White Rocks / Thundering Brook Falls

A Week in Rutland, Vermont, Pre- and Post-Surgery | Hiking in White Rocks National Recreation Area | Hiking to Thundering Brook Falls | April 2023

Our week in Rutland is broken into 3 parts in my mind: The 2 days before Charlotte’s surgery, the day of surgery, and the 3 days after. And while it was a difficult week with high emotions and lots of learning and adjustments, we made it through and even ended up making some good memories that left us hopeful for our future with our blind puppy.

The pre-surgery days were the harder ones for all of us. Overall Charlotte didn’t seem interested in doing anything but sleeping, and it took a lot of convincing to even get her up to go to the bathroom outside. We only went on one “outing” each day, taking advantage of the times when she actually would get up. On the first day, we were a little ambitious and drove down to White Rocks National Recreation Area. We had chosen the easiest trail in that area, and just wanted to see how far Charlotte could go. The trail we picked out was the Ice Beds trail, but because the roads were still closed for winter, we had to park in a pull off and road walk a ways to the trailhead. Honestly that part was the easiest though, because we were able to lead Charlotte to a rut in the snow and she was able to follow that pretty much the entire way up.

The actual trail was the challenging part, and we honestly should have just been content with the road today. Because of the snow, the trail was uneven, with post holes and partially ice covered. She wasn’t a fan of walking across the bridge over a bubbling brook, and eventually the trail turned into switchbacks which were much too confusing for her. She wasn’t really listening to any instructions either, which is understandable when considering her eyes were basically giving her a migraine. We finally gave up on the trail, and Curtis led her back while I ran up to a lookout to enjoy a quick view before returning to help. Thankfully once we got back to the road, she did much better, and we made it back to the car without any more issues.

The next day, we just took her to a nearby park to let her sniff around, and she seemed to enjoy that. I tried to take some last pictures of her with eyes, but she kept them closed most of the time. It broke my heart to know this was the last day I would ever be able to look into her beautiful brown eyes, but I kept reminding myself that as soon as they were gone, she wouldn’t be in any pain, and we wouldn’t have to fight to give her eye drops, which she HATED, 3 times a day.

That night we gave her some pre-surgery meds, which became likely her favorite part of the whole ordeal because it meant her treat intake was much higher than normal for the next 2 weeks of post-surgery care. (It took her about 7 days before discovering that we were hiding pills in the treats and she eventually figured out how to find and spit out the meds, but we were always successful at second attempts!)

I’ll share about the day of surgery in my next post since Curtis and I actually were able to go on a longer hike that day. After the surgery, when we asked about exercise and activity levels for the next couple weeks, the tech responded “Zero activity, only outside to potty.” She slept all night after the surgery and well into the next morning, but in the early afternoon she actually got up and seemed interested, like REALLY interested, in going outside for the first time. We just took her out to the yard and let her wander around, and besides the cone getting in the way of her sniffing she did so good, and even navigated going up the stairs leading to the apartment.

For me, there were 3 key points post-surgery when I noted vast improvements. The first was when they first brought her out to us, when I could tell she had her sweet personality back because she was no longer in pain. Second was the day after, when she first expressed interest in going outside, and it was clear that she had her energy back. And the third was two days after the surgery when she started acting sassy and antsy, and I realized it was going to be impossible to obey the vet tech and have “zero activity” for two weeks. At this point, we had to follow our gut and do what we knew as her parents would be best for her, which was to slowly and very carefully reintroduce walks into her routine. Since Curtis and I were both able to give her 100% of our attention, we felt safe taking her for little outings so we could both let her sniff new places and begin training her. Since daily walks, hikes, and adventuring have been a normal part of her routine for her entire life, it honestly wasn’t a challenge for her at all, the only adjustments have been for us having to go a little slower, watching her closely, and giving her simple instructions for going up, down, or around obstacles.

On day 2 post-op, we returned to the quiet nearby park where we had brought her the day before her surgery. It was clear that she had more interest and focus in the walk than before, and she was walking faster and a little more confidently. There was one point in the parking lot where she started circling, but we were able to break her from that cycle and get her following a new scent. Overall, this day was very encouraging for us all.

On day 3 after the surgery, we took her on a very easy hike East of Rutland. We drove to the Thundering Brook Falls Trail, which is also part of the Appalachian Trail. Most of this trail is along a boardwalk, and most of the boardwalk was cleared of snow. This made it the perfect “trail” for her, since she had a clear path to follow and there were railings on the sides (not that she would have walked off, they just helped keep her focused on the main path). Towards the end of the boardwalk, there was some snow covering the trail, which turned into a LOT of snow on the trail, and the eventual end of the boardwalk and switchbacks up to the viewing platform of the falls. Curtis and I took turns going to the falls while the other stayed with Charlotte on the easier part of the boardwalk. We made sure to tell her how well she did/was doing, gave her treats, and told her over and over that “she did it!” so she would think that she made it to the end. 😉 Then we turned around and made our long, slow return to the car. Overall this hike was only a quarter of a mile long, and we took maybe an hour to do the whole thing, so relatively speaking this was basically like “zero activity” for her when she’s used to so much more.

Aside from these short hikes, Curtis went for a couple solo hikes which he’ll share about in another post. I’m glad he was able to get out and continue working towards his goals. If there had been a hike that I really wanted to do, I would have also gone out on my own, but all I wanted to do this week was rest and be with Char. We ended the week on a good note, and were ready to face the next challenges which included having to move around between hotels and rentals. Obviously this wasn’t ideal, but we didn’t really have any other options. We simply had to use this month to go about our (very altered) plans and see how she did, and that would hopefully show us whether or not it would be sustainable long term. On the plus side, Charlotte is already used to our life of constant travel and moving, so we hoped that with extra effort and adjustments on our end, she would be comfortable and would continue to enjoy sniffing around new places.