I should know better

A surprise happy ending to a soggy month of constant rain and floods.  My renewed field drain looked like the Amazon this morning, and I dared not let Tess Trueheart and Sparkle out in case they fell in and drowned.  All that was missing was the gate and the muckle great skate and the Lum Hat wanting a croon....however, this old lady didn`t fall in.

 The rest, having been out once in the torrential rain, were totally unwilling to go again, even when the rain eased.

Success for Cupcake

But the happy ending?  Well, Cupcake, who has won every time out in Ireland, excelled himself in Dublin by going Best of Breed and winning his first Green Star.  I am delighted.  He is expertly handled and prepared and it seems that he has impressed everyone who sees him. 

Well, he would need quite a few more Green Stars to be a Champion, but I am well pleased at the moment   He has made a good start.

Maybe next year will be his year!

Well, not so merry here, as I have two invalids.

The other day,, when I went to let out the puppies, Sparkle was staggering.  He rapidly got worse.  After phoning around for help, which I couldn`t get, I packed the collapsed puppy in a dogbox and set off up the road.  (I have to walk about half a mile to civilisation, where I can get a taxi.)   By the time I got to the vet, I was too breathless to speak.

The vet was doubtful, and said “I think it is neurological”.  These are not words you want to hear.  However, she put him on a drip and went off to do bloodwork.  I went off to get a hot coffee to pick me up a little.

And then came the phone call.  His blood sugar, she said, “was through the floor”.   He had had a hypo.

I have read about this.  It happens in toy puppies between six and eleven weeks, usually with no apparent cause.  Suddenly they have hypoglycaemia.  And it is a very urgent emergency.  But within an hour I had another call, saying he was sitting up and taking interest, and in another hour was told he was wagging his tail and eating his dinner and could go home.

And he has been fine since.   But I now feed him little and often, and watch him all the time.

i had to take him back the next week for his blood to be checked, and I took Ella as well, as she had a sore eye, hoping for eye ointment.

Now, I should explain that I had gone to the Expensive Vet, not my usual, simply because it was by far the nearest in an emergency.   I didn`t suppose Ella was an emergency.   Imagine my horror when the vet, one known for his pessimism, said she needed an urgent operation “or she could lose the eye”, and carried her off then and there to do it.   I suspect that an eye ulcer could have been treated otherwise, but what could I say?





So now I have an invalid for Christmas.   Ella, I should say, is not at all amenable to eye drops at all, let alone 6 times a day, but by now we have got past the screaming, fighting and eye bugging stage.   We are resigned to it.  I however, am less than resigned to the bill.  I will be paying this off forever.  

I hope your Christmas is suitably merry, and free from incident – and vets!

We went to a Papillon show the other day.

When I say “we” I mean the present team of Angel and Belle, Cupcake having followed the old advice – “Go west, young man” – and being busy abroad.   The girls travel together, and sometimes Belle is not even sick!

In this case she avoided vomiting over her partner and we actually arrived clean.  Mr Wag and Plush had also come, to strut their stuff in the Puppy Walk.  They were fascinated by all that was going on, with their little eyes very wide indeed.

As it happened, both girls won their classes.   This meant that they would both have to go into the challenge for Best Bitch.  I found someone to help and in we went.   She said she would prefer to hold Belle, as she had some inkling of Angel`s devious activities.

"My brother and I - he was given away - am I to be  next?"  - Belle

Belle, was fairly shocked.   She gazed at me, and showed desperately to me, in the hope that she would be taken back.  Clearly she remembered that her brother had been handed over and taken away.   Now it was her turn?

Angel was in no doubt.   Her rival on the show team had been got rid of.   She stood alone.  At last!  She swaggered and posed and cast unspeakable looks at poor Belle.  To cheer her up, Belle was offered a titbit – and Angel swooped and took it out of her mouth.  The message was clear –“You get  nothing -  you have no connection with us any more!”   (Belle`s  handler was amazed at this truly awful behaviour…Angel manages to amaze lots of people, usually not in a good way)

And afterwards it was her turn to be amazed as Belle came back to me.   What had happened?   Had I not got enough money for her?   Angel accepted the inevitable – she and Belle were a team again.

As to Mr Wag and Plush – well, Plush was queen of the Puppy Walk, and did everything on a loose lead perfectly.  As people commented, she is yet another Mummy`s girl.  I do seem to turn these out.    Mr Wag, on the other hand, made it clear that he would not be walking on any lead any day soon.

I think I have a struggle to come with him.

A mild November so far, and since my entry was returned for today`s show, at which I had planned to continue the education of Plush and Mr Wagg, I decided to turn my attention to the younger two, and get them introduced to the great outdoors and the fact that there is a lot of it, and a sky overhead which is not about to fall on them.

They took to it quite well.  Mum was there, so were the other adults, and there were mounds of fallen leaves to snuffle through and a good chance of getting your paws dirty.

"I didn`t think the world would be so big" - Sparkle

They are now answering to Tess and Sparkle.  I have to confess that the boy, Sparkle, had been answering to “Doughnut” and I felt I had to put a quick stop to that before it caught and held for life.  I really don`t need any more bakery products in this pack.   He is an adorable tail wagger – indeed the whole fat little body wags with delight,  while his sister is more serious.   She enjoyed the outdoors more, though and was more adventurous.   Their mother kept an eye on them, and shows no sign of getting tired of them.

"I can cope with whatever it throws at me -if Mum is there"  - Tess

   I   have no news of Cupcake at the moment beyond that he has settled well.   I still miss him, though.

Apart from that, my life seems to be filling with hospital appointments – very festive.  I am waiting still for the other eye to be done, but it looks as if I will be seeing Christmas through glasses with one lens removed.

But not through any other kind of glasses – I don`t drink.