Four Weeks for Queenie

Sunday marked four weeks with us for Queenie and she must be getting bigger, though for some reason her body seems to concentrating mainly on her ears - the sudden strong gusts of wind in the summer could be problematic. Hopefully in a few weeks, her head will have grown enough for her Doggles to fit, assuming we can extend the elastic enough to get over her ears.

Vitamins for Sam

Sam continued to have fits until Monday so we took him to the vet. The vet suggested that we try him again on vitamins. He was reluctant to start him on anti-epilepsy medication until we tried the vitamins as once we start with the medication we can't stop. Generally, Sam's fits are so infrequent we would prefer not to start medication, however at the weekend he had so many and so close together that it was a very different situation.

Since taking him to the vet he hasn't had another fit, so we don't know if it is the vitamins, if they had run the course or, as we also wormed him, whether that had an effect.

Sam is such an odd dog that it is very difficult to tell if he is affected by the fits. He is so nervy that crunching his vitamin tablets used to upset him and he if he, er, breaks wind, it makes him jump.

Lurgy 2

The drizzle of yesterday morning cleared into a lovely sunny day, which annoyingly, I could only peer out on from under the duvet as I have got another cold. I seem only have just to shaken off a cough which developed after a cold earlier this year, and another is now blooming. I think I was driven to bed by a lem-sip-alike, which knocked me for six. I seem to think that this happened before and that I was driven to bed after taking a lem-sip-alike.

I use the little known, but strangely accurate, Pizza Test to gauge any lurgy (with gradations from tucking in with relish but not being able to finish it, through to only fancying a couple of slices through to not wanting any at all). So yesterday when I didn't want pizza for tea I knew that I was facing a few days of grottiness.

I'm not sure which student to blame - which is probably a good thing as I don't take this sort of thing well, and snippets of Agatha Christie book, The Mirror Cracked, keep coming to mind. And as this involves murder, it is important to keep these dark musings under control.

'Someone' dug the other plant that Ian planted out, and it could have been Queenie. I put it back in again, but as it had no roots I'm not holding out too much hope!  I wonder if her ears will ever become in proportion to her body. When she walks around the back of the patio, I can see her ears poking over the top of the wall of the planter.

I don't think anyone could accuse us of being a quiet household. Larry seems to have got more noisy, which I think is a spring thing and he is calling for a mate. Which brings us back to that conundrum - would two parrots reduce the noise as they whisper sweet nothings to each other, or be twice as noisy as they squark sweet nothings at the top of their voices! Of course, Larry is a parrot which is described as being 'moderately noisy', goodness knows what sort of sonic boom a 'very noisy' parrot would generate,

Poor old Sam has really been through wars. He's had five fits in the last day and a bit, which is exceptional for him. His fits show no real pattern, other than the fact that after a big one, they seem to stop for a while - often several months or more. While his fits are so irregular there's little a vet can do as we don't really want him to take any medication unless he has to. However if they are going to continue this level of frequency he will have to start to take some medication to keep them under control.

Playmates

Rosie and Queenie have been playing more and more. It obviously requires Rosie to rein herself in a little, but we rarely hear Queenie squealing. As it's raining this morning, despite my protestations, the dog sofa is the playground.

Sam's just had his third seizure in 24 hours and is now wandering around tripping over things. Hopefully these will be the last he suffers for a while.

First Day of Spring

We were greeted to the first day of spring by an almighty thunder crash - it was the loudest thunder crash we have heard and Ian went outside to make sure it wasn't the house falling down. It then proceeded to rain and the thunder and lightening bounced around, as it does here. Ian had said last night that the clouds reminded him of summer dry storms, and he was obviously right (except for the dry bit, of course). Sam got very upset by it, but Queenie was blissfully unaware. Dumpling didn't react either, but I am certain she must have heard it.

Ian planted a couple of plants in the planter on the patio and jet washed the patio to get rid of the mould which grows here during the winter. He was then greeted the following morning by one of the plants having been 'transplanted' by Rosie into the hall, and, as she had obviously tried to eat some of it, she had vomited the rest onto the newly clean patio.

We went asparagus picking yesterday and we did very well - enough to have asparagus on toast which actually covers the toast and still leave plenty for tea tonight. There was quite a lot around. It has been a very mild winter and not too wet at all, so hopefully this will make for good asparagus conditions. While there has been rain, it has not been anywhere near like it was last year - which I suppose is good and bad as it might make for problems later in the year.

I cancelled a couple of classes yesterday - which, I think, is the first time ever! I cancelled the 7 - 9 classes as it was Father's Day and I knew at least one student wasn't able to come because they were going to Father's Day mass.

Ian has finished the website for the house - A Grand House - it looks pretty good, I'd buy it!! However, while it would be nice to think that a rich Russian oligarch saw this and decided to buy it straight away, it's going to take some time, but as we're not in any rush. As we need not only to sell it, but sell it at the right price, we know we could be spending a couple more Christmases here - but only time will tell...

Evil Fairy Lights

Queenie does not like our fairy lights. They upset her and she barks. With her very poor night time vision, seeing little lights floating around must be quite upsetting for her. Ian doesn't like fairy lights either, although admittedly he doesn't bark at them. But this might be the excuse he needs not to swathe our new house in fairy lights.

We took Petal, Tinkerbelle and Alfie to the vet yesterday for a senior dog check up. There wasn't really anything to report, but Tinkerbelle has a slow heart beat like Bob so that's something to watch for. The vet said that Alfie had very limited vision in his eye. But we suspected this anyway. She did say that they could operate to remove a cataract. We won't do this, however I thought it was significant that she felt he was healthy enough to warrant such an operation.

The village has been busy with young lads raffling bundles of asparagus. I think last weekend was the first good weekend and enterprising youngsters were coming round collecting euros for the chance to win a bundle. We participated but regarded it as a donation, as the arrangements for drawing the raffle seemed rather vague! We didn't bother to go looking for asparagus at the weekend, thinking that everyone else would be. However I did manage to gather a few stalks which made for a very sparse toast topping:

Sweet

If I had to pick one adjective to describe Queenie it would be sweet. She is a very sweet little dog. She is relatively calm for a puppy and is never far away from us, but not at all nervy. In fact, she is so always close to us, that one thing we will have to watch is that she is also OK on her own if we go out.

She sleeps deeply, and doesn't react badly when she is woken (I have read that some deaf dogs can be frightened if they get woken suddenly). She has enough vision to get on perfectly in the house, although she does seem to have problems in the dark and bright sunlight. She had to get very close to Ian before she recognized him when he was weeding yesterday - in the bright sunshine. She was very apprehensive of a plant in the back garden too, obviously not being able to distinguish whether it was a green monster or something less scary. I suppose we have to remember that we are comparing her with our pets with absolutely no vision, so to us Queenie seems pretty competent, as we're quite used to animals ricocheting around the house. However I do remember in one of the videos we watched before we got her, of her and one of her siblings, he was running round playing with another dog and Queenie was obviously unable to join in.

She was getting lost in the night and barking, but she is doing that less now, I think as she is finding her way around. That is something Wilbs used to do, particularly if he was asleep when we went to bed and he woke up and found we had all gone.

We will never be able to take her off a lead when she is out, so I will look for a super-strong retractable lead so she can wander away but still be safe - we'll want it to be strong for our own piece of mind. I've only ever had one before and it snapped almost straight away, which put me off slightly....

Doggles

This is what all the best dressed dogs in Villagrcia are wearing this season. The lenses are interchangeable so we may see if they have darker lenses for bright sunshine if necessary for Queenie.

Henry

We'd been anticipating the worst for a little while and sadly this morning it seemed that it was probably the right time for Henry to be put to sleep. With the bulky bandage removed from his leg on Saturday, Heny had seemed rather brighter and he'd eaten quite well once we got fresh chicken breast in front of him. On Sunday though, he was quieter again and wouldn't eat.

No longer will we have to search around for odd shoes because Henry has spirited them away for safe keeping and then got distracted.

Queenie's Beanbag

Following on from Henry looking cute on Kate's beanbag, here's Queenie. Being deaf, she obviously sleeps very soundly, making it easy to photograph her. I'll keep trying to snap a shot of Kate looking cute on her beanbag!

Henry's Beanbag

Henry seemed particularly downhearted after the vet on Friday as they bandaged his leg heavily. He stopped eating and we had to return to the vet on Saturday. Thankfully they gave him a less intrusive bandage and he's been a lot happier since. He's also eating a little, but only fresh chicken breast - he's turned his nose up at meatballs. Click on the photo to see it properly.

Bulldog in a Fur Coat

We were at the vet yesterday with Henry (and Queenie) and we saw a little french bulldog - with a very flat and squishy face, stumpy legs and who made a little piggy snuffling sound. If you put it in a fur coat it would have been Dumpling! I don't think there's a breed of long coated french bulldogs, but if there was, Dumpling would definitely be it!

We were at the vet for a check up with Henry and the vet warned us that Henry won't have much time left. I had thought he was getting better, but he's not.  It's very sad to see him now, as he is wearing a bandage on his leg to reduce the swelling. However if this is going to be his last weekend, I may ask if we can take it off him as it must be uncomfortable.

The vets were very interested in Queenie. We had only taken her along to both socialise her and as we didn't want to leave her on her own until we knew she was settled in. Interestingly one of the vets thought that Queenie was about 5 months old, but rethought this when she saw that Queenie still has her puppy teeth. Ian and I were at polar opposites as to whether this was good or bad. I had thought that if she was nearer 5 months, she would be more Sam's size than Rosie's - and that would be good. Whereas Ian was hoping that if she was 3 months old she'd be nearer Rosie's size.  Only time will tell...

We're keeping Queenie's name as we've got used to it, but as she doesn't hear, she wouldn't know if we changed it. She spends most of her waking time trying to get Pixie to play or getting hid over the head by cats who now seem to have accepted her. She does try to play with Rosie, however the end result is general confusion by both of them. It's quite sad as even a month ago, Henry would have been first to play.

Spring has sprung with a vengeance and the weather forecast is showing several days now of temperatures around 20, which is great! Hopefully it will be good news for asparagus too.

Smoke on the Emulsion

The white paint is out again to hide some of the effects of smoke from a winter with fire. I'd hoped I could just paint the spots where necessary, but removing the pictures off the wall showed just how much the fire had affected the paint. I'm keeping fingers crossed that we won't need to paint the ceiling, but fear we may not be so lucky.

Dog Mound

Queenie seems to understand how things work. The weather forecast is looking better so Sam will be the first one to enjoy his spring time haircut.

Queenie With Stars in Her Eyes

Instead of round pupils, Queenie has very definite star shaped pupils. Her eyes are quite small, light blue with these little stars inside - it's very distinctive. This is due to having two M genes and she is what is known as being double merle. One of the side effects of this is deafness and it effects her eyes with the inability of the pupil to react correctly. She will have sensitivity to bright light and WILL NEED TO WEAR SUNGLASSES IN THE SUN!

So, Doggles to the rescue. Goggles for dogs. We've spend much of the day debating what colour she would like. Ian thought that the black Doggles with skulls - obviously for Hells Angel dogs - would be good. Whereas I, being in tune with Queenie and her needs, decided that pink was a better option, particularly the ones with diamantes. Ultimately, the budget spoke, and we found some well priced lilac ones on eBay Spain. Happily, they also have some little flower decorations so she will look very feminine.

Hopefully if we start her wearing her Doggles when she is young, she'll take to them quite happily.

Queenie is a very sweet little dog, well not that little as she is the size of Sam. She is very cuddly and nice natured. She is trying to get Pixie to play with her, but Pixie won't. She's decided that her toilet area is in the pantry, so we're keeping an eye on her.  They say she can see shadows and that seems to give her enough vision to get around. She seems to be completely without hearing so we will need to find a way to get her attention.

Here's Queenie

She's about three months old now and according to a calculation we found online, she will perhaps be about 25kg when full grown, which is what we'd been thinking. She seems quite self-confident and Rosie has been  wanting her to play, but it's probably a little soon.

If the light is reasonable, she seems to have enough vision to see movement, but in poor light she seems unable to pick up on anything. While she may not be completely deaf, she hears very little and the rescue people described as completely deaf.

Most of the cats haven't been to bothered by her arrival, though Pirata isn't pulling a happy face and Anubis was utterly horrified. She looked like something out of a cartoon as she skidded across the patio upon meeting Queenie and disappeared through the back door, almost shredding Tinkerbelle on the way. We found her halfway up the metal gate at the front of the hallway and when I got her down, she threatened every dog in spitting distance before racing down the hallway, turning a sharp right and then wedging herself into the rear of the fridge beside the compressor. She came out 20 minutes later, but she's also not looking happy.

Queenie is now lying calmly with her head by Kate's feet - it's probably the fumes!

Queeny

We're going to collect Queeny today. We are meeting her foster family half way between their house and ours, at Salamanca. We're both looking forward to bringing her home and introducing her to our little gang. We've enjoyed introducing all the new animals, but this will be a little extra special given her being blind and deaf. So more later....

Henry Update

We took Henry back to the vet and while there's no doubt that he's pretty poorly, he seems a very more spritely dog than he was this time last week. He is much more like his old self, and while we haven't seen him playing, he's been told off for barking and has wandered down to wait for me after classes, which are typical Henry behaviours. We're going back next week and by then we'll know a little more about whether things are getting worse, staying the same or getting better. There are things that they can do to remove the lump on his leg, as I think it is a pocket of fluid. However as these would be uncomfortable for Henry at the least, and that as he doesn't seem to be worried about the lump on his leg, it doesn't seem fair to put him through any unnecessary discomfort. Henry's appetite has come back and he's eating well, which must help.

We are still getting mushrooms from our mushroom block. Ian remarked that they were a slightly different colour, darker to the earlier ones, and was a little concerned that they'd become contaminated. A worry that deepened when he cooked them and they turned blue. A nasty moment that dispersed when he looked over and saw that I had been dying wool - blue. Oooops.I've made a mental note not to use our cooking implements for dying wool in the future...

I was dying wool as I had a jumper that I knitted from silk a few years ago and it stretched. I made it from silk waste, which is bits of silk strands which don't get processed when the silk is unwound from the cacoons. It is an absolute labour of love to prepare the waste for spinning, and not something I will be in a hurry to do again! I have to wash the silk carefully to remove the natural gum from the silk worm, then dye it, then card it to try and get the silk fibres laying flat, then spin it - and then knit it. The jumper stretched because I didn't do a good job of carding it, and the fibres were still scrunched up when I spun it and they stretched out over time. So, having decided to unpick the jumper I thought I'd redye the silk, and I'm quite pleased with the result, even if Ian thought that the mushrooms were severely contaminated!

We went to the craft store in Llerena to meet the people who are in charge of the seven stores. I thought we were just meeting them, however it turned out that they wanted to take the rest of the jewellery into their Caceres and Trujillo store. As we are now members of the association, we can take part in some of their exhibitions and shows around Extremadura. I don't think we'll take advantage of this - particularly not the invitation to take part in a craft show at the large matanzas - where they slaughter pigs and turn them into meat leaving only the skin and teeth at the end of the day. Most people have their own matanza in garages, however there are also big exhibition ones which are weekend celebrations, for instance in Llerena where the whole square turns into a butchery and there are other stalls and activities - including craft shows. But I think we'll give it a miss!