Monday 17 July 2006

miracles do happen

So here we are, a little while later, have eaten far to much chocolate, however I should now stop, because:


a) its very bad for me,
b) it has no powers of reincarnation & its not going to bring them back,
c) the diet is working &
d) its chocolate, not love!


So on to happier news, as you may know, lady had cancer, nasty, aggressive dead in 3 months cancer, she had it when we got her from the dogs home. However the dogs home had given her a clean bill of health, which was worrying when you realize that she had a tumour the size of a golf ball in her mouth.

In a way it worked out as when we got them we got them both fully insured, I could honestly say they had no outstanding medical conditions which I know about. The reasoning being the insurance being we never wanted to have to say that, if they needed treatment, we couldn't afford it. Which was a good thing, as we paid £600 for the pair & lady has wiped that out on her own in just 6 months! (never mind when Ulrick found broken glass on Christmas eve.)
As part of her treatment she was referred down south to an animal hospital which was better equipped than any NHS hospital Ive ever heard of, had its own MRI for goodness sake. Having done biopsy & other such things we told she had two types of cancer. Unfortunately they could only treat one type. (pause while you laugh at the image of a dog after chemotherapy, you're allowed) . So, after discussion with the uk expert on small animal cancer, we decided not to have treatment.

I know you're waiting for happier news, stay with me, nearly there. She went to the vet the other day, he was a little shocked he pronounced that he was confused. He checked his notes, he'd done a biopsy, he had all the test results and then looked at her again.
Here's the happier news, the cancer in her mouth has gone, the vet said it was a miracle, the actual vet! There is no trace, not even a scar, it's probablyonly temporary but still cool. Vet says hes going to write a paper ! Happy time now!

Wednesday 12 July 2006

why I hate hot weather

Not written for a while, not been to happy, we had a couple of tragedies, not end of the world, just ends. Do you remember the day it was really, really hot? It'd been hot for a while but then there was one really hot day?

We have an ant nest in out dining room, which is a glorified junk room & corridor. Its next to the kitchen any way, EMB went out for the day to somewhere with no mobile signal. Maybe 30 min after he'd left the ants, who had been dormant since last year decided to swarm. I hate flying bug type things, really hate, bees, wasps & flying ants, which were now making there way across the kitchen! Did I mention EMB had gone out?

So I sent the dogs out the back shut the door, checked the fish tank was all shut up & laid down ant powder. Did I mention I hated ants? So then I realised the powder was making me dizzy & a fit & poison is never good. (ask DuLa about rat poison, lockers & river island). So I opened the back door, lady tried to come in & I sent her away. At which point tom went out to sit with them on the new swing seat. I forget, did I tell you about the swing seat? It was toms birthday present . Any way then I started to Hoover them up, the ants, not the dogs.
Brushing them together, I was kind of fixated on this when movement caught my eye, I looked up & saw Ulrick licking up a combination of dog fur, flying ants & most worrying ant poison! I shouted at him & as I did I heard the voice of my mother shouting down the years. I think its the sound you make when some one who's your responsibility does something which could really course them harm. He ran in to the garden, frightened & whining, & then hid. Not an experience I'd want to repeat.

That was Saturday, were now on Sunday, Janet in my friend & lady of Camelot, she'd gone to a civil ceremony -ing on the weekend, she made the cake, it had sugar flowers which she made also, including pansies. I had no idea about such things but she still asked my opinion, how many time can I say yes, add more glitter! I was much fun!
Anyway Janet got back & there was lots of (vegetarian) food left, mainly cake to be honest. Any way, I digress, I tipped the cake out into the coop & 7 chickens can running, they love cake! They love food in general, if you've never seen chickens eat grapes it is a sight to see!
Any way as you probably noticed 7 chicken, not 8, so I thought that was unusual & checked the nest box. Chickens who are laying or broody will prioritise that over all else. So I checked the nest box & discovered a dead chicken, heat exhaustion. Looks like shed gone in to lay and it just got to hot, poor girl. That was not a nice thing to discover. EMB sorted it out, I didn't want to go see them for a little while, I'm over that now though, well mainly.



Moving on to Tuesday morning, it had been a very warm night I got up, fed the dogs & noticed there had been some kind of strange algae bloom in the tank. Thought that was strange, and opened the lid to feed them, they were two dead fish floating on the surface, we had 3 fish, so I put some feed in, & cleared the filter. Fed the chicken & told EMB, not sure what else to do. EMB called me at work, told me they had all gone. That was very sad. We now have an empty tank.
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Tank (Empty)