Hello Merrylog readers (are there still any of you?) – finally, finally, I am forcing myself to take a moment to update. I do apologize, folks, but the crazy insane soap-opera-quality drama continues around our house, and it’s sucking up most of my free time right now.

Other than cuddle time with the pug which is, of course, a mandate. Merry, as you can see, says hi to all of you and wants me to tell you that she misses you all very much.

Update on the eye-”area”: as you can see, puglet is fully healed and the swelling has all gone down. The area looks more sunken now but does not seem to cause her any pain – in fact, she’s been happy to play, go for long walks, beg for food and generally bug the heck out of us in true lovable pug style, just like she used to be.

Honestly, despite all the pain it has caused me to see her sweet little face altered, I should have done this earlier. She’s a new pug now that the crazy eye routine (40+ doses of meds a day!) is over.

Hope you’re all enjoying your spring. I’m happy to say I have several new images to share of Merry, so posting should resume more normal levels. :) Assuming soap opera dries up!

Introducing the new, one-eyed Merry. As you can see from the grin, she is fully restored in energy and health (if not in vision). If anything, her incredible energy and enthusiasm the past two weeks has taught us how much her eye must have been hurting even with normal pressure, before the glaucoma spiked.

We’re relieved that she’s no longer in pain and is peppy, affectionate, crawly (all over us!) and wanting to play.

To get her smiling, the pug and I played fetch for a good twenty minutes in the kitchen today. I’ll share more from our playfest in my next post. :)

One last time: thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your kind words, your support, and your affection for this little furball. It has helped our family through a tough year. Let’s hope that the rest of 2012 turns out to be uneventful and full of play dates, snuggles and sunshine.

Thank you, thank you, thank you – for all the well wishes, the kind words of support, and the love you have shown the puglet and her family. It has been overwhelming and wonderful and I assure you we have read every single comment and been touched.

The princess pug has been healing well from her surgery last week. She is often perky (except for the first few hours after we give her the stoner anti-pain meds, when she pretty much droops and sleeps), begging for treats with an energy that she hasn’t shown in quite some time, excited and sociable on her walks, even trying to play with toys even though she is not allowed – naughty girl!

All of this is very good news indeed. She remains on pain meds for another little while to ensure that she’s not suffering but that is the only remaining medication she’s being given. Otherwise, she is healthy and happy and we are all looking forward to the day when she can have the stitches out and the cone off and begin playing again.

This shot, like the one before it, were taken the morning she went in for her surgery. I know that you will all – as we do – love her even with one eye but gosh, I’m going to miss that lovely little doe-eyed expression.

Last Thursday, I came home from a doctor’s appointment to find the puglet rubbing at her bad eye. When I tried to look at it, it appeared red and swollen. I took her in to the eye vet who immediately admitted her overnight because her eye pressure had skyrocketed – so much so that new tears were evident in the eyeball (they picked up stain). The next day we went to pick her up and were told that her eye pressure continued to be very high unless she was on the IV pressure meds. The doctor, who has been with us through this entire 8 month slog to try to save her eye, looked so sad when he told us that we would have to remove it.

Her surgery was two days ago, on Tuesday February 21st. It was a very scary day! I was both grieving the loss of that beautiful eye and terrified that the pug wouldn’t make it through the anesthesia. But she made it through with flying colors, I’m happy to report. She is relatively active for being on pain meds, happy and cuddly. We are all trying to adjust to the reality of her new face, and will share photos soon, once she has healed up a bit and it doesn’t look quite so painful.

This photo is from “before” – the morning of her surgery, I followed the pug around incessantly with a camera to both celebrate and capture for the very last time, those two beautiful eyes. You’ll see a few more from that shoot over the next few weeks while she heals and then I’ll reveal our new, one eyed Merry.

Winter has been SO messed up this year – by turns cold, occasionally snowy, and then weirdly warm and sweater-free but grey and rainy or cloudy and dull. Case in point: huge amount of snow yesterday, we shoveled twice. Today, it’s expected to be 7 degrees above freezing.

What exactly do you dress a pug in when the weather is so weird? Merry’s been in everything from hoodies (warm days) to full winter gear – t shirt, coat and boots.

Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the seed catalogs that came in the mail yesterday, but I’m dreaming of spring. With that in mind, I share a photo from last spring (pre-eye injury).

Here’s hoping you’re surviving whatever winter weather you’re having!

Merry, once again “shaking a paw” in exchange for a treat. Note the long tongue in anticipation of said treat. She’s so adorable – and so treat focused – that there are days when I think we could literally teach her anything!

Happy 2012! It’s January – and it’s been a chilly start to the new year. Luckily,  the puglet has many ways of keeping warm: cuddling with humans, wearing fabulous sweaters, and bundling up in Mom’s favourite blanket. Hope your new year has been cuddly warm as well!

I literally cannot believe that tomorrow is the last day of 2011. How did that happen? It has been such an insane year that I feel like I’ve missed most of it! However – thanks to all of your kind comments over the past few days – I have finally finished processing a couple of more holiday shots of the princess pug just in time for… New Year’s Eve. Le sigh! Since she is an extra adorable elf this year, we hope you find ‘em worth waiting for. ;)

Well, I didn’t quite get it up before the fat man in the red suit came to town, but I did at least secure one shot of the princess pug in her Santa coat and candy cane collar and leash set. I hope to get a few more of her later today in front of the tree, so hopefully this won’t be your only dose of Merry Christmas (ha).

It was so wonderful to get all of your kind comments to the last photo! Honestly, I’ve been so remiss with the blog since Merry’s eye issues began in June that I’d feared we’d lost all of our readers. :)

The pug had a lovely, fun-filled holiday with new collars and treats and toys and many many people paying attention to her, feeding her on the sly, and generally making sure she felt like the pampered princess that she is. Hope your holidays were just as wonderful!

Where on earth did the autumn go? Well, I can tell you – learning how to parent a teenager full-time, and playing nursemaid to a pug with a (still) bad eye. As a result Merrylog has languished for far too long without an update.

What’s new in the world of Merry? I wish I could tell you that her eye was 100% back to normal, but the truth is we’re still healing the ulcer although it’s now superficial (it no longer picks up stain during an exam, which means it’s in the top layers of the eye only). But the real problem has been the glaucoma. She still flirts in between 20 and 30 in eye pressure, and she’s basically on the maximum eye meds she can be to reduce pressure. What that boils down to is a crapshoot of eye vet visits – will the pressure shoot sky high again? Will the pressure be stable? Will even this high but stable, ish, pressure be so much that eventually they may have to take the eye/kill the eye anyway?

Oh, to have a single two week period where we’re not worrying about the furball! :)

However, as you can see, the princess has been learning new tricks! Just a month or two ago, my stepdaughter taught her how to shake a paw and now she’ll come up to you and just waggle her paw in the air hoping to get a treat. It’s adorable.

I thank all four of you who are still reading this for your continuing patience. I promise, at least ONE holiday photo of the puglet before the big guy in the red suit comes! :)