Chapter 26, In Which Brother Riley May Discover He's Not a Cat!

June 21, 2001

Riley is getting along great with all the gatos. Buck was the last one to come around but now he will nuzzle Riley and often sleeps very close to him on the bed. Maybe Buck is just happy to have a friend since the girls still gang up on him. Mellow Buck doesn't really mind though.

The big news though is that we finally have an appointment with the veterinary ophthamologist, Dr. Bagley, in Pittsburgh next week. Riley will get an initial exam and then have an electroretinogram to determine if he will be able to see after cataract removal. If his retinas are functional, he will have surgery about 10-14 days later to have the cataracts removed! We are very excited but nervous. We love Riley so much just the way he is, that we are afraid that being able to see might change him. But each time we hear his little head bonk loudly on something he has banged into, we know that trying to get his sight back is the right thing to do. Let's hope all goes well!

Riley was a doll at the veterinary ophthamologist but he didn't get good news. He has absolutely no retinal function in either eye. I wonder if he was blind before he got the cataracts. Although I am sad, I still love the little guy, maybe even more!