Togo Goes Blue

When I meet people up close and personal, a lot of them tilt their heads a bit, pause, and then say, “Oh, he has different color eyes!”

And then they step back a bit.

You see, I have a condition. It’s called heterochromia iridum. That’s the fancy scientific name for … well, “two colors of eyes.” It’s pretty common, actually. Especially among interesting creatures like me. It’s not that I don’t think you’re interesting if you just have one color of eyes. But you would get a lot more comments about your eyes if they were two different colors. And that would make you more interesting to others who think that two eye colors are . . . interesting.

My eye colors are blue and brown, leaning toward amber. Most people are drawn to my blue eye. It’s kind of my lead eye, so I tend to show it more in pictures. Lots of dogs have blue eyes. But the amberish eye is really the more interesting of the two. Amber eyes are a trait of wolves and parts of me are gray wolf. 

But there’s something about my blue eye.

Some people think that a blue eye shows kindness . . . or good sense of humor . . . or just overall good looks. Maybe that’s just because they know me — and I’m all of those things. Daddy says that it is bad form to brag on myself. So, I’m just sticking with the facts.

Momma and Daddy love my eyes. Most days they will sit and look right in them as they pat me and say things in baby talk. They would love me and my eyes no matter what color they are.

Sometimes the problem with being interesting — being different — is that others don’t like people or dogs or eyes or skin or accents that aren’t like them. That’s obviously silly. Daddy says it can even be evil and that we need to help those people come to love and appreciate people and things even when they are different.

I’m helping. I try to meet and lick every person I meet in the face. A genuine lick in the face is the way to a person’s heart. And then, when they love me, they will love all of me.