Hola!
I’m Resilient Randy!
I’ve had lots of adventures, and I want to share them with you! In my first adventure, I started out in Puebla, Mexico, and ended up at my forever home in Washington State. In my next adventure, I lost my eyesight, but that didn’t keep me from having a great life. It hasn’t always been easy, but I try to keep my head up and my tail awaggin’! My books show how being resilient has helped me and maybe will help you learn how to be resilient, too.
Resilient Randy FAQs
Randy is truly a mutt. We did a DNA test on him and the results were that he is an “American Village Dog.” He has less than 5% of any recognized breed in him. “Village Dogs” around the world are ones that have had no human intervention in their breeding for several generations. Interestingly, they tend to have a similar look, although there are some differences based on location.
That is a good question that we don’t really know the answer to. As of August 2024, he has been with us, his forever family, for five years. We think he was about three when we got him, but we don’t really know.
Yes, they are! For the sake of the books, we did streamline them a little bit. But all the people in the stories are real, and they all love Randy! And all the events we included did happen—even having an alligator toy with him when he flew from Mexico to Seattle.
Randy developed cancer in his eyes and lost his vision. The eyes were removed because they were causing him a lot of pain. Once again, he showed resilience during that journey, and you can read about it in the second Resilient Randy book: Resilient Randy Loses His Vision.
Randy does great experiencing the world even without vision. He uses his sense of smell, hearing, and even touch to understand where he is and what’s going on. Dogs rely on sight less than humans do, so they can manage the world quite well even when they are blind.
We did lots of things to make sure that Randy could live his best life, even when he was blind. While he still had some vision, we began training him to recognize commands related to how he moved around. We use these commands to guide Randy verbally.
For example:
Step up – the ground in front is elevated
Curb down – the ground in front slopes down
Top of the stairs – there is a staircase in front of you
Flat – you are at the bottom of the stairs
Careful – you are about to run into something, slow down and redirect
Let me help you (accompanied by putting on the leash) – you are safe and can explore what’s around you.
We also made some modifications to our house. We have different surfaces on some of the stairs to make it easy for Randy to go up and down them. We put a rug under our dining room table so Randy could feel with his feet where the table was and avoid running into it.
But the most important thing we did was always show Randy how much we loved him, so he felt safe while he was losing his vision.
Meet my
People!
The Christensens!
It took a long time for my forever family and me to find each other! But now that I’ve made it to their home, I know I will always be loved and cared for. Let me tell you about them.
My Betsy
Besty Christensen
The mom of the family, my Betsy and I spend a lot of time together. She’s a retired visual arts teacher and one of my favorite things to do is be an art dog (that means I get to sleep in her studio while she works on different projects).
My Eric
Eric Christensen
This one goes into something called an “office” several days a week and practices law. The best thing my Eric and I do together is on weekends he likes to take long walks with me on local trails.
My Carl
Carl Christensen
I don’t see my Carl as much as I used to because he doesn’t live in our same house anymore. He lives in Seattle and sometimes we go to his house. He is a musician and when he’s with us the house is full of music.
My Grace
Grace Christensen
My girl, Grace, lives somewhere called Portland where she is a speech and language pathologist. She doesn’t come home very often but when she does, she gives me lots of snuggles.
