Hello! Taco is an approximately 13-year-old Chihuahua mix and just the sweetest, snuggliest baby boy. He was five and already had a cataract in his right eye when I adopted him. Unfortunately, he recently suffered an injury to his formerly good eye that has left him permanently blinded on the left side, and he is struggling to adjust to his new disability.

I am hoping to raise enough money through GoFundMe to pay for cataract surgery for the right eye to hopefully restore some of his sight. If you can help at all, I cannot tell you how grateful I would be—even if you can't give financially, just sharing my fundraiser would be such a gift. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. —Lily

Pupdate 1: I've had a couple days to gather my thoughts and I'd like to give an approximate cost breakdown! Taco's vet says cataract surgery can cost $5–7k. I want to budget on the higher end for that, since restoring his sight is very important to me. He'll also need glaucoma surgery or enucleation for his injured eye—his intraocular pressure is significantly higher than normal after the injury and because he'll never regain vision on that side there's really no point in keeping it since all it does now is require frequently forcing the poor guy to sit for eye drops, which he hates. Enucleation can cost $1–2k for one eye and I'd like to budget at least $1k there. The remaining amount will go towards followup appointments, medications, and surgical consultations—plus because we have already had a few donations, I can now purchase a device for Taco called a halo, which will allow him to learn how to get around without his sight, without continuing to run his poor little snoot into things! And don't worry, I've set up a checking account for Taco with his very own debit card, so I can make sure to keep his money and my money separate. That way I can ensure your donations are going exactly where you intended—to help my sweet little guy. ❤️

Pupdate 2: Taco is doing really well so far! I haven't noticed any swelling in his injured eye, which means his glaucoma drops appear to be working. He's learned how to find his way around the house and doesn't run into things nearly so often anymore! He'll have a progress check with the vet soon (as soon as their tonometer comes back from being repaired) and I'll let you all know what we hear.

Pupdate 3: Taco's injured eye has healed so well that the fluid is now draining correctly and he may not need the glaucoma drops anymore! We are tapering him down and monitoring his IOP to make sure the eye is otherwise healthy and if it doesn't start going back up without the drops then he won't need enucleation and can keep both eyes! The bad news is that his intraocular pressure in the cataract eye is a little high so now he's getting the drops on that side instead, poor guy. But we are so happy he may only need one surgery now!

Pupdate 4: Taco's pressure in the injured eye is normal after tapering off his timolol/dorzolamide! He'll need it in the cataract eye indefinitely, but this means the injury is completely healed (aside from the vision loss) so he gets to keep both eyes! Now all we have to worry about is paying for cataract surgery and the cost of ongoing treatment to keep that eye healthy enough for it. What fantastic news!!