Eyeball Update and Outings with Boca

March 19th marked the one-year anniversary of Boca's conjunctival graft surgery on her right eye, an experience I'm very glad to have behind us. Poor Boca had to wear the Cone of Woe for a total of ten weeks, and it was an extremely stressful time as she stumped a number of professionals with her non-conventional response to treatment and to this day we still have no clear diagnosis. We were also navigating our first major pet insurance claim, a story which thankfully had a happy ending. It was difficult to know what the right thing to do was at the time, with advice from every angle, but we absolutely made the best choice for Boca in order for her to retain her eye and vision.

Boca's eye has healed beautifully, and although she has a tiny spot on the opposite eye that we are watching diligently, we were given a clean bill of ocular health by our wonderful veterinary ophthalmologist at our one-year check-up appointment. Boca really cracks me up at the vet's office, and she is a favorite patient. She lays down on the exam table immediately upon entering the room and waits for her elevator ride. She is perfectly cooperative and coaxes treats from the vet. The attending tech promised to take a picture to send to another tech, who was disappointed she didn't get to see Boca.

In preparation for our attendance of the BlogPaws pet blogger conference in Phoenix this June, I have been wanting to take Boca on more outings. Since the vet's office doesn't count, we stopped for a rare fast food lunch whereby Boca enjoyed some French fries, then headed to Home Depot to look at rugs for my townhome. I absolutely love having laminate floors with pets, but the rugs definitely take a beating and need replaced every few years. Boca was so good in the store, and attracted a great deal of attention, with employees wanting to pet her and customers wanting to know what kind of dog she is. We saw several other dogs and one young Rottweiler/Shepherd type desperately wanted to meet her. Boca was her typical chill self, politely sniffing and allowing herself to be sniffed. She relaxed under my chair while I ordered the rugs, and cheerfully acknowledged her many fans. I was so proud of my exotic island mutt!

The following day we had another outing, meeting my friend and her corgi at a local breed club's event. It was not what I expected, but there was enough activity that Boca got more practice at being social in a new setting, and once again impressed me. She is happy to sprawl out in the middle of things, not getting overly excited about what other dogs are doing. I'm confident that we will be ready for the crowds at BlogPaws by June, and looking forward to my very first road trip with my potcake!