Hello Mr Grumpy Head

Alfie can be such a little grump. Here he is expressing his displeasure at being joined by Millie.

Spinning Bobbins

I was doing some spinning on my spinning wheel with two treddles, but I was just using my right foot to give my ankle some exercise. I was aware that it was becoming heavier and I looked down and Bobbins was sat on the other treddle, happily going up and down as I was spinning. She obviously misunderstood the fact that a bobbin is essential to spinning.

She is such a cartoon dog, she only needed Pirata to be sat with a frying pan hitting her over the head as she merrily went up and down to complete the picture!

Silent Night

Well, no one could be more surprised than me to find that Ian has written all of the last month's blog posts. Time to pull my finger out again...

I noticed the other night that we now have silent nights (except for an extremely loud and annoying insect in the street, whose chirrup reverberated around the house). I was drawn to this fact by noticing that I was aware that Queenie was barking and grumbling during the night and I realised this was something she hadn't done for a while. We'd actually turned the light in the hall off that we leave on for her and it seems that she still needs the light on for her to find her way round at night. I also noticed that Bobbins no longer gets 'stuck' outside. I am sure that it was only a couple of weeks ago that she barked during the night to be rescued from the top of a step, however she has got the hang of jumping (as much as a dog of her physique) up and down steps with aplomb. She has even managed to climb onto the sofa which was quite a surprise.

Classes have started again. I have three new little girls, one new adult and the two new students who joined during the summer are continuing - one adult, one teenager (cousins). I think that I'm currently at 21 hours of classes, and I hope not to take on any more. The new adult is a lady from Usagre, and she is a lady shepherd! She took over the sheep/olive farm from her father. She works for the cooperative in Usagre which is responsible for processing and selling their products. She learned Italian a few years ago and was responsible for selling the sheep wool to another cooperative in Italy, and she's learning English because she wants to try selling the olive oil to England - obviously she couldn't sell the olive oil to Italy as this would be like coals to Newcastle.

Plans are still progressing, albeit slowly, on the Modme front. I am waiting for an European VAT number which means we can buy things from other European countries net of VAT which will obviously be tremendously helpful. It's taking a long time, and we're sort of at am empass, as I don't want to progress with buying things like boxes or actual Modmes until we have this number.

Annoyingly, the 3d print company I was going to use adjusted their prices. They said they went down by 75% for over half of their clients. Needless to say I was in the other half and found the prices went up by 300%! They have changed their charging method to the amount of machine space you use, so by better preparing the files I could reduce the cost. However, I also found another company in Belgium whose prices were significantly lower. So what started off as a mini disaster, ended with an upside. Which is both nice and unusual for us.

We are both continuing to miss Petal - and so is Tinkerbelle. Poor Tinks can't decide who is going to be her buddy now. She has tried snuggling up to most of the others, but doesn't seem to have found a favourite yet.

Goodbye Petal

Unfortunately Petal's condition deteriorated over the last few days after she stopped eating on Sunday. She saw the vets on Tuesday when she was looking quite weak, but Joanna was still positive that she could bounce back. Her diet became pureed dog meat and last night we felt quite positive too as she seemed quite bright and alert.

However, this morning she seemed weaker than Tuesday and she bought back up most of the liquid food syringed into her. She was due back to the vets this morning and during the examination, it became clear she also had a large tumour growing and her blood pressure was low. There wasn't anymore that could be done for her then.

There have been several times during her treatment when we felt that she may have reached the end, but she kept bouncing back and dealing with the problems thrown at her. She took to the Petalmobile with no problems at all, once persented with frankfurters to chase. At the vets, she happily scooted around to say hello to other dogs and those waiting.

Joanna had been very encouraged by the way she took to her cart and believed that we could give her a reasonable life still - she'd been contacting people with experience of dealing with paralysed animals for advice and also looking at alternative therapies. She was clearly surprised by Petal's condition today and disappointed that there wasn't more that they could do.

While we're obviously sad, we can be grateful for the fact that while Petal was poorly for some weeks, she remained bright and positive throughout, even when faced with having to learn to drive so late on in life.

Another Pretender to My Throne

I'm not sure who's most horrified by Millie's interest in our chair (nee my chair) - Alfie, Dumpling or myself.

Harvey

For some reason today I found myself thinking about the James Stewart film Harvey. No idea why.

Petalmobile Mk2

Following closely on the heels of the Petalmobile Mk1.1, the short lived variation we created yesterday with a revised harness, we now present the Petalmobile Mk2.

I had suspected the rear frame should be more upright to reduce the weight on Petal's shoulders, but her back feet also need to be lifted clear of the ground, so it's a bit of a compromise.

Anyway, we visited the vets this morning and after talking to Joanna, this afternoon has been spent trying several variations before reaching the Mk2 version you see. The difference isn't obvious, but it is now more upright. I need to improve the foot rest and fit new straps. If this then gets Joanna's approval, we'll remove the tape and use glue for the joints and neaten all the padding too. Perhaps we'll even paint it if the news is positive at her appraisal in two weeks.

The Petalmobile Goes To The Vet

Poor Petal has been dealt a cruel blow. Having improved so much that she was pretty much her normal self, as Ian wrote in his blog post, she is now paralyzed at the back legs, because she had a swelling on her spine which affected the nerves to her back legs. We're pretty pragmatic when it comes to the health and life of our animals, and we both independently decided that we normally know when it is the time for us to say good bye to them, and that it was not the right time yet for Petal - she's just too happy and well to be put to sleep. A month ago it would have been a different story.

We decided that as long as she is well, we're not going to have her put to sleep 'just' because she can't use her back legs. The vet seemed happy with our decision and has advised us on the construction of the Petalmobile. Today we had to take it in so they could see how it looked and we have some amendments to do before they are happy with it.

In the vet Petal was going up to other dogs and saying hello, wandering around the waiting room, saying hello to other people - really being the center of attention! People say how quickly animals adapt to their new condition and Petal is proof of it. Although she still has a way to go before she is completely settled, she certainly seems more like the old Petal.

We've decided, on the advice of the vet, to stop any treatment to try to get her back legs to work. They were using strong anti-flamatories, which could cause long term problems. After 15 days we are going to take her back and the vet will check her and see how she is then. If she is in good shape we will continue to care for her as a disabled dog. If she has any problems (it's likely to be her kidneys), then we will make a decision based on this information at the time.