
Boe is extremely affectionate and loves to spend time with people, and will wake up three or four times a night to walk along the side of the Wiegelman’s bed and brush up against one of them, just to make sure they are still there.
Though he can maneuver through the house unsupervised – Terry has gone back to full-time work, and Boe has managed just fine, she said – there are still precautions that need to be taken. Because he’s blind, he doesn’t blink, so he has to be supervised at all times when outside so he doesn’t wander into the woods where stray sticks or branches could poke his eyes. He is fed separately from Morgan, and Karl and Terry put a baby gate at the bedroom door during the night to keep him safe.
Though there have been few issues, there have been a handful of humorous incidents, including the time Boe got his head stuck in the cat door while nobody was home and backed out quickly, ripping the door free until he was wearing it like a collar. Karl also returned home one day to find Boe unwinding the toiler paper in the downstairs bathroom and eating it as it unraveled, satisfying a paper craving that also led to him consuming a notebook full of workouts Karl had kept in the basement.
Otherwise, though, Boe leads a largely normal life, and is slowly becoming a member of the Wiegelman family. He has made himself at home, and loves spending time with Karl and Terry in the living room, or completing his half-hour ritual of playing with Karl before bedtime each night. They are fostering him with the option to adopt, though the SPCA told them to take their time deciding, and Terry said it may be a few more months before a final decision is made, based largely on the development of Boe’s relationship with Morgan. Call it the wait-and-see approach.
Either way, though, he’s already found a place in Terry and Karl’s hearts.
“It’s very rewarding, with or without his handicap, especially with the uncertainty with Morgan (being able to adapt),” Terry said. “We didn’t even think of having another dog in the house until we saw him. For us, it was something we didn’t anticipate would even be possible. So it’s very rewarding.”
