Just look at those big beautiful eyes with properly dilated pupils! Ain't they purtty? When you consider Sparky Tabasco narrowly escaped permanent blindness, you can see why I'm fixated on the eyes!
Last Thursday, July 31, Sparky had her follow-up visit with the Seattle eye specialist. He said the lesions in her eyes have healed over, but the scarring will affect Sparky's eyesight for the rest of her life. Here we are in the examing room, waiting for the vet.
The vet also said the swelling of her optical nerves has gone down so that they look normal. On the whole, she has improved since her first visit 3 weeks ago. However, I expressed concern that her eyesight had definitely deteriorated after reducing her medication per their instructions. Obviously, the lower dosage isn't working, so the vet bumped up her dosage a little and I'm to call him in 2 weeks to tell him how Sparky 's doing on the higher dosage.
Otherwise, how is Sparky doing? Need you ask??? Sparky is being Sparky. Today I was washing veggies from my garden, prior to making a fresh green salad for dinner, and when my back was turned, Sparky jumped into the kitchen sink and poked her nose in the colander where my veggies were draining. Naughty girl! As always, my camera was within reach, so I snapped a picture before removing her.
One drawback to Sparky's compromised eyesight is that she doesn't always see danger approaching. Twice she has lost hair from her tail when my wheeled chair has rolled over her tail.
Thankfully, Sparky is quick to forgive and allows me to cuddle her in remorse after I've rolled over her tail. In fact, if I crackle some plastic in my hand or wad up a ball of paper, she quickly forgets the lost tail hairs and waits eagerly for me to throw the "toy." Sparky is absolutely crazy about crackly plastic used as a tamper-proof seal on beverages, vitamins, etc. Her second favorite toy is a wadded up ball of paper. Both are irresistible.
Sparky is so crazy about paper balls and plastic seals that the crackle will pull her out of a sound sleep.
Sparky won't let a little thing like blindness slow her down. She is an inspiration of how to live life to the fullest, despite handicaps.