I’ve mentioned before that Mia sleeps all the time. Sometimes she just cuddles up with me, and other times she cuddles up with a toy.  She and her cousin, Skeeter (my sister’s dog), have a particular affinity for frogs it seems:

The Mia & Frog

The Skeeter & Frog

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Mia Monday, and I thought it was about time to start again.

Mia spends 18 hours a day sleeping, it seems. She loves to crawl under any blanket available, and I usually leave one on the couch for her. She was under the covers and snuck out to watch me cook one afternoon. I guess I’m not an exciting cook, as she started falling asleep a few minutes later.

You bore me to sleep, Momma.

I guess next time I should let her sample the food. I bet that keeps her awake.

About a year ago while taking Mia over to my parent’s house, I noticed that she had a spot on her eye. It was small, and almost looked like a shadow.  She didn’t seem bothered by it, and since I could only see it when the sun was shining directly in her eyes, I forgot about it soon after.

A few months ago I noticed it again, but it was significantly bigger than I remembered. I asked my vet about it, and she referred us to an eye care specialist. I had no idea they had ophthalmologists for dogs, but I’m glad they do. We had an appointment with her yesterday, and she’s a lovely woman. Sadly, it was not a good outcome.

Mia is going blind.

She has what’s called Pigmentary Keratitis, which is extremely common in pugs. It’s basically brown scar tissue that grows over the cornea, effectively rendering the dog blind. The doctor gave me drops to try and thin the scar out, and an ointment to try and stop the scar from spreading.  According to the doctor, there’s no “cure” for this problem, just options to try and deal with what’s there. She wants to start with medication to see if that decreases the problem, before we discuss surgical options. Surgery wouldn’t be to remove the scarring, however, as that’s too deep into her eye. The surgery would be to reshape her bottom eyelid, so her eyes close completely, therefore eliminating the irritation that is speeding up the growth of the scar. It’s just a way to slow the process, it’s not a way to stop it. No matter what happens, Mia will eventually be blind.

I am devastated. I know it doesn’t hurt her, and that it’s actually better for her (comparatively) to go blind gradually, rather than just be born blind. Her sense of sight is only her 3rd most important sense (smell and hearing being 1st and 2nd, respectively), and there are plenty of dogs that are born blind or who go blind that are completely happy and just as fabulous as if they could see. It’s just hard to know that eventually she’s going to lose her sight, and there’s basically nothing I can do to stop it.

Blind or not, I can take you!

The last couple of weeks have been busy for me, and yet every time I sit down to blog, I find myself with nothing of interest to say. So I'm going to fall back on bullet points, and if you want further details, you can go ahead and ask me.

• The dancing class Donald and I signed up for has been a blast. We skipped last week due to exhaustion, but the other classes have been great fun. You rotate partners, so you have to learn to dance with people that might not be as good as you'd like them to be. (See? Wasn't that nice?) Everyone there is really nice, despite some lack of rhythm, memory, or  in some cases, deodorant. When this class ends, I want to try and get into another one.
• I've started a new hobby! I am big on taking pictures of things, and keeping mementos of events, (ticket stubs, cards, parking passes, etc.) but I never have anything to do with them. A couple of my friends are big scrapbookers, but I'd always rejected the idea since I have no creativity. As it turns out, you can copy other people's ideas using your own pictures and paper, and it comes out looking great! So I've started scrapbooking. I took a beginner's class last week, and really enjoyed it. And a friend generously sent me some stickers, vellum phrases, tags, and an album to get started! I'm taking it slow, because it can be REALLY expensive, but I'm enjoying it!
• I also joined the Ontario Reign Booster Club. I've mentioned on multiple occasions that I've become a huge Reign fan, and I thought joining the Booster Club would be a great way to get out and meet new people with the same interests. I'm notoriously shy, but I've been trying hard to get past that. My first step was the small scrapbook class I mentioned, and now I'm jumping into a booster club with both feet. I have no idea what I'll be doing, but it'll be a way to get out and meet people, rather than sit at my computer wishing I had more friends to hang out with.
• Mia got a new vet and I LOVE her. The first thing she did was look at Mia's medical history and get downright pissed off that they (the clinic) had been treating her for 5 years but hadn't figured out what was wrong. In her words it was "unacceptable!" I couldn't agree more. She basically suggested an "overhaul" for Mia. She has all new prescription food, a firm restriction on treats (she can't have ANY), and she got several skin cultures, blood tests, and different shots to help treat the problem. It cost me an arm and a leg, but at least now I have a vet who wants a permanent cure, not just a temporary fix. The best part, in my opinion, is that the vet called me the next day to go over everything she'd done, since she didn't get to see me when I picked Mia up. The previous vet NEVER called me to talk about what happened. In fact, it's something I've complained about to the clinic. They do a whole battery of tests every time I come in, and then I hear absolutely nothing about the results. I go back 3 or 4 months later and lather, rinse, repeat. This time I'm getting answers and I am THRILLED!
• Donald and I have decided to move in together in the next couple of months, so I've been going through my stuff and getting rid of things I just don't need or want. All day yesterday I sorted through boxes and boxes of junk, taking out what was salvageable for Goodwill, and putting the rest in bags for the dumpster. I made 8 trips to the dumpster, and had a full bag of clothes and a box of odds and ends for Goodwill. And I'm only about halfway done with my second bedroom/office/junk storage room.

I think that about covers everything. I feel like I should have so much more to say, but I just don't.

The Mia, she is sick again. Yet another rash on her skin, this time under her neck where her collar resides. I removed it and gave her a bath with her special hypo-allergenic shampoo, paying special care to wash the area thoroughly, but not irritate it further. It seemed to work for her, as she stopped scratching it for a few hours and the redness went away.I thought maybe it was just dirt that had bothered her. But at 2:30 AM she woke me up with her unrelenting scratching. I was afraid she was trying to rip the skin off of her neck. I gave her some Benadryl (works the same for dogs as for people, according to my vet) and tried to distract her so she wouldn't scratch anymore. The only thing that worked, however, was my rubbing her head, and as I drifted off to sleep, the rubbing stopped and the scratching began. Not willing to stay awake all night with my dog, I did the next best thing. I got her an empty water bottle to play with, and put her in the living room so she could chew on it. (Water bottles are LOUD and not welcome in my bed. Especially when I am trying to sleep.) That lasted about 10 minutes. She spent the next 2 hours scratching at my bedroom door, trying to get back in. Finally, I let her back in, sans bottle, and the little twerp crawled right under the covers and went directly to sleep. I could have cheerfully killed her in that moment.

She has yet another appointment at the vet on Friday to get this new rash looked at. Every time I think I want another dog, I get a vet bill for the first one.

This is my porky pug. She kinda looks like a big fat ham with a head and legs. It's no wonder pug and pig are one vowel off.

 
Why do you look at me that way?

I was at my parent’s house playing Rock Band with my sister, and Mia decided to join us. She’s a big fan of Rock Band, generally choosing to sit directly on a guitar (while you’re trying to play), or laying across your lap so any movement is damn near impossible. She got a little tired of being bumped with the guitar while I was playing, so she moved herself to the arm of the couch, propping her chin up on the back. I don’t think the picture adequately shows how uncomfortable she looked, and yet she was there for a really long time.

My dog, she is nuts.

I know I’ve mentioned before Mia’s love of plastic bottles as chew toys. Last week I had the glorious opportunity to come home and have nothing to do but read my book in complete silence. So I lay down on my super comfy couch and get prepared to lose a few hours. Mia, being the doll that she is, chooses not to get one of her (quiet) stuffed animals, but rather her noisy annoying bottle. She promptly deposits it directly upon my book and commences the chewing. She moved only when I yanked my book away and sent her bottle flying. Not at all deterred, she came back moments later and settled down with her toy. Notice how she uses her paws to hang on it the bottle. If she weren’t so damn cute, I’d have beat her with it.

I’m alive and well, I swear. I’ve just taken a slight hiatus from blog posting. Partially from lack of blog fodder, and partially from laziness my desire to enjoy my almost 2 week vacation without feeling obligated to post about it. I have about 6 different posts half written as well as a partial new page design, and since my work week has just changed, I’ll have a bit more time to get them finished up and posted for your reading pleasure (Or displeasure, depending on who you are).

In the meantime, let us enjoy a cute pug, shall we?

 
You want to give me steak, Mom. As I think it, so shall it be.

  
I’m not fat, I’m just fluffy.

So, normally I’m completely anti animals wearing clothes. But this was all of a dollar at Target, and it’s been extremely cold (for us) around here. She wore it for about 10 minutes before she started tearing at it, so I’m glad I didn’t spend more. But I couldn’t resist taking a ton of pictures of her while she was wearing the sweater.