Tag Archives: My Shetland

Not Pepper’s Day

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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.

Go Fivvie!

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This morning Fivla had claimed all rights to the wee shed so I gave her bucket in there too.

And Fivla was not letting anyone else in.  Nope. Not for no one. It was Her Shed. End of.

I had already let most of the sheep out into the field but Lambie, ‘Ster and ‘Bert was refusing to go out on the grounds there were too many horses and ponies around the gateway.

Gussie had gone out with the rest but came back when he realised the others weren’t with him.  It’s funny how they like their friends around and mind very much when they’re not. He was shouting a lot.

And then something rather odd happened.

I watched on while Kolka and Gussie had a little chat.

Normally Kolka is not really a fan of other types of animal being around.

Maybe she liked the smell of real wool on a real sheep – you know, like when you sniff a clean jersey and know it is made of pure wool.  There is a distinct smell.

And Gussie, who is very like Pepper in that he has to make friends with everyone, was very happy with this gentle velvety nose snuffling him.

Meanwhile, Fivla was not budging.

And I secretly thought to myself “Go Fivla.  Don’t be shoved around by the others”.

She wouldn’t even let Vitamin inside either, which was unusual.

And then there started to be a queue forming.  I sent this photo to Daisy and she texted back “You are on hold to stand in the shed. You are currently number 5 in the queue. Estimated waiting time 2h“.  That made me laugh.

Loners

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In every herd or flock, there is always one.

A loner.

With the sheep, it is Lambie. Of course, it’s Lambie. How could it be anyone else?

Possibly not the brightest star in our firmament and, yes, he stood there in his little dining room/pen for a good hour while the gate was open telling himself he had nothing.  You can almost hear him singing to himself “nobody loves me, everybody hates me, think I’ll go and eat worms”.

I did tell him, repeatedlym…. but nope, nothing.

The lights were on…. yada, yada. Lambie eventually worked it out.

With the old horses and ponies, it is Iacs. He is often found by himself staring into the middle distance looking distinctly vague. He lets out a pathetic neigh of loneliness and Kolka usually draws the short straw and has to go and get him back.  She is kind like that.  Haakon hides and says nothing.

And, lastly, amongst this lot, you can guess who it is and why it is……

Yup, Newt.  Nobody loves Newt.

And we all know why.

(in case you don’t, it is because he is awful to everyone when they’re eating – the bottom whizzes round trying to kick anyone in his way, including me!)

And so Newt is all alone in the world too (despite having great hair this summer).

The Circle of Life (or Pepper’s Tummy)

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You left us yesterday with no power but thankfully it came back on in time for OH to watch the World Cup Quarter-Finals. I went to bed as I was exhausted and didn’t really care.

I woke up to the sun shining and it has been lovely and warm, if breezy – a good drying day.

My dog-walk consisted of me mostly trying to urge the sheep to follow me and the dogs out into a field.  The sheep were not particularly helpful this morning and they needed to go out to graze.

The sheep are not fans of the horses and, as they were loitering around the gate, I think that is what put them off.

But I managed to get them all out in the field after some enthusiastic shouting but I failed on the dog walking front. Pepper wasn’t feeling well (again) and had a sit down strike. I ended up sitting on a rock for a while chatting to any passing sheep.

Pepper looked very miserable at me too.

I do feel very sorry for my little wee dog but she there really is nothing much I can do that helps.

Our vet knows about Pepper’s tummy but has no advice or treatment to give either.  I think if you live in these parts this is what happens to quite a few “hunting” dogs.  Monster is no use either. He is the killer in the family and brings the carcasses home at night, which Pepper quickly finds in the daytime.

Anyway, after a good afternoon’s sleep while I made another hand felted sheep, Pepper felt much better and ate her supper without refusal, complaint or after-effects.  She is asleep now again and will be back to her normal self by tomorrow when she will find another carcass and we will, no doubt start all over again.

Thanks Monster.

Power Cut

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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.