through the eyes of Chaos...

I've often wondered what Chaos and Mayhem see and how they think about it. Today, I got a glimpse of Chaos's point of view. I wish I could say it was enlightening but honestly it terrifies me.

In 2007 on a routine visit to the vet, Dr Taylor told us about Chaos's juvenile cataracts. We've kept an eye on them and watched them slowly grow over the years. Today, I took the boys on a walk on the Narrow Gauge trail today during low light and some soft falling snow.

The trails were soft and we followed a snowshoe trail along the river. The boys took full advantage of the leash free escapade and played hard. I'm pretty sure Mayhem even tried to climb a tree...

but he could have just gotten a little too much into sniffing it. Chaos had a nice break and ate some snow...

his brother joined him and it became a big rolling party...

We crossed a small foot bridge and Chaos struggled. This isn't a new path for us, this fall he zoomed over the little bridge and chased Mayhem. It appeared that he wasn't sure of his footing. This bridge crosses a small stream; it isn't high off the ground and the slats are less then an inch apart.  We emerged from the woods and Mayhem zoomed across the large bridge that crosses the Carrabassett River. I followed but stopped when I realized Chaos was still on the other side of the river. The bridge that crosses the Carrabassett River has a few slits in it where the snow has melted and created an optical illusion that stopped Chaos in his tracks. I went to the middle of the bridge and called him over. He started across then hesitated... it became clear to me that my pup was struggling to see. I walked to him and guided him back to the car with the realization that his life as we know it has changed.

We've joked about Mayhem becoming Chaos's seeing eye dog... we just didn't think it would happen so soon after Chaos's 7th birthday.