Our doggie is doing much better.

After a very worrying few weeks, I am happy to say that our little doggie is now recovering after his very traumatic operation. He is starting to sit up and give cheek, demanding to be on knees and taken for walks. My DH takes him around the block on his regular walk and he can go right around off lead without bumping into anything much at all. He knows where all the trees are and seems to be enjoying it just as much as ever. I think you will agree, the lack of eyes doesn't look to bad either.
He is so much happier now that the bucket collar doesn't need to be over his head. Apparently the cone shape emphasises noises, so I think that may have been a bit too much for him.
The vet has been wonderful - we have had a number of return visits (included in the operation costs thank goodness) and all the girls in the surgery come out to see how our little fellow is going. They all think he is very cute.

Don't you just love Computers!

Disaster struck my computer on Thursday when something crashed Outlook and I lost all my email contacts and history in one fell swoop. Whilst I haven't really lost any of the important stuff (I hope) it has been a very frustrating exercise. The computer has gone off to hospital in the hope of retrieving some of the information, although I am not confident. In the mean time I have to share with significant other and when he is not around, I rush in here to catch up on various blogs and check emails via the web. Hopefully the computer is back very soon with a new bigger hard drive and better speed.

Spiral Rope

Tomorrow I will be teaching a spiral rope class and have been working furiously to complete my class notes. Due to the hassles of life over the past couple of weeks (see previous posts) I have sadly neglected my beading.
Spiral rope is a terrific stitch - so easy for the beginner, but a few simple variations can give totally different looks from the same few beads. Different sizes and different colours make for some unique looks. I have had a lot of fun with these.

On the Mend

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For those of you who may have been interested in the fate of our little dog, Zorro, I am pleased to report that he is at last on the mend. We have spent an anxious week worrying that things were not going smoothly, but after a visit to the surgeon yesterday for a check up, it seems that we have been doing all the right things and he is going well.
His eye lids are healing well and the stitches will come out in another week (they are the blue tinge on his lids). At present he is wearing a bucket collar as he tried to scratch his face and we don't want him to break the stitches.
Yesterday he went for his first walk right around the block, without the bucket and he loved it. Although he is sleeping most of the time, the vet seems to think this is pretty normal and as long as he eats, drinks and (you know what), he is going fine.
His face looks pretty good too, considering. We were so worried he would look scary, but he just looks like he has his eyes shut.

An anxious wait.

Today was the day our doggie had his operation. After dropping him in to the Pet Hospital this morning, I had an anxious wait until midday when one of the nurses phoned to say Zorro was out of surgery and had awoken. He was sitting up in his bed and they were pleased with his progress.
We cannot collect him until tomorrow as they wish to monitor his pain relief and fluid intake overnight. We wont hear any more now until tomorrow morning when the nurse will phone with a pick up time.

Had to break the sad news to our daughter that her doggie was suffering and that his eyes needed to be removed. She had been on holiday and we were waiting for her to return so that we could discuss the vet's findings and see how she felt about it all. We have done a lot of research on the internet about glaucoma in dogs and apparently it is not uncommon. The level of pain experienced when the eyes are swollen is very severe, like a migraine headache.

We have decided to go for the eye removal without the prosthetic eyes because Zorro shakes his head around so much when he is "killing" his ball, there is the possibility the glass eyes may dislodge. We also saw a bit of information about prosthetic eyes causing ulceration and having to be removed anyway. It seems that the best thing is just to have his eyelids sewn together - less opportunity for further problems.

Thursday is the day and we are feeling really awful about it all. We hope it all goes well.