She's getting old.

It is I think five degrees below zero here and the wind gusts are horrible. If you are outside more than 1 minute any part of you that is exposed is frozen. I had the camera and I was holding onto it the entire time and by the time I started heading inside I was worried that I might drop the camera because I was losing the ability to move my fingers very well.

None of the dogs are allowed outside without us, and we make sure to do a dog count after we come inside so we don't leave any outside.

Well, we almost left Ginger outside. We couldn't find her. She wandered off in the snow. She's deaf, so we can't call for her. And she's going blind, and the wind and all the snow.. she didn't know where she was, where she needed to go. We found her wandering through the yard in the 3 foot piles of snow from the wind and my mom had to lead her back inside.

She's not entirely blind yet.. and I think she might be able to hear just a little bit. She seems to be able to hear food rattling in the dog food bags!

She spends the majority of her time just sleeping all day. She doesn't follow people all around anymore, though I think she still follows my mom around. She doesn't seem unhappy,... and besides her deafness and blindness, she's not terribly unhealthy. No arthritis.

Could you have just imagined if we wouldn't have seen that she didn't come in and she froze to death outside?

That experience just kind of shook me up.. the blindness is just one more reminder that she's getting old. Her time is going to be coming to an end. She was our first dog as a family. We got her when I was four years old as a christmas present from a petshop. We could deal with her deafness. We can deal with our other dog's blindness.. but put them together.. and she is going to be an extremely high maintenance dog. She aged fast and just hasn't been the healthiest dog. I've never yet had a dog die on me. And I'm dreading and wishing she didn't have to get so old so fast.

Where are you? It is the worse day ever.
The sheep wont go out and the dogs are playing in it.
I am hiding the old ones in the house they seem slower and more brittle the severe cold it is..

Northwestern corner of Ohio.. only a short drive to the MI border.

I am in Niagara falls so we may be getting the same winter front.
It is 7 degrees here with a high wind chill.
Im waiting for a new lamb to be born and dam im cold.
Heh if you ever go up to the falls pls email come for a visit..

I don't think I'll be heading over there anytime soon, but if I ever do, I sure will!

You post moved me to tears.

No, I can't even bother imagining Ginger being left outside--because she's got you

I'm so glad you found her. I'd definitely keep a closer watch on her. This cold is no good for any dogs to be out too long.

Good thing you noticed she was missing!!!! If one o the boys got stuck outside in this weather....they''d thank me! LOL

Ginger is now walked on a leash whenever taken outside. Today the wind and snow isn't so bad, and the drifts aren't as deep. So we might just let her offleash in our backyard and jsut keep an extremely close eye on her today.

The poor girl is as stubborn as they get and likes her freedom.. she doesn't like being constantly led around. And unlike our other blind dog, she doesn't tend to jsut follow the other dogs and humans but instead go about doing things her OWN way. She might be blind now, but she's still that same stubborn dog!