Great minds must think alike for Jerry and Baxter. 

That football is to Baxter what tennis balls were to Rocky. I bought a handful of footballs for Baxter. He's funny. He'll play with one for months, even a year, and then one day he'll decide to just destroy it. And I have to throw it away and grab another one for him. And then he'll play with that one for months before tearing it apart. 

A question for anybody who may have gone through this: About a year ago, Baxter lost a tooth chasing after a rabbit. We went to the vet then and there was no sign of the tooth in his mouth. The vet said then that Baxter's mouth/gum would likely heal and seal up the spot to keep any infection out, but to keep an eye on it to make sure there wasn't any swelling. 

Baxter hasn't had any issues, but I noticed something in that spot while we were playing with his football. I took a pic and sent it to his vet. He thinks it's part of the broken tooth still in there. He recommended a teeth cleaning and extracting the remaining part of the tooth while Baxter is under. That's probably what I'm going to do. I don't want to risk it getting infected somewhere down the line and becoming a problem. But Baxter hasn't shown any issues with it over the past year or so. 

On the one hand, I'm with Sally in that I think if that tooth (or what's left of it) was going to be a problem, it would have already happened. On the other hand, I remember reading about how tooth infections can eventually lead to heart disease. My biggest fear with Rocky, and now Baxter, is that I'll ignore something because it seems minor and then it turns out to be a bigger problem down the road. 

Sally,

My dad's dog, Ripple (you were close!), is hanging in there. I'm not sure how well he sees at this point, but he still gets multiple eye drops daily. He still has some vision left. He's also developed a heart issue, so he's on meds for that now too. He's almost 13, so he's definitely a lot slower than he used to be, but he seems to be doing well relatively speaking.