A Curate's Egg of a Summer!

That’s how summer felt, but looking back it was mostly good. Not the summer I had planned, but these things happen.

It began with a blur of doctor’s appointments, a visit to Minor Injuries (me), a dash to A&E (hubby), more doctor’s appointments, another dash to Colchester General (hubby again), physiotherapists, nurses, doctors – argh!

The school summer holidays began and for the first year ever, I had no days out planned, but fun was had in the garden with the paddling pool and we managed to fit in crabbing, swimming and beach. I took them to Clacton Pier and realised with a bit of a pang that even the smallest ones no longer need to be accompanied on the rides. My role was water, snack and jacket carrier as well as taxi driver which I am happy to do.

Scout came into season during the holidays so had to be kept away from Dusty. Then Dusty had his accident…

He ran onto the beach as he always does, went for a splash in the sea then we noticed blobs of blood on the grass when he came back. Some poor dog has injured itself I thought…

At which point my hubby noticed that Dusty had four bright red legs and a red stomach and chest! It was quite a walk back to the car and he left a trail of blood. When we got home, I hosed the blood off him – I’d already deduced it was coming from one of his paws, but I needed to find exactly where – while hubby phoned the vet.

The cut was above his paw – at his wrist – and there was blood all over the patio and a towel which I’d had wrapped round him in the car. I put a dressing on and we dashed to the vet. It is a 20 minute drive if the traffic is good, but can take twice as long as that. I honestly don’t know how he had any blood left in him.

I was convinced on that drive that he was going to pass out and die!

While we were gone, my son went outside and cleaned away all the blood and washed the towel. It looked as if there’d been a murder.

When the vet took off the dressing, I could see the cut and blood began to pump out. She quickly put it back on and said they would have to admit him and anaesthetise him. We had an anxious wait then as he’d had breakfast which made an anaesthetic more risky (note to self – NEVER give him breakfast before his walk again).

He was sick on the table and when we went to pick him up they gave us a carrier bag full of medicine. Antibiotics, pain relief, two different stomach medicines (because he’d been sick), syringes to administer the milky stomach medicine and a drip bag with a bandage threaded through it to put over his heavily bandaged paw if he went outside in the rain.

Shark Bandage

And he was back to wearing the dreaded battering-ram leg-bruiser lampshade!

Oh no not again!

Three vet visits later (for wound checks, dressing changes and stitch removal) and he is back to his normal self again, but we are avoiding that part of the beach. It was almost certain that it was glass that cut him. One of the vets told me that they had had a lot more dogs with injuries like that coming in this year.

Blue stitches

I’m just glad we weren’t at the far distant beach because I don’t think we would have made it home.

Scout’s grown a bit since they got her in March when she was about the size of a cat! She towers over Dusty now.

Scout - 8 months

At the end of the holidays my two granddaughters-from-away joined us for a week and all the cousins went to Jimmy’s Farm which is a great value day out with plenty to keep the kids occupied. They were particularly taken with a beautiful blue-eyed Rhea and the Capybara.

Beautiful blue eyes

Capybara

There were more beautiful butterflies in the butterfly house than last year. But – curate’s egg again – a load of children were running wild in there, running through the greenery and screaming and shouting while their parents ignored them. Luckily a keeper was in there and told them to stick to the paths and behave. Why would you take kids in somewhere like that if you can’t control them? There are plenty of play areas for them to run off steam. Sorry – excuse me while I just tuck my soap box away again.

So now summer is over, everyone is back at school and work, and hubby and I have our consultant appointments later this month. Today is the day I hope to get back into a serious writing routine, but I’m not counting any chickens just in case the pesky Law of Sod comes and bites me on the bum again!

Hope you’ve had a lovely summer!