I should know better

“Party hat? Some party this has been!”

Fidget looking quite grown up – “no-one calls me a penguin these days!”

Autumn looms, with morning mist quite thick today, and the dogs are determined to push me into bankruptcy before winter, with a succession of minor but expensive aliments. Camilla has been particularly prominent in this, with an enormous ear haematoma. The usual op., involving draining it and fastening the ear back together with pearl buttons, should have been straight forward but was not well done, involving frequent follow-up visits and the constant wearing of what my vet refers to as a “party hat”, much to Camilla`s disgust.

My only previous experience of this op was with a tomcat named Freddie. Freddie ranged far and wide, and only came home, it seemed, when he required medical attention.

One morning, after a week`s absence, I heard him running down the lane, calling as he came, and I knew by the sound of it he was in trouble. One ear was swollen shut. Straight to vet.

I left him there for treatment, and when I came to collect him, the vets were still laughing.
It seems that on his little trip, Freddie had caught earmites, probably from a holiday romance . (I dread to think what she got out of it...) Anyway, he had scratched the ear, and with his sharp cat claws had caused a haematoma, a blood blister which had swollen up and closed the ear. This lack of an escape route had not troubled the earmites, which had gone on with their daily life, reproducing like...well, like earmites. “And when we drained it, and opened the ear the huge number of earmites had built up such a pressure that they were hitting the opposite wall – it was like opening a champagne bottle.”

Somehow I was quite glad to have escaped this jolly event.

Meanwhile, I have ongoing computer problems and may be offline for a time.

I can no doubt use the time this will free up by contributing still more to the the Vet Retirement Fund.