I have a new pal

What a great day – lovely walk up the waggonway where there were some great muddy puddles (hosed down later, hate that!) then we had a visit from the new neighbour and her huge greyhound Mac.  I like Mac.  He’s black and enormous with legs like a giraffe.  He’s a bit nervous because he was a racer then ended up in a rescue centre and has only had a proper home for nine months.

He wasn’t too nervous to accept biscuits or try out my sheepskin lined bed for size.  It’s too small really but he managed to curl up and rest his head on the top like I do.  The daft thing is that he wouldn’t use the bigger one his mum had and she gave it away!  I sat alongside and tried to lick him which he tolerated for a while then put his ears back which is, apparently, the sign that he’s had enough.  I’ll have to be patient and teach him doggy things gradually.

http://www.waggonways.co.uk/section/article/Default.aspx?ArticleId=53622

Fans, I have fans!

Loud knocking on our door this afternoon and what do we have – two kids from the street asking to play with me: FANS!  They’d parked their bikes on our path but I soon jumped over them to get out.  Piece of cake – long jump rather than high jump over the gate.  We had a lovely romp about and I watered the ivy, saves messing the back yard.  Mind, with all the sun we’ve been having my mum has been watering the plant pots every night so the yard gets a daily wash.

We have some lovely things – hostas, apple trees, honeysuckle, clematis. ferns, herbs, even some potatoes.  They’re a happy accident.  My mum found some potatoes sprouting in her vegetable drawer and was going to throw them out before having a brainwave and planting them.  I don’t actually like vegetables, though she tries to sneak some into my dish if there are any leftovers.  I’m pretty good at rooting them out and spitting them on the floor.  She tells me off for doing that but, for heaven’s sake, I’m a dog; dogs are carnivores, not vegetarians.

The heatwave continues

HOT, HOT, HOT again today (25c) but I got to go to the beach and have a gorgeous swim.  Still a bit lame but my mum said I may as well prance about on the sand as dance about on the concrete in the street.  With it being sunny there were loads of visitors, but there’s plenty of sand for all of us.  My mum says when she was a kid the beach was so crowded that if you went for a paddle you couldn’t find your family on the way back.  This is her as a nipper playing on the sand – and it might even have been Whitley Bay.  You can tell it’s ages ago cos the photo is black and white which is all you could get then.  Colour hadn’t been invented.  Wonder what it was like in a black and white world?

Phew it’s hot!

We’re having a heatwave here in Whitley Bay and my mum and me are spending half the day soaking up the sun in the back yard.  Well, to be honest, I’m lying in the shade while she soaks up the sun cos with a fur coat it gets mighty hot in the open.  I was a bit on edge cos she didn’t sit and read today, she was shifting plant pots about and sweeping up leaves and sand which I bring in from the beach.  Every time I was comfy she came rattling round to where I was.  Didn’t know where to lie down with all the busying.  Then she went for a massage and brought back some more plants so I decided to keep out of the way and slept on the cool tiles in the hall.

I’m getting back to normal – hopefully – and had a couple of runs down the street which were great.  Lots of sniffs in the hedge, a cat or two to chase (don’t tell Sherry!) – freedom!

Lame again

My mum says we should have a season ticket for the vet’s.

I’m charging along the beach full of the joys of spring and, whoops, something went in my right leg and I’m limping again.  I put my paw down a few times to test the water, so to speak, but….OOWWWCH!  Back home it really was difficult moving around so my mum took pity on me and let me sleep in the sitting room overnight.  I love being in there but I was too sore to climb on the sofa.

Then, of course, we’re off to the vet surgery again – three times in as many weeks.  Vet gave me a thorough examination and said I was being really brave but that a moan or two would help her work out what was wrong.  Couldn’t manage it cos I knew there was a lovely black Labrador bitch in the waiting room and I didn’t want her to think I was a wuss by yelping.  So it was painkillers and anti-inflammatories again and the threat of an x-ray if it didn’t settle in a couple of days.  Vet said I might be sleepy with one of the medications and wow, did it lay me flat for the rest of the day.  No energy, didn’t feel hungry, really hangdog.  But a good night’s sleep (carpet again, hee hee) and I’m feeling much better today – can even put my foot down a bit.  Need to do a bit of positive thinking – I will get well, I will get well, I w…i….l….l…..  zzzzzz

Pets need pals

from the wonderful Andrew Grantham of Talking Animals

My mum loves this

…both the song and the owl.

 

created by Trystan Williams, now senior keeper at the Scottish Owl Centre  http://www.scottishowlcentre.com/

Patient condition check: improving

Phew, didn’t like having all those pills and gunk forced down my throat but they seem to have stopped this tummy bug dead in its tracks.  I had a really comfy night with no accidents and feel so much better today, though I’m not 100% just yet.  My mum came down in the middle of the night to see if I was okay and I got lots or praise cos the newspaper she’d put down on the floor for me was clean.  Nothing at breakfast time either.

We had friends in for breakfast – alfresco in the back yard cos there was sun and a clear blue sky – which was great cos I got some scraps of smoked salmon in my dish.  Doesn’t half perk up pasta and egg so I lapped it up double quick.  It’s stayed down and not gone flying through me either!

If I continue to improve this way and don’t spit out any of the pills (she found the giant one-a-day tablet I’d hidden under my food dish…), she says we can be back on the beach tomorrow.  Guess I’d better look after myself for a bit and not give my mum any more nasty scares – or vet bills.

Poorly sick

Would you believe it – back romping gleefully on the sand with my pals one morning and to the vet with an awful stomach bug the next.  My mum came down this morning to find I hadn’t been able to hold in either end after having the runs yesterday.  She panicked a bit cos there was a lot of bright red blood in the big messy puddle I’d deposited on the kitchen tiles and whisked me straight in the car and to the vet.

Vet gave me a thorough going over (didn’t like the bit with the glove AT ALL!) and said it appeared to be a tummy bug.  Apparently there’s a bug going around.  Two injections later (antibiotic; stomach calming stuff) we came away with enough medications to rival Boots.  Of course I’m restricted to quarters again in case I pass it on to anyone else in the K9 family.  Bit annoying as the vet said my toe had a good callus – which means the bone has repaired itself – and I would have passed the fitness test.

I laid low while my mum cleared up the mess, having first suffered the indignity – not to say chill – of having the hose sluiced down my smelly nether regions.  Trouble with having a long feathery tail is that it’s hard to avoid it getting messy when things aren’t right at the rear end.  I’m going to rest for the remainder of the day cos my tummy is rather sore, too sore to even contemplate the pasta and egg mum made me as a light lunch.  Maybe she’ll tempt my taste buds by adding something more flavourful later.

Mum says a big thank you, again, to the Strachan Veterinary Group.

 

Yeah, I’m going to the BEACH!!!

Isn’t this just my favourite thing…