Fireworks Done
Posted: Sun 8 November, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic Leave a comment »Another year of firework displays is now over, thank god.
We had a couple of nearby displays this year – compared to none last year – but thankfully Hound seemed to handle them fine this time, for just about the first time ever. Compared to five years ago when she had a nervous breakdown during fireworks weekend, that’s pretty fucking miraculous.
Of course, she’s now on more types of pills than I can think of – compared to none five years ago – which certainly also make a big difference. She’s also been on a new one over the last month called Zylkene, which seems to be having a good effect on her.
Anyway, it’s over now ’til New Years Eve, so we might get some peace.
Little and Large
Posted: Wed 4 November, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Weirdness Leave a comment »As it’s coming up to two years since we got them, the chickens have started doing some strange things.
They haven’t been quite as productive this year as they were in their first year – which is to be expected – as they finally got round to all moulting in the last four months, and Gladys in particular has been a broody old cow this year.
All the same, the egg I found last night was notable…
Todays egg, on the right
That’s a normal-sized egg on the left, and the tiny example left yesterday. Very strange. I haven’t yet opened it up to see if it’s perfectly formed inside, though.
Unwell – Additional
Posted: Tue 27 October, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Health, Thoughts 1 Comment »Following on from yesterday’s post about Hound being unwell, she’s definitely getting over it.
What I forgot to add to yesterday’s post though – and the subject for this one – is that because of taking her to the vets again on Monday, I had to let the new workplace know I was going to be in later than usual. So I sent them an email on Sunday night, explaining that the dog was ill etc., and I’d be in late.
It was only afterwards that I started having second thoughts, thinking that it sounded
- a bit like just an excuse for a lie-in
- like I must be a bit daft when it comes to Hound etc.
In the end, I rationalised it a bit by thinking “Well, if it were a child, they’d fully understand that we had to go to a hospital for extra checks and so on“. And in a lot of ways, Hound is to us what a child is to a lot of other couples. (No, not “A pain in the arse, that deserves regular beating”) While we’re not the kind of moronic fuck-knuckles who dress a dog up in clothes, or treat it like a surrogate child, we have invested one hell of a lot of time, energy and money in Hound over the years in a similar way to a ‘normal’ family.
Of course, it turned out that no-one in the office had thought about it like that anyway – it was just me thinking into things way too much. As usual.
Unwell
Posted: Mon 26 October, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Health 1 Comment »Last night, we ended up taking Hound to the emergency vet. She’d been a bit flat all day – and we should’ve realised all was Not Well when she didn’t move while we ate lunch.
But during the evening she went downhill quite quickly, so we ended up calling the out-of-hours service for our vets, and getting over to the vets main place.
It turned out she’s got aspirated pneumonia – basically, she’s coughed on whatever, breathed it in, and done so repeatedly. Last night she was running a temperature of 40°, which was the most concern to the vet. As he said at the time, “It’s not the highest temperature I’ve ever seen with a dog, but it’s not far off“.
She ended up with four injections – antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, antacid, and Metoclopramide to help food get processed.
She’s been back today to be checked again, on the knowledge that if her temperature wasn’t much better, she was going to be staying in for a couple of days with an IV drip etc. to sort her out. Fortunately, she is much better, temperature’s back down to normal, and it looks like the jabs have done their job.
We’re not out of the woods yet with her – we’ve got two weeks of antibiotics and Metoclopramide to give her, as well as three days of something that’ll help her cough up the shit that’s still in her lungs. But the indications are positive for now, and all told we’re much happier again about her health.
Taking a Break
Posted: Fri 16 October, 2009 Filed under: Animals, D4D™, Domestic, Travel Leave a comment »Today, Herself and I are off down to Berkshire for the weekend. Partly it’s about seeing friends in the area, partly just for a weekend away from the world, and partly just because.
Hound is coming with us and will go off to stay with the people she used to see when we were down there, so she’ll be happy.
Psycho Cat will have the house to himself for the weekend (we’ve got one of the family to pop in for purposes of feeding/watering, and dealing with the chickens) so he’ll be as happy as he ever is – although he’ll also cop a strop when we get home, because we’ve brought Hound back with us.
The Girls won’t care one way or another, so long as they’re let out, fed, watered, get their eggs collected, and get put away at night.
So all told, everyone should be happy.
D4D™, on the other hand, might be a bit quiet. Depends how many things I get to write and set up for future publishing, really.
Beach Day
Posted: Sat 10 October, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Norfolk Leave a comment »We spent a lot of today at the beach for Wells-next-the-Sea with Hound and Maisie, the black lab of the out-laws.
Wells is a fantastic place for dogs – particularly while the tide’s out – and they’ve both had a fantastic time today. Of course, Hound’s knackered now, although that’s part of the bonus of the beach – two hours there will knacker most dogs.
All told though, a good way to spend a Saturday. In the sun, on a beach, throwing a ball on a rope for idiot dogs.
Wanted?
Posted: Mon 28 September, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic 1 Comment »Sometimes I wonder whether the animals at home actually want to get rid of me.
In the last twelve hours, for example, I’ve dealt with Psycho Cat puking at 4am, Hound puking at 7am, and Hound trying to deal me a nip for no good reason at all this morning.
All told, it really makes you wonder whether they actually want to see me back at all.