Footie's eyes and lurcher problems

[bunn]

I think Footie cat's eyesight is going.  Yesterday he was sitting next to me when Yama Bungle came and sat on my lap. Footie hissed at Yama feeling he was too close. So, I pushed Yama over to the other side and reached out to stroke Footie to reassure him.  And he bopped me something fierce!  I now have a nasty scratch.  I think he couldnt' see that the moving thing coming towards him was my hand, he thought it was a Bungle.

Sadly,  Rusty lurcher who I mentioned was coming to me as a foster dog started showing some fairly serious signs of aggression towards people when he arrived at kennels.   We are getting a behaviourist in to assess him but at the moment he can't go into a home.  Really hope that the problem can be resolved, but it's not looking good.

They are sending me a 14 year old beardie X lurcher bitch instead!

Comments

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Hope the eyesight doesn't get any worst as it could be dangerous!

Good luck with the new adoptee.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Foster dog! I am NOT adopting another one. Oh no, not me. Definitely not. :-D

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about Rusty - in a dog that size, any hint of aggression has got to be a huge worry.

I hope all goes well with the Beardie X!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I kind of hate that behaviour that small dogs get away with is an automatic death sentence in big dogs, but you are quite right that you can't take a risk with a dog that is as tall as a person when on hind legs :-(

It is a bit of an odd one, there wasn't a sniff of a problem at the pound, whereas when he arrived at the new kennels he started growling and lunging within a day. It *may* turn out to be pain-related, in which case it might be workable, but I'm not holding my breath. :-(

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Poor Rusty... Maybe he's just had to cope with too much change in too short a time, particularly if he was a one-person dog. From what you were saying of the owner, there's no chance of finding out any details of his medical history?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

No, we are kind of stuck with what we can find out about Rusty. I'm hoping that he may settle, but we'd have to be awfully sure that he was past the problem to be able to rehome him :-(

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Poor Footie cat! What age is he?

And that's such a shame about Rusty.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Footie is... oh um, about 13ish now I think. So not terribly old for a cat, but getting on a little bit.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Not long ago, 13 was considered very old for a cat. Most of ours lasted around that length of time - except for Polly, who was 23. And pretty much blind. And profoundly deaf, too...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think my family must have been quite lucky with cats, all of ours have always lived well into their teens - well, excluding one that was sadly run over.

Footie is not the healthiest of our cats, as he has skin troubles, and I'm not sure if his vision is a bit impaired because it's spring and his face tends to get a bit itchy and swell up at this time of year. If it gets really bad we whip him to the vet for steroids but he can be a bit of a stressy boy so we try not to take him in unless it's unavoidable.