Category Archives: Cats and dogs

Pepper to the Vet

5 Replies

It’s been a bit of a day of days to be perfectly honest.

I knew what was in store for Pepper and, once I had fed everyone and got them into their correct fields, we went to the vet.

Pepper was a good girl. She weighed – 7.7kg (so she’s put on a bit, which I wanted after the diagnosis of her tummy troubles) and then popped onto the table for a thorough examination.

And, like I thought, Pepper had cut both front paws.  The left side was a small split between the toes but it was nice and clean, and Pepper wasn’t bothered by it.

The right front paw was much worse. Pepper had a deep tear through her big pad so the vet and I discussed options – ie leave it or stitch.  In the end I said “if she were your dog, what would you do?” and the reply was “I would stitch her” so that was it. Decision made and Pepper went into the kennel because a) there was another patient waiting and b) the vet needed more time since Pepper had eaten breakfast (I kick myself for not making her nil by mouth today). I left her there (*** sniff ***) but luckily my flute-duet friend was there so she regularly visited Pepper for me and sent me updates.

I spent the rest of the day keeping myself occupied while my every thought was with my wee dug.  The phone rang – huzzah – and I went to fetch a hoppity green-bandaged Pepper home.

I have to carry her a lot and she prefers soft ground.  She is also housebound for the foreseeable with daily dressings and antibiotics.

The support staff are barely adequate.  Just sayin’ and I am looking at dog boots to protect her feet.  I think we are in for the long haul.

Not Pepper’s Day

5 Replies

The dogs and I went for a walk to Clothie – our 5 acre field complete with a derelict croft house that used to be a school.

The grass is so long it make the dogs invisible but they love it, bouncing over everything so they can see where they’re going or aiming for.

And the flowers are glorious and so many of them. They seem extra-good this year.

I walked round and then sat on a windowsill while the dogs galloped about looking for bunnies, etc and eventually gave up to sit close to me.

I had a lovely view with the sea in the distance.

And then, on the way home – which is across the open hill a little bit – I noticed Pepper was lagging behind and licking her front paws.

Upon closer examination, and after following the trail of blood around the kitchen, I discovered she had cut both front paw pads open.

Poor little thing.  She was in a state so I grabbed her and put her on the table, examined both paws, got some gauze and rubber gloves and made two makeshift dressings, covering them with a rubber glove and tape to keep the dirt out.  I also gave her a painkiller.

So now I am carrying Pepper everywhere and she’s no lightweight.  She slept all afternoon, which was good.

And I’ve made an appointment for Pepper to see the vet tomorrow (no appointments today, unfortunately).

Once OH gets home, I might soak and re-bandage Pepper’s paws better. This was a real bodge job as I only had one hand (the other was holding her from jumping off the table).  And then there was all the blood to clean up and I’ve just trodden in cat (?) sick and I am feeling sorry for myself too.

But poor, poor Pepperpot.

Power Cut

2 Replies

We are currently sitting in the middle of a power cut with the promise that it might come back on around 8 o’clock tonight.

I am not holding my breath but OH is hoping it might be working in time for the fitbaa’ (football).

I would like it to come on so I can get on with my diaries (now at mid July 1953 and can see the home straight – only another 8 years to go then).

To write this, my phone is on one bar signal while my laptop has a rapidly dwindling battery, so I will keep it brief.

Never mind, it’s been a glorious day – the sun has finally arrived, along with our visitors and the disasterous cake was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Everyone ate it and everyone is still alive so win, win.

 

 

 

Busy Day

3 Replies

We have visitors coming up from south for their holidays tomorrow so I wanted to be prepared, food-wise, and have spent my day chained to the stove, cooking with varying degrees of success.

I made 3 curries, 2 chutneys, a really bad cake (I am quite ashamed of it and will try and pass it off as pudding rather than anything you would eat with a cup of tea), a batch of ice cream, got another one mixed ready to go, and lastly boiled and peeled lots of duck eggs for picnic sandwiches. Obviously I was supervised.

 

Later on, Monster and Pepper had a good battle – it was revenge for when Pepper had ambushed Monster.  He won, of course and she ran downstairs using me as her shield in case he had another go.

I needed a break from the kitchen, all the cooking and so I took everyone outside.  After putting out the haynets for the Shetland ponies, I went into the sheep field and sat down on my coat for some much-needed sheep-watching or maybe it was the other way around?

 

Pepper sat on me and then beside me getting annoyed with the flies.

She was trying to catch them by snapping randomly at the air.

Lambie was far away.

And then suddenly he wasn’t.

My dear little boy. We had a lovely chat.

And he also passed the time of day with Pepper too.

(which I always think is very sweet).

Sitting in the field surrounded by flowers and sheep, listening to the birds, while Pepper snapped randomly at flies made a peaceful break after slaving away in the kitchen all day.

I Worry at Night

4 Replies

Every so often I suddenly have a panic (usually at about 3 a.m.) that the electric fence is not working and the Shetland ponies will break through into the long grass.

Last night I had that worry so today the dog walk consisted of walking the track with the fence tester to check it was zapping consistently all the way round.  And it was going along beautifully.  OH had strimmed all the plants off the bottom wire and there was the same strength of zap at both ends.

However, I do feel sorry for the ponies. They have minimal grazing while on the other side of the fence it looks fantastic.

The other side is for the old horses and ponies in the winter.  It is perfect grazing for them but not for fat little Shetland ponies who don’t need to get any fatter.

This lot seem to doing very well on just about nothing and to be fair I found no evidence of Shetland pony fence testing.

The ponies could probably lose a bit more weight.  As I walked the track, it was interesting to see which plants they refuse to eat – always the marsh marigolds, the occasional orchid, and later the Devil’s bit scabious. They don’t touch it.

The dogs enjoyed their walk and started digging the inter-island tunnels that are planned for Shetland.

“Councillors have backed initial plans to connect some of Shetland’s islands with undersea tunnels, which could be in place within eight years.” – BBC

Ted did the feasibility study.

While Pepper did the actual work.

I can see why bridges are not an option.

My little chief digger was tired after her exertions.