Peggy's Guest Blog Number Two

Peggy, Zoe, and the ocular prosthesis
The following is a story by my sister, about her dog Zoe.When I was 15, after 5 years of eye surgeries trying to restore my sight, my right eye was removed as it was too badly damaged. Alan has written about me using it to scare the crap out of him, but I don't remember that. I think it was his imagination about what I COULD do if I "popped" it out in front of him!

When my children were young we had a favorite game....."Find Mommy's Eye". Some kids go on Easter egg hunts, my kids hunted through garbage cans for an artificial eye wrapped in a Kleenex. Like too-tight shoes, a fake eye can also be uncomfortable. Sometimes the eye would get to be so irritating that I would pluck it out and set it on the table, carefully wrapping it in a tissue. Then I would forget and toss it in the trash with any loose papers I was gathering up. At some point a sick feeling would wash over me as I realized it was missing and the 'finding mommy's eye' game was on. The winning kid would always get a prize, and I got my eye back!

Fast forward, now my kids are grown and gone, and I still put the eye down where I shouldn't. Unfortunately I have a wild, devil-dog named Zoe, who picks up anything and everything that she shouldn't. I have pulled tissue, tie-wraps, paper clips, receipts and much more out of her mouth. The other day I was taking the eye up to the bathroom to clean it and put it in its container. Stupidly I stopped to put something in my daughter's old room and must have set it down.....I don't quite remember......all I know is that when I got to the bathroom I didn't have an eye, and the dog who follows me everywhere was nowhere to be seen. I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, and went to find the dog. Zoe tends to hide out in her crate with whatever treasure she has stolen and voilà, there she was cowering in the crate, with my eye laying in front of her staring back at me. After disciplining her, I inspected the eye, and although it hadn't been broken, it did have serious chew marks. Luckily I had a series of my old prosthetics and since I had to work the next day I figured I could wear one of those. One kind of worked, but the longer it was in, the more uncomfortable it became, making me very crabby. By the time I arrived at work I'd had it, I pulled it out and slapped on an eye-patch. Nobody at work asked about my eye, which was kind of a let down, because I was itching to use my old school girl line, "The dog ate it!".Editors note; There will be no anonymous comments allowed for this story, because my sister wants to know who is saying mean things about her. That's understandable, considering this story could have ended with her digging through dog poop in the back yard.