On the pain front though, things are not so good as the weeks of rainy weather meant I did just the essentials and thereafter sat indoors online. As a result, my muscles are weaker and I put on over a stone in weight which just adds to the strain on my already weak spine. I have temporarily upped the dosage of my painkiller which I take every 4 hours. Hopefully the finer weather means I am able to potter and get back in shape. I have a terrible fear of getting fat, and once I let things slip so that muscles get weak, I will be less able to stay strong and upright. It's all too easy to go and lay in bed on pain filled days to rest my back but if I start that lark, it'll be the slippery slope to a wheelchair.
The weekend was a dreadful time. It started well with fine weather. I went to the summer fete at Wisbech St Mary to see my friend's daughter singing in a talent competition. She is only 13 and has a huge voice and sounds like Amy Winehouse. Amber Castillo-Roman is a name to remember I think. However on the day things didn't go well. To start off, she was listed to appear 2nd after a 'magician' who was supposed to have a 3 minute act. It turned out he was on for nearly an hour just calling people up and doing variations of the same trick over and over and over. Then, the order was changed and instead of Amber, there was an announcement that a dance troupe was to go on before her. Then the compere said that he didn't know if he would be able to play her music so she sat and worried about it. When she got up on stage she was nervous about the music and stood and waited for several minutes while he fiddled about with the equipment to get the music playing. She started well but then hit a bad note and it all went downhill from there. I spoke to her and told her that it was only one day and one set of judges and to review the video her mum had taken and then regard it simply as a practice and a means to correct where she might have gone wrong. I'm planning on looking for a hypnotherapist locally to see if he can help her confidence. She was upset at not winning, but I hope she listened to me and can look at it philosophically. She's usually very good and has won lots of competitions.
I arrived home at around 4pm and let the indoor dogs out into the garden and went to the laptop to look for songs which might suit Amber's voice and suddenly the portacabin dogs started to bark like mad. I got up and went out to see Beulah my German shepherd bitch, mauling Bronnie my tiny lhasa apso bitch. One yell from me and she let go immediately and ran indoors and Bronnie staggered towards me, covered in blood with an eye hanging out. I picked her up and ran into the bathroom and closed the door to check her over and it was bad! I left her there and called the vet and then shot off to meet him at the surgery where I was told the eye had to be removed. Poor Bronnie was in shock. I left her there so that Dave could operate immediately,and went home. When I went to collect her at 6pm I took Beulah back with me and had her put to sleep.
Beulah was a typical nervy working type German shepherd. She was beautiful and adored me but could not be trusted with smaller dogs nor cats or children. There was no way I could keep her after the mauling, and no way I could find another home for her as frankly, it was only a matter of time before she killed a dog or cat or savaged a child. As much as I loved 'Boo', putting her to sleep was the only option. The only alternative was a lonely life in a compound as a 'guard' dog which would have destroyed her mentally. She was such a coward that when the intruders came onto my land a few months ago, she ran away and hid. She'd not have made a good guard. And if children got into her compound, she'd have bitten them. anything smaller than herself was in danger from her.
I buried her on Sunday and miss her every day. Little Bronnie is still traumatised, is covered with deep puncture marks which have been stitched, one of the muscles between her ribs was torn and she is badly bruised as well as having lost an eye and a lot of blood. She is one anti inflammatories and antibiotics and on Tramadol painkillers the same as I am. She spends the day in a hospital cage sleeping and resting. She totters out to toilet several times a day but refuses to eat anything and I have tried just about everything from pilchards in tomato sauce, to tuna, tinned cat food, scrambled eggs, raw eggs, warm milk, liver paste especially for dogs, very expensive cat food @ 75p for a tiny 50 gram tin and rice pudding. This afternoon I'll roast a chicken for her.
By 10pm I was dead on my feet and staggered up to bed only to discovered that when Beulah had gone indoors after the mauling, she'd gone onto my bed and the duvet was covered in poor Bronnie's blood where Beulah had had it all over her face and chest, so I had to change all the bedding before I got in. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
A couple of things struck me about the mauling. Firstly is that it was totally silent. No growling or yelping,. Secondly, the bull terrier was nearby but didn't get involved! That in itself was lucky for Bronnie because between them, they'd have killed her.
The vet bill came to just under £500 which was amazing considering the operation, the X-ray, the euthanasia cost for a German shepherd. My wonderful vet had heavily discounted everything for me as he knows my animals are my life. I paid part of the bill, then contacted my bank asking for an extended overdraft, not imagining they'd give me one as I am definately not one of their most profitable customers and don't have a great credit rating. To my surprise, within 24 hours of asking them, I got an email to say it was in my account already. Cahoot is the best bank ever!!!
I buried my poor Beulah on Sunday and was glad when the weekend was over.
Yesterday I had a lot to do and one of the chores was do dig, count, and pack nearly a thousand worms to post out that afternoon.
It was nice and sunny and warm so I sat on the huge compost heap digging and counting when along came my bull terrier Archie The Pig. He loves his mummy and follows me about like a fat waddling white shadow. When he saw me digging, he decided that he would dig too and set to with a will. I had compost and worms in my hair, in my face, in my mouth and down my neck before he stopped! Then he lay down in the hole he'd just dug. I playfully covered him with compost and the fool just lay there with a daft grin on his face. I covered and patted down until just his head was exposed, whereupon he went to sleep and I got on and dug and counted worms.
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