Padiddle

As you can see by the following picture, and as I've mentioned a few times in this blog, G was born with one blue and one brown eye. I call her a Padiddle, a term I assume most people know, but in case you don't, the Wikipedia explanation is here.

G's unique eye coloring was one of the reasons she initially caught my attention (even though, let's be honest, I would have brought her home had she had bright purple irises), but it may have been one of the reasons I couldn't always catch hers...

G and I used to go to Central Park in the morning frequently when I lived in Midtown because it was so convenient. We would usually go with her sister L and L's gaggle of "goggie brothers" (a Border Collie, and two Karelian Bear Dogs). The pups would all ram around, having the time of their lives.

Because we could off-leash in the mornings, I had to be certain G would always come back to me if I she was too far away or in danger. She was (usually) great at returning to me when I called, as long as she could spot me. Interestingly, when she was a ways away from me and I would recall her, she typically would look around furiously, seemingly confused as to where my voice was coming from. Usually, when I would finally wave my hands in the air, G would see me and come tearing back over.

As I might have mentioned, G's sister L's "mom" is a veterinarian. After she noticed several instances of G's recall confusion, she suggested I have G tested for deafness in her right ear (the same ear as the blue eye). I immediately took G to the vet and, lo and behold, my little padiddle was completely deaf on her right side.

I was so surprised!

I had seen white boxers with blue eyes before and vaguely recalled that they were sometimes deaf, but I didn't realize that this was also a relatively common pittie (or possibly general dog) trait as well. As I also learned after the diagnosis, pitties need pigment in their ears to hear. Usually when the pigment in the eye is missing (ie G's ice blue sparkler), the pigment in the ear may be missing as well.

And before I have you guessing that every white-headed, blue-eyed pup you encounter is deaf, I should say I've known several dogs with this albino-like trait who can hear (and see) perfectly well!