Alas, no hike today. It rained really hard yesterday afternoon and then again last night, so while it was only partly cloudy this morning, Mom said the trail would be really muddy. I didn’t see a problem with that, but apparently Mom said something about how she would have to remove the mud from my feet with a hose, and that didn’t sound too appealing.
Rain, rain, go AWAY!
Also, she and Dad had a business meeting, and by the time that was done, big dark clouds had started to move in. And besides, Mom had to take TaiChi to the eye doctor to do a check up.
So, on to TaiChi for a minute. She’s doing Really Well. She won’t ever see out of her right eye again, but since her cataracts (waterfalls? I didn’t know you could have waterfalls in your eyes, but apparently when you get old you get these waterfalls. Maybe your brain starts to leak? I didn’t think to ask) were so bad that she probably couldn’t see much more than shadows anyway. But her snooter works really well! She can smell a steak from a mile away! Heehee!
*ahem*
Okay, back to the doctor’s report. Her good eye is very good. She has more of these waterfall thingys in that eye, but it’s not horrible, and all of the other measurements they do on her eyes are Really Good in that eye. They also took her blood pressure because she had really high blood pressure when she first went to see the eye doctor, so they put her on blood pressure medicine. I guess TaiChi’s life is just super stressful! You know; sleeping, eating, sleeping some more – that can all be VERY stressful! Heehee. Note from Fi’s Mom: her high blood pressure is/was just a combination of old age and her chronic kidney issues; if you’ve got an OLD dog, it’s worth having your vet check his/her blood pressure, if they don’t already do it. It doesn’t take very long to do it, and can help prevent some pretty serious issues. In short, her blood pressure went from Super High a month ago to being almost normal; she was 190 a month ago and was 120 today. 100 is normal for dogs, and since she always gets stressed out at the vet’s office, her blood pressure is probably at least 10 points lower at home. She will stay on blood pressure medicine for the rest of her life, but since it gets delivered in a big dollop of peanut butter, she doesn’t mind! And since I get to lick Mom’s fingers after TaiChi gets her pill, I don’t mind, either!
So, TaiChi is doing Really Well and Mom and Dad are Very Happy about that. So is TaiChi. She clearly feels much better. Which is good, because I love my little big sister and she’s much more fun when she feels better!
Heh. We are such buddies. And she's just squinting because of the flashy thing - it's not a permanent thing.
Even if she steals my toys....
Because we had Fall-like weather today (rainy, and cold), Mom broke out TaiChi’s jacket. TaiChi gets cold fairly easily, and so she has a couple of jackets. Granny and Grandpa made her a really cool fleece jacket (that Mom can’t find a picture of at the moment…), and then she also has a heavier jacket with a hood.
I think she's quite sharp looking in her coat!
And because it was kind of dark out when Mom was taking the pictures, I got to display my Super Dog powers!
I can haz laser eyes!
And now, I must get back to catching up on bloggies. Because Mom has been slacking.
*kissey face*
-Fiona