I know this isn’t RC related but I feel I need to get it of my chest.
As the frequent visitor will have read, I’ve been going through a rough time lately.
6 years ago our dog, Chica, started acting strangely. She had trouble following hand signals and after a while started to walk into things. So we went to the veterinarian. She was diagnosed with an eye decease, and she was nearly blind on both eyes. She was 2 years old at that time.
There was a small chance that she could regain some of her eyesight through an operation. Naturally we tried it. A couple of months later she had regained some sight on the left eye! Enough to be able to avoid running into things, and living happily.
She couldn’t be used as a retrieving dog for hunting or competing, for which she was bred and trained. But instead she became a happy-go-lucky companion dog who just loved to fetch balls, sticks and other things for much longer than you were able to keep throwing them. She also liked to run after my RC-planes (and cars) although she understood never to get to close or touch them.
In August she suddenly lost her eyesight completely and we were told that this was because of an inflammation in her eyes that made her develop high pressure in the eyes. This is something that can happen after the type of surgery she had all those years ago, it might come soon after the operation or years after. We were told that it was treatable and a few days later she had regained some eyesight. With continued medication hope was that the pressure would return to normal and the following check-ups showed that things were going in the right direction.
About three weeks ago, we discovered that her left (seeing) eye was runny and that she wanted to scratch it and that she didn’t seem to see anymore. When we got to the vet they told us that she had a bad cut on her cornea and that she was, right now, completely blind again. With her underlying problems they weren’t hopeful, but there was a chance that, if we could heal the cut, she might regain her eyesight. We started her on medications and close follow-up vet. calls but, even though the cut healed, her eyesight was permanently gone this time.
As Chica has been raised and bred as an off-leash dog and we could see that she felt very insecure now that she was blind, she wouldn’t even play anymore and we could tell she was unhappy, the best we could do for her was to relive her of her problems by having her put to rest. This was the best thing for her, although not for us. We will always remember and miss her. 8 years is no age for a dog to go and we were not prepared to face this decision now, we though we had years left with her.
So, this post is made in the memory of Chica, a one-of-a-kind dog that is deeply loved and sorely missed. We will remember all the good times we had, like playing in the snow or taking her with us to chase some planes, or clean up when eggs fell in the wrong place.