Eureka

Eureka!!! I made a tennis ball toy which seems to work and little Taz has a new lease on life. Ok so its not the most professional job but it does the trick.

I'm even thinking of creating a better one and marketing it...nah not really but this was a prototype and I'm sure I can do one better and more noisy.

It was funny as she heard the thud of the tennis ball when it hits the ground but couldn't quite work it out at the start, that the jingle noise was also the ball. Didnt take her long to twig and now she knows the noise associated with the ball ...well done me and good fun for Taz.

My Little Blind Dog

Well I guess all animals get old, but when they go down quite quickly, its quite disconcerting. My little 11 yr dog Taz was well healthy and full off beans just a few months ago. She lives for her tennis ball and I always joked that when she dies she would be buried with tens of tennis balls.

Anyway, no she hasn't crossed the rainbow bridge yet.. but she started coughing really bad. It came on quite quickly. To cut a long story short and after heaps of tests, she has hypothyroidism. So she wasn't fat cause i fed her to much! But her liver is so enlarged that it is pushing up onto her diaphragm, causing her to cough. More so when she is lying down. It also is pushing on the bladder so she needs to be let out for a wee more (very tiring when she goes 3 times in the night) Her heart is also enlarged due to all the work it has to do.

Tablets later, and fingers, arms and legs crossed, her liver will resume to its natural size and coughing and bladder function will return to nomal. But this may take months :-( and not guartenteed. At least the liver is an organ that can repair itself.

But then the worst happened, Taz went blind in a matter of weeks. It happened so quickly that the vet thought it could have been a reaction to the drugs...but no it was just her... Of all the senses to go it had to be her sight. It makes me cry when I see her wanting to play throw the tennis ball but she just cant see it. I now have to roll the ball so it touches her feet then she knows its there, but it's not quite the same. She so loved to race around the paddocks chasing the ball.

So i'm on a mission to find toys that visually impaired dogs can use. Surely there must be something. But I am yet to find that. Maybe I will make some myself.. .

Here she is at xmas, she got a box of tennis ball ...she couldn't decided which one to pick up first lol!