A year ago this past June I came in from a late afternoon doctor's appointment not feeling well. I ordinarily do not let my pugs use our doggy door without supervision - our backyard is only a few feet away from our den and kitchen (where we stay most of the time). Particularly in hot weather I have always watched to see they'd run outside for a few minutes and make sure they came back in. That one afternoon I didn't! I did not realize an insect, probably a wasp, stung my 11-year old Jimbo's right eye.

Later, after dark/at bedtime, I took Jimbo for a short walk and I guess I was too absorbed in my own concerns but I didn't realize anything was wrong with his eye. I kinda' thought, as we were getting ready for bed, he was squinting but, again, I missed an urgently important sign.

The next morning I woke-up to find Jimbo's eye TOTALLY ulcerated. It didn't even look like an eye, it was white/blue clouded with an opaque film. We got him to the veterinarian within minutes but the damage was done - Jimbo suffered permanent vision loss. He had scratched his eye all night including rubbing it on carpeting and he'd dug a hole to within one thin membrane of totally blinding himself; plus I know he was in a lot of pain.

It took three painful procedures and an entire year for the eye to heal, a couple of trips out-of-state to a specialist and probably $2,500 to save his eye, we could not save his vision...all because I missed seeing something I should have taken more seriously.

I've always been the neurotic, paranoid, over-protective pet owner...the one time I ignored something (the squinting), my pug suffered permanent vision impairment.