Going Gently

Old Dog

Dogs have no concept of ageing.
Arthritic joints, a slowness of gait, the slight blueness in the eyes an intolerance to silly games
They are all just slightly confusing things that just happen to them .
But they are things that break your heart when you, as an owner realise that they are there.
Old dogs have no idea of their impending mortality
Only we do.
And like I said
That realisation can break your heart

I Wish

I saw this on http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/
It did make me smile

" I'm A Good Girl, I am" ........and a note of thanks...

Yesterday I showed, what I thought to be a remarkable amount of self control. I went to see an animal in need of a new home and came back empty handed, It was a case of head ruling the heart.

I drove a few miles down the coast, and on one of the hottest days of the year I met up with a four and a half year old bulldog bitch called Millie.

She was a delightful character. Lively, affectionate, needy, and totally adorable, and so just as I could feel my objective grey cells wavering, I mentally started to list the more challenging aspects of Millie's condition.

At nearly five, she was still not housetrained. She was suffering from two eye conditions ( cherry eye and entropion) and her interaction with a bouncy, screaming little chihuahua was just a little too sparky for my liking.

Our old bitch Meg, is sparky enough, for one household to cope with

With a heavy heart, I made my decision mentally then and there, with a fat bulldog bitch bouncing all over my head.

And I drove away knowing that I had done the right thing

Hey ho.

Anyhow...on a brighter side, my collection of items for the flower show and for the arts stall and raffle on my Open day , seems to be growing rapidly. The kindness of my fellow bloggers in donating these items is just phenomenal as on a daily basis,another package arrives from another small corner of the globe.

Thank you all so very much. The items received for my open day will help raise money for both St Michael's Church here in Trelawnyd and for Marie Curie cancer Care.

Titivating

To me there are some things that make a house really feel like a home.
Clutter, antiques, dog snot on the windows, black hair on cat shapes embedded on the duvet, fruit in a bowl and photographs on the wall....the list could go on and on and on.
Ever since I bought my second home, which was a Victorian terrace over three floors, I had always gotten into the habit of having flowers in the house. It was a sort of promise that I made myself when the mortgage was agreed.....
It was a " flowers maketh a home" sort of thing even then.
And I have no real idea where the need came from, after all I was never a fan of Home & Gardens or anything like that.
It always used to be an expensive luxury
The florist was located just around the corner
Now, with a cottage garden in full bloom, and a lane bursting with flowers, it's cheap and easy to treat the house with vases of colour

I am such an old lady

In The Heat Of The Night

I am not going to complain about our continued hot weather

But it does have a bit of a down side.

It took me almost 90 minutes to water Bosoms by hand this morning

And after a week of blistering hot sunshine all of the animals have become slow, lethargic and

And somewhat listless.

I have even had to lift some of the very elderly hens from their perches in the mornings

Egg production has tailed off,

The sheep now spend their lives in the cool of the hawthorn hedges

And the dogs are bickering with each other over dinner times.

Welsh animals are not used to long periods of old fashioned summer

Another Busy Day In Paradise

There is nothing more rewarding that seeing your acutely ill patient, improve in front of your very eyes
One of my patients did just that today
I stopped his sedation, and waited for him to wake up. If he woke appropriately and safely. I would be able to remove the horrendous endroteacheal tube from his throat ( the big tube connecting him to his life supporting ventilator) so that he could breath on his own.
My ill patient started to wake up.
I repeated his name and where he was to orientate him
" Steven, you are on intensive care, you have a tube in your throat helping you to breath, you are quite safe Steven...... When you wake up a little more , I will remove it."
The patient gestured to me
"Steven can you understand me? You are on intensive care...you' ve been poorly....I am here to help you....Steven nod if you understand me"
Steven nodded......he tried to speak but the tube prevented him
" Steven? Can you squeeze my hands?" I asked
And he squeezed my hands
The anaesthetist gave me the thumbs up and I said
"Steven, let me remove this tube"
Seconds later I removed the tube from Steven's throat
And he took his first deep breath of room air
" are you ok? " I asked him gently
And he smiled weakly holding my hand

" yes..I'm ok...........but my name's Graham" he croaked with a smile........

Dinner On The Field

It's been a busy day on intensive care. I got home after 8pm to find my sisters and their husbands ( and my sis in law )on the field grilling sausages on a charcoal fire. We sat eating until dark fell, and blankets and rugs were dished out as the chickens wandered slowly to their beds and the owls started to hoot in the Churchyard Elms