Oh, dear, that sounds so sad, Deb. But the great thing about dogs is how they just get up and get on with stuff. I know I went through agonies when I realised Monty was losing his sight but he's adapted to it so well it's humbling. I've learnt a lot. Monty's loss of sight is not unusual in a dog his age, but why did Patch lose his?
Yep, you have the Border collie personality down pat, that's for sure <g>. In the original picture, the big round eyes in the BC just reminded me SO much of our "Patch". When he was younger, he had "normal" BC eyes, and could drill holes in you until you were literally forced to respond by throwing the toy - ball, frisbee, Kong, whatever ... but mostly the balls.
Since going blind at age two (he his six now), his eyes have no visible pupil anymore and look a lot more like those in your photo <sigh>. It doesn't stop "Patch" trying to stare us down and is ever ready to chase his balls, but we often don't know whether to laugh or cry when we realize he's giving "the stare" to a chair we are no longer sitting in.