Poor Ries Dog

In December 2013, we knew we'd be traveling back to Wisconsin for Christmas and we wondered if Nate's sister, Georgia (a veterinarian student at Wisconsin), could hook us up with some discounted eye surgery for Ries. For at least a year, Ries' eye sight has been failing. Hoping that the cause was treatable, we took her to her VTA vet here in Campbell, who threw cotton balls in front of Ries to see if she would track them. Although I'm generally happy with this particular vet, this time I regretted not just googling "how to tell if your dog is going blind" so I could throw cotton balls at home for free. Alas, he referred us to the pet ophthalmologist, conveniently located just another mile or two away.

Before I sound too sarcastic about serious matters such as blindness, I should officially admit that my concern and love for Ries is not what it was before children. I don't think I could quite give her up for adoption, but I've considered it. Thankfully, as my love has scaled back, Nate's has remained strong. He often tells Ries, she didn't mean that, or reminds me to be kind. It sort of makes me feel like there is only so much love in my heart and that as I have children, that love can no longer be divided amongst four-legged things, only those with two. Maybe it's just a hormonal thing? I used to be a cat lover, now I don't think someone could pay me to let one reside with me.

So, all that to say that I would have just accepted "going blind" as a diagnosis, but Nate was fairly insistent on paying $120 to take Ries to the specialist. So I scheduled a Saturday appointment. Sound familiar? Louisa's Saturday at the dentist with dad? In the end, I'm glad Nate insisted, because now we know that Ries has progressive retinal atrophy. There were no surgeries back in Madison last Christmas because other than experimental nutrition supplementation, there is no treatment. It's sad, but there are worse diagnoses for a 6 year old dog, right? As long as we keep Ries safe from cars, it doesn't seem like her life should be shortened. She still gets excited about treats, the sound of a squeaky toy, and the moment Nelly, our nanny, walks in the front door. I don't know what kind of treats Nelly gives Ries, but she adores Nelly.

Unfortunately, she can't track tennis balls much at all anymore. She hasn't seemed to let that ruin her excitement the dog park though:

Letter of the Week

I admit that I spend very little time reading about what to expect next developmentally from Cora or Louisa. It's nice to read the occasional BabyCenter update that comes each week or month, but generally I delete the emails quickly, thinking, yeah, yeah, I'll come to you if I have questions. Well today I found a wonderful benefit of not reading ahead, so to speak, and that is being pleasantly surprised when your child draws their first actual stick figure or flower, writing their name, or spells a word out loud.

Louisa goes to preschool 2 mornings per week. She loves it socially and I love it anti-socially. That's only kind of a joke. Louisa loves to talk, and often entertains us with her funny make-believe scenarios and questions, but being the introvert that I am, I appreciate some time with my less-verbal Cora Bean, too. Today Cora and I picked her up from "sool" as Lou calls it, and drove home in our new/used Mazda5, Louisa finishing her lunch as we drove.

I knew that the letter of the week is "A", so once we got home I asked Louisa what letter the word "apple" starts with. To my surprise, she spelled the whole word. Another surprise...she happily did it again while I took a "bideo". I think I could listen to Lou say the letter " L" over and over again.



I felt so proud that I sent the video to Nate. I must be tired, because it took me a minute to get his joke.

Okay, free time is over...Cora's awake. Love to you all!