Thurs 23rd June: Fast forward to tomorrow please

Just as a reminder that sweet Susie is still looking for a new home

Today wasn't a great day for me personally and I would happily have skipped it had I known how things would unfold.  The fact that my back was so painful after having carried Gershwin and I had no pain killers made even getting out of bed difficult, and it just went downhill from there.

It's important that Gershwin has his medication, which includes antibiotics and pain relief, but he has turned out to be one of those dogs who can pick a tablet out of food no matter how well hidden it is.  So he ate what was in the bowl and left a melted pill cocktail at the bottom which I then had to try to give him separately.  As I was holding out a special "treat" in the hope he would fall for my trick, Bones-now-Jones saw his opportunity and took it, along with my little finger, which resulted in a large flap of flesh being ripped open.

Bali as a young dog, about 11 years ago

After dealing with the blood and the pain I had to give Bali his daily tablet too, and it was then that I realised he wasn't there, either in the house (where he always stays) or the garden, where he rarely ventures these days anyway.  That could only mean one thing, that he hadn't come back from the walk the day before and I had been too tied up dealing with Gershwin and my back to notice.

I broke down at that point, imagining Bali lying dead in a concrete drain having been unable to get out because of his very weak back legs, and the frustration of trying to get the pills into Gershwin and the pain of my bleeding finger (and my back) adding to the general feeling of helplessness.  I didn't want to go and look for Bali's body but knew that I had to, so after getting the other dogs ready I set off ready to face what needed to be faced.  I hadn't gone far into the woods when I saw Bali standing there, happy to see me of course but not as relieved as I was to find him alive.  I can only assume he fell far enough behind that he was afraid to pass my neighbour's house on his own, and the dogs that like to bark at anyone passing. At least he survived the night and seems to be perfectly fine.

Also on the bright side, Gershwin is recovering very well despite probably not getting all of his medication, and now it's only a matter of the wound fully healing before he's completely better.

Tim is back with me and will be at Whiskers N Paws on Sunday

One of the recently-adopted puppies came back because he was fighting with the other one, and whether it was play or real didn't matter because he had to go.  Maybe the fact that he was reported as having diarrhoea didn't help the situation, but at least that's an easy enough problem to deal with. Puppies get upset stomachs at the drop of a hat just like human babies do, and even moving to a new home can set it off.