Dogster

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Who knew I could type so well!

My eye adventures

It's been a scary year for me and my owners. Last November my owners noticed one of my eyes was red and watering. At first they thought I got in another tussle with the stupid cat and got my eye scratched. But when my eye started looking a little bulgy they got worried. They took me to the emergency vet and they diagnosed me with glaucoma. At first my owners were relieved because glaucoma in humans is a slow, progressive disease. But the vet explained that in dogs they can permenantly lose their sight within 24 hours. Because it had been 2 days they were concerned about my vision.

They took me to a pet eye specialist that day. Who knew there was such a thing?! They were very nice, but gave us the bad news that my vision was completely and irreversibly gone in my left eye. But the good news was that I didn't have any problems in my right eye yet. Although, once you get it in one eye, it's only a matter of time before you get it in the other.

I had to have my eye removed, which was actually a relief because I was in a lot of pain. The vet gave the option of removing the whole eye and sewing my eye shut, but my mom was mortified at the thought of that! They ended up doing a surgery where they opened up my actual eyeball and took out everything inside. Then they put a silicone ball in there and sew they eyeball back up. I still can't see out of that eye, but at least it looks pretty normal. They eye moves like normal when I look around. In fact, the only way you can tell something is out of the ordinary is that I developed some scar tissue on the eyeball that looks a bit like a cataract. That, and the fact that I sometimes run into things when I turn to the left real fast!

The vet was able to give me eye drops that my owners put in my eye every day to try and postpone the glaucoma from showing up in my other eye. So far so good!

We moved!

My Mom and Dad pulled a fast one and moved to a new house! At first I thought the boxes piled up in the living room were just an inconvenience, but then a bunch of burly and suspicious looking men showed up and started taking all our furniture! I tried to tell them to just take the cat and leave, but my Dad put me outside and they couldn't hear me (no matter how loud I barked!).

Then they took me for a ride in the van, which made me so happy. I love van rides and lately they have been so busy that we hardly ever go. We pulled up to a strange new house and they actually let me go inside. I was hoping to find a new puppy friend, but the joke was on me. The only furry animal inside (besides Mom's brother Mike) was the cat! They had brought him over earlier!

I didn't know what to think about this unfamiliar house, and then those burly men showed up again. This time I was going to protect my family and drive them off, but for some reason Mom put me in the bedroom and closed the door.

After all the dust settled I realized that we were going to stay in this new house. It's not so bad. There are lots of dogs in my new neighborhood and most are smaller than me (easy pickings!). The back yard is small, but there's a nice deck to sun myself on. And even though I think the cat is annoying and stinky, we have been able to put aside our differences and use each other for emotional support during this scary move. Who knew a cat could be such good company!