Milly Gets Her Skip Back

Milly has added the outdoor tables to her race track and here she is demonstrating that she has got her skip back. She was a little unsettled by Bobbins, however she is back to her normal skippy self now.

Here's Rosie trying to work out if Bobbins is something she can eat...

We Say Goodbye to Schnukems

Schnukem died in her sleep last night. We suspect she had a tumor inside, however because of her shape we couldn't see it. Certainly there was no clue that anything was wrong until we noticed her walking stiffly yesterday. She was on the bed yesterday afternoon breathing quite shallowly so we put her in the shower room and made a little bed for her so we could keep an eye on her (knowing that cats take themselves away when they are feeling bad) and this morning I found that she had died over night. She has been her normal self right up to yesterday. I am glad we put her in the shower room yesterday so she died at home and at least it was peaceful for her and we have the peace of knowing what happened to her.

Here she is as part of a big kitty pile, something she used to enjoy a lot.

Life with Bobbins

Bobbins is settling in with ease. There was a flurry of interest in her from the others, but that soon dispelled. It was only Milly who seemed affected by Bobbins. Ideally we wouldn't have bought another animal in so soon, as little Milly is still gaining confidence. On Friday afternoon and Saturday she was no where near as skippy as she had been and has needed a few extra cuddles to get her confidence back. Milly does like playing and I am sure she will see Bobbins as being a playmate soon.

Unlike any of our other blind  animals, Bobbins seems very happy to be shut in the puppy cage. While others will lie in it with the door open, they do not like to be shut in (on a larger scale Wilbs doesn't like to be shut in a room). However I have shut the door on Bobbins at night and during her 'down-time' during the day and she doesn't seem to mind. She came with a toy spider and spends a lot of time attacking that, so a series of squeals comes from the crate. Unfortunately, Queenie used to like sleeping in the crate, but she refuses to go in there with Bobbins, maybe that will change. Bobbins also takes herself under the sofa. She's not a nervy pup, I think she just likes to have a safe little nest.

Having Bobbins using a puppy crate makes life very straight forward and will help no end with her house training. The only downside is that we carry her from her crate to outside, something that makes it difficult for her to get her bearings, but at least it will get her used to going to the toilet outside.

Bobbins loves to play and like Milly, likes to play with the dried up little oranges that have fallen off the tree. I think they must have a smell, as well as make a rattly noise when they roll. Bobbins has tried to get the others to play with her. They have all worked out that Bobbins can't get up the steps so they jump up the steps and sit there looking down on her snootily. Even Tinkerbelle does this, which is a little rich, given that she has been the naughty little sister of the family!

When we first saw Bobbins she had these little scars on  her forehead from 'bumping into things', which I must admit I was skeptical about, however having seen her over the last day or so I can see how. I think I am quite glad we didn't know Wilbur as a puppy (if he was blind then) as I think he would have been just as bouncy but several times the size! For the first time we did start musing the value of a tiny crash helmet for her. But it won't be long before she masters the steps and her biggest problem so far is running head long at them and not being able to jump up them.

Interestingly, she recognizes the change in surface between the patio tiles and the step edge. I've seen her come to a comedy cartoon-like halt when she gets to these - all four legs suddenly stopping rigid. We'd suspected this with the others, but this is the first time I've really seen this in action.

Queenie was originally scared of Bobbins, she doesn't be able to see her if she Bobbins comes out of the shade to Queenie, but I think that this is largely where she hasn't been expecting to see a small dark pup appear out of nowhere. I think that Queenie will be the first proper playmate for Bobbins, though, as they are closest in age.

Alfie is back to normal - we haven't heard anything from the vet about his pellet or whether they have seen any problems with his chest so hopefully everything is OK now.

Bobbins

Introducing Bobbins, she is a 10 week old pup. She is blind and her eyes are deformed so we think they will probably have to be removed. One eye is under formed and the other is over formed, I don't think she can shut the over formed eye.

She seems a very happy and sweet little dog. She is finding her way around and doesn't seem phased at all to be in the midst of our household of little misfits. I think she was just living outside with her brother until now so it must be different, but she is so young she will take it all in her stride.

We definitely weren't planning another pup, in fact we are waiting to hear about a blind kitten, but she is a small pup and won't be too much trouble. 

We've also decided to start a website dedicated to special need pets. We have quite a lot of experience now and hopefully can give people a positive insight into life with pets which are not quite perfect. In fact, we have registered the website name imperfect pet. We will make it a play on words so the website will be imperfect pet, but we'll twist it to I'm Perfect Pet.

We will place advertising on the site and hope to generate some money from the adverts. Watch this space...

Alfie Goes to the Vet

We've just come back from the vet with Alfie where he has been x-rayed so the vet could check his lungs. We were surprised to find that he has a pellet lodged in his chest from where he was shot by an air rifle some time ago. We don't know when, because we don't know anything about his past, however the poor little fellow has lost an eye, part of his leg, lived rough, and now it transpires he's been shot too. I now feel a little guilty pointing out his grumpiness - he has very good reason to be a tad grumpy from time to time...

He went to the vet on Monday because he had not eaten for a few days and had diarrhea.  That has cleared up but the vet had noticed before that he wheezes and it hadn't improved and she wanted to make sure that there was nothing nasty causing this. 

His and Her Yorkies

We definitely have his and her yorkies at the moment. Millie is my dog and comes running down the hall to see me after classes, and Alfie is wholeheartedly Ian's dog (at least he is Ian's chair's yorkie, as this is his chair of choice, I think if the truth was known Alfie would be found to suffer Ian in order that he could sit on Ian's chair).

Millie is so much like a little girl, all skippy and delicate, while Alfie is very much like a grumpy old man, with his one eye scowling at anyone who isn't Ian. While they both have damaged legs, even this affects them in different ways. Alfie's half a leg causes him to limp or hop which he does in a bullish way, whereas Millie's fused leg makes her skip.

At meal times, Millie gets so excited she runs round the table in a frenzy, whereas Alfie just takes himself out to the gate and waits resignedly.

Of course, the picture I am really painting is one of a grumpy versus a happy Yorkie, I wonder why this made me think of males and females...

It is San Juan fiesta this weekend, which is John the Baptist, however we didn't go. We normally only go to show our faces and we went to the school concert on Thursday and were seen by enough people that they know we are still here! The school concert was much as expected, gaggles of uncoordinated children going in different directions and jumping around randomly to the same song. The schools have now broken up for the summer.

Oh Dear England

Although Ian tells me that England could still go on to play in more matches. He explained it to me at length, however I blanked out after about 10 minutes.

The village does still have representatives of  one team left in the World Cup. The Honduras family will be watching their team with enthusiasm.

Oh Dear Spain

It was very quiet last night, not a beeping horn or firework to be heard....

I just don't understand how these things come as a surprise...

Listening to the news about passports last week I was able to give Ian the full benefit of one of my 'I just don't understand how these things come as a surprise' tirades, which Ian was delighted to note that I was able to spread in two directions. The first, was me wondering why they seemed to be surprised that that having shut down all the passport offices in the British consulates overseas from March of this year (including the one in Madrid), that they seemed to be unprepared for the extra work in the UK passport office. I was just launching into my second tirade which was going to go something along the lines of 'and why do people leave it to the last minute to get new passports - they have 10 years to plan for them...', when I realised that I was even worse than the people who leave it to the last moment before renewing their passport - I have let mine run out!  Ooops.

Ian got his renewed at the British Consulate in Madrid, but that's not an option for me now. However I think they have agreed to extend overseas passport holder's passports for another year. So as it turns out I would have been annoyed if I had got my passport in on time. What I don't understand, however, is how anyone will know that my passport has been extended for another year. I don't think I'd travel too far off the beaten tracks on the basis of having to explain to a grumpy passport control officer that my passport has been extended for a year with no form of proof.

Happy Birthday Kate

Apparently the best crumpets that I've ever made, in no small part because they actually look like crumpets. Hopefully these will go some way to offsetting the fact that Kate's rose cut ruby is en-route from India right now.

14 Years

Ian and I celebrated the 14 year anniversary of our meeting on Tuesday. It was our first anniversary without Bob who, I remain firmly in the belief, was responsible for bringing us together. When we met, it took Ian about 20 minutes to realise that Bob was actually with his owner and only then did Ian notice me. I remember sitting with Susan, Ed and Emma outside one of the pubs on the docks in Bristol and they were pointing out all the, er, eccentric characters, and saying that they were Ian. After pointing out several such people, including a rather strange looking man in a flowery kaftan, when Ian eventually arrived it was quite a relief.

The weather has started to get hot - it is showing 35 for the weekend. The farmers are busy harvesting and when the school breaks up next week we'll be soon into the strange nocturnal life where things are busier after 12 at night than they are after 12 in the day!

Queen of Sleeping

Queenie appears to have turned sleeping into a performance art.

First I found her asleep with fluff hanging out her mouth and an hour or so later, she appeared to have fallen asleep while chewing a synthetic bone.

Chillis

Of the 26 chilli seeds planted, the four that germinated are now out in the big wide world - well the back garden anyway. If they follow the example of the tomato plants, at least one of these will have ended it all by lunchtime.

Now Her Nose Looks as Silly as Her Ears

I just noticed Queenie on Kate's beanbag with her nose squished up. She normally looks quite serene when sleeping, but this rather ruins the look.

In other news - the tomato plants are outside at last. I think I may have delayed a bit too much as the smaller plants seem to be thriving but the larger ones are looking a bit sad and that's not mentioning the ones that have committed hara kiri. Hopefully we won't have to buy all our tomatoes this year.

Better Again

I've been down with the dreaded lurgy again. I feel that I've spent most of this year being under the weather due to child originated germs. Happily Ian and I now have a well oiled lurgy management plan in place, which entails me going to bed for a week, Ian going to the chemist for the evil lem-sip-alikes and my appearing only to shuffle down to the classroom to glower at sniveling children.

This time it only lasted a week and it didn't manifest itself into a cough. I am feeling better now and hope to keep lurgy clear during the summer.

Last weekend was the first communion for this year's intake. Three of my students had their first communion last weekend and they were telling me about their day and showed me pictures of their outfits. I had briefly thought about going to the church to see the service, however when they told me it was going to last for three hours I quickly changed my mind.

We've put the light on in the hallway at night for the last week for Queenie and that does seem to have done the trick regards her nocturnal barking. It gives her just enough light so she doesn't feel lost - the funny thing is, since we've had the light on she seems pretty happy not to go in the bedroom at night. Perhaps she only came in for reassurance.

Ian planted the tomato plants this week, but perhaps left it a little late. However we still have high hopes of a bumper tomato harvest.

I've been booking in classes for the summer and this year I have 30 students over 18 hours in the mornings, plus two adults who come in the evening, but I may cancel them during the summer.  I was surprised to find that I had more children this year than last, however thinking about it, I've been adding the odd one (in every sense) to classes throughout the year which has bought the number up. Just need to think of some new activities...