AVOID! AVOID! AVOID! I brought my little dog Buddy in for cataract surgery over the summer, but unfortunately he never had the chance to enjoy his new eyes—because he was too busy dying! Something happened to his little brain during the surgery and he was never the same again. For two heart-crushing weeks I watched him wither away to nothing. When he was awake, he would hallucinate, struggle to breathe, and walk into things. His little heart would beat so fast, he had trouble standing, and couldn’t swallow completely. He wouldn’t eat or drink on his own. It got to the point where I had to wake him up every half hour to feed him tiny amounts of liquid food with an oral syringe just so he wouldn’t spit it up. But every time he woke up on his own, he would regurgitate and foam at the mouth—pacing around the apartment unhappy, uncoordinated, and uncomfortable. We hospitalized him for several days, but his breathing was horribly labored; his tiny throat kept closing up on him. He had three seizures while hospitalized. The last one was so bad that he needed to be resuscitated. The hospital told us he was unresponsive and would have less than a 10% chance of surviving the next one. We were forced to make that dreaded decision to end his pain. In the end, no one wanted to take responsibility for what happened to my little Buddy. However, I am convinced that if I didn’t bring him in that day, he would still be alive today. Perhaps the saddest thought of all is that Buddy’s fate was sealed the day I carried him into that office for his cataract surgery. Poor defenseless little guy! His daddy carried him into that office and there was nothing he could do about it—no choice—no opt out. This Christmas will be a sad one indeed because the idea for Buddy’s surgery came from my family who graciously offered to pay for it in lieu of celebrating Christmas this year. Our only gift would be having our little Buddy back—the way he was before the cataracts prevented him from seeing the people who loved him. Buddy’s Cataract surgery was very expensive and his hospitalization was even more costly. This Christmas, my family will be $10,000 in-the-hole and without our Buddy. I can’t help but think that, if the same happened to a human child, there would be hell to pay—a huge lawsuit and possibly criminal charges.