Meet Jasper – a burly five-stone Staffordshire Bull Terrier who has developed a fear of cats.
The three-year-old pooch cowers and whimpers at the mere sight of a feline after being almost blinded by a cat attack.
Vets thought the timid terrier would lose his right eye, but thanks to a delicate skin graft he can now see again.
But although the petrified pooch has made a full recovery, the attack has left him traumatised and afraid of even the smallest house cat.
Owners Gordon Borland, 49, and sister Lynda, 42, of Shawlands, Glasgow, have to carefully plan walkies with Jasper.
Gordon said yesterday (Tue): “When we take him out and he sees a cat he goes right on his belly and stops to wait to see where the cat is going.
“He weighs about five stone, my sister has trouble walking him because he’s really strong, but he won’t go near a cat after what happened.”
Jasper was treated by the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) in Glasgow following the attack in June last year and after just a few weeks was on the mend.
The scar has now healed completely thanks to the skill of the vets but Jasper has been left with a crippling fear of cats.
Lynda, a mother of one, also from Shawlands, added: “I was walking back to the flat with Jasper on the lead and the cat just bounced out of the bushes and caught him in the eye.
“He’s a wee soppy thing, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.
“The vets have done a great job.”
Jasper’s eye was saved by Susan Hermit, veterinary surgeon at the PDSA.
She said: “When we first saw Jasper, his eye was so badly damaged we expected him to lose it.
“We performed a conjunctival pedicle graft, which very delicately frees some of the pink tissue that lines Jasper’s eye -the conjunctiva.
“This creates a ‘finger’ of tissue that is painstakingly moved to cover the scratch.
“With a collar on to stop him scratching his eye, and medication vigilantly administered by his owner, Jasper has made a full recovery and can see out of his damaged eye.
“He has a small pink scar on his eye where he was injured, but this is slowly fading.”
