Blind Dogs Vision Restored!

It wasn't the cameras and reporters hovering around Lis Feeney that made her nervous today as she waited to be reunited with her 12-year-old dog, Bobo.

Instead, she joked, she feared the cataract surgery performed at Angell Animal Medical Center that returned Bobo's eyesight would make her unrecognizable to the dog she first got as a puppy.

"I was a brunette the last time he saw me,'' said the now-blonde Feeney.

The Chinese Crested dog was escorted to Feeney by Dr. Martin Coster, the ophthalmic veterinary surgeon who performed the cataract surgery this week. Feeney hugged and nuzzled the dog who went blind about 2½ years ago as a result of developing diabetes.

You are beautiful, you are beautiful,'' Feeney told Bobo. "Let me see those big brown eyes!''

Feeney planned to return to their home in Foxborough today and after a period of convalescence, let Bobo do what he loves best: chase squirrels in their backyard.

Coster said cost for the surgery ranges from $4,000 to $6,000 at Angell and that he does not expect that the successful cataract operation will extend Bobo's life. He was certain, however, that the dog will benefit.

"I think it will add to his quality of life,'' Coster said.

[Source: BOSTON.COM]

Canine Castaway Reunited With Owner

A canine castaway lost at sea has been reunited with her owners after spending more than four months living off goats on a Queensland island in Australia.

Owner Jan Griffith said her family was devastated when their cattle dog, Sophie Tucker, fell off the side of their boat in choppy waters off the Mackay coast in north Queensland in late November.

But unbeknown to them, their hardy hound swam five nautical miles to St. Bees Island, where she survived until last week by hunting baby goats.

She was last week returned to her family after rangers captured what they believed was a wild dog. Griffith said she and her husband had contacted rangers after friends suggested the dog — who had earned a name for herself on the island — might be their long-lost pet.

Last Tuesday the couple met the rangers' boat as it ferried the dog back to the mainland and were blown away to find Sophie Tucker on board.

"We called the dog and she started whimpering and banging the cage and they let her out and she just about flattened us,'' Griffith said.

To read more about Sophie and how she survived the wilderness, head on over to news.com.au.