Category Archives: Pets

Bonnie’s Eyes

Today I received daunting news from a veterinarian ophthalmologist on the condition of my beloved Bonnie’s eyes (she’s in the foreground in the picture below taken earlier this month). She may have already lost her vision completely, so enucleation (removal of the eyes) may be imminent and the most humane thing to do to keep her out of pain given the futility of the eyes remaining. The procedure would mean she wouldn’t have to endure the 22 drops a day I currently put in her eyes plus an oral medication. Moreover, she’d be completely pain-free after the procedure because the eye pressure from the glaucoma is what causes the pain. She also came to me with the other permanent vision loss condition of dislocated lenses. Over the last week or so I noticed her irritation with one and then both of her eyes. At her eye doctor appointment about a month ago, I had been warned that removal of the eyes was projected for the future, but that she was stable. I therefore hoped that anything of this nature wouldn’t manifest until she was much older, since she is only seven. I am broken-hearted that it might be only weeks away if the regimen doesn’t work well. It might just be inevitable, but I still intend to give her the highest quality of life possible and I’ll still look for the silver lining in this, as my whole mission since the tragedy of the fire in January has been about finding silver linings in life.

She’s very sleepy in these pictures, but you can sort of see some clear liquid wetting under her eyes and some redness where it should be the whites of her eyes.

Half Moon Bay Visit

Shea’s aunt, cousin, cousin’s wife and cousin’s son, from Pittsburg, California (his hometown) were camping in Half Moon Bay. That happens to also be my dad’s old stomping ground from after his retirement from the Coast Guard since he had a commercial fishing boat there. We went out to see them (my first time meeting Shea’s family), which also served to escape the heat wave that was in the Bay Area. For those who aren’t familiar with the various microclimates in the area, the coast is almost always more pleasant during times like this. Surprisingly there was very little traffic for a Saturday, and we even got back in time for some pool time with friends in Vallejo, which was still well above 90 degrees when we returned around 6pm.

While in Half Moon Bay we did a lot of outdoor activities, including taking a long walk along the beach, rode the bikes with the cart for dogs hitched to one of them, which completely inspired me to get one for my electric bike. We also had some food al fresco, and played Rummy Tile, a board game inspired by Mahjong. I didn’t win either game, but at least I didn’t come in last the second time I played!

You’ll see in the videos that I come to a sudden stop at least once to make sure the dogs were okay behind me. They were carefully strapped in, but were probably unsure of what to make of the situation. Shea is filming when I did this so he almost ran into me. You can see it from two perspectives which we laughed about in the end. Fortunately no one was hurt during the making of these videos, least of all the dogs.