fight!

well we missed all the excitement this morning.. got back from our walk and all the back doors were open, there was grit, dirt and fur all over the kitchen floor... wha'???

turned out some random cat took advantage of Murphy's temporary absence and sidled in the cat flap - met Gizzy who took exception and the fur began to fly...

when Richard came flying downstairs (well, I never let truth get in the way of a good story) the door into the utility room (where the catflap is) had shut so the poor thing coldn't get out if he'd wanted to. They had levitated to the windowsill and the plants were suffering... Richard opened the door and the intruder promptly ran into the window!

things were settling down when we returned so Murphy did the round of the boundaries (barking at each one) and Gizzy skulked in the garden for a while to make sure the coast was clear. Then we all went to work. (welcome to the week!)

Funnily enough, she spent the day upstairs on our bed with Murphy on guard at the bottom of the stairs...

murphy disgraces himself again

oh dear! I had him out yesterday and we had a lovely walk along the side of a burn for about 40 minutes or so, he was very well behaved... til we were almost back at the car, which was parked on a side street. He wandered casually over onto the road, all innocent-like. I warned him to come away from the road, equally casually. Then he sauntered over the road, and into someone's garden. I stepped out smartly to get him out of there - by this time he was on the front lawn, staring fixedly into a bush.

As I stepped into the garden to put a (loving yet) restraining hand on the hound's collar, he pounced on the bush. A cat shot out and - I swear - he got it in his mouth! My heart was in mine! cats are cats though - it wriggled round and lay on its back and got the claws out, hissing and spitting, then wriggled back and shot off over the garden wall - and bounded over the next 3 gardens, closely followed by Murphy... I can still see his backside and tail disappearing over that first wall!

Over they went, me following on the pavement, doing my usual sotto voce "Murphy! come here!!" (while trying to pretend he was nothing to do with me) The cat shot up a handy tree in garden 3 and Murphy, realising the game was up, turned round to (finally) do as he was told. I thought he would come out but no - (well the gardens were all gated) he jumped back over all the walls and sauntered out to see me.

As we left the poor cat was still up the tree trying to figure how to get down. I wanted to stop and help but thought we'd maybe done enough damage...

rise and shine!

we discovered on our walk this morning that some people had decided to camp in the corner of the track, amongst the trees. Isla and Archie had already been investigating when Murphy & I arrived, so of course Murphy was right over there, sniffing around. Needless to say, he took exception to the 3 tents and started barking at them! Luckily I managed to call him away before an irate camper emerged. However as he ran towards me I realised he had left his calling card at the campsite - a wet sock.

So when we ran into Lynn and Archie this afternoon we headed off to retrieve the sock, which we did, as the tents were gone - but what a mess they'd left behind! I had to wrestle a tube of Pringles off Murphy - Archie spent 10 minutes barking at him but he wouldn't give him a sniff. I went back up later with a couple of bin bags and collected 4 sleeping mats, a pillow (nice pillowcase), 2 tent poles, 4x 2 litre unopened bottles of fizz, half a bottle of Peach Schnapps, 2 empty half bottles of vodka, a bottle of green something, a half full barrel of heineken, umpteen full and empty packets of crisps, chewy sweets, cigarette packets, wrappings, boxes, bottles of beer etc etc. richard came and helped me carry them to the bin - he wouldn't let me bring them home to put in recycling; but at least the neighbourhood dogs won't be stuffing themselves for the next couple of weeks.

I'm not sorry now Murphy woke them all with their hangovers at 7.30am!!

paw-tastic

And our hero continues his recuperation.. we've given up on the sock-bag-sock combo and just sticking to one sock now (with a spare one for when he takes the first one off) and it's healing at a good rate, like we said before - and happy to be getting a bit of a run at last!

much improved

the paw is much improved. It's starting to heal over - you can see it - although we still have to have the sock-freezer bag-sock combo every time he goes out. Since it's wet today tit doesn't all stay on very long...sigh

still fighting

we had a great workout yesterday, holding Murphy down while his bandage was - finally - removed! a bit of snipping to remove some hair, some cleaning to remove the gunk buildup, lots of panting and flailing around to put on a new, lighter pad-thing (held on with micropore - that'll never last) and more holding-down while his new doggy boot was added on top. Phew! A good job well done.

Progress - the new pad and doggy boot were swiftly despatched when richard took him out and let him off the lead. He disappeared for 25 minutes while I waited at home, juggling dinner on a timescale til I got the good news that he was back (and the bad news that the paw was now free to the air - and the mud)

So we're now on standby doggy boot and have given up on the pad thing. He seems to be surviving!

the dog with the sore paw...

seems to be much improved. He bounced round the track this afternoon and disappeared off into the woods... to return eventually, tearing round the corner, sans sock and plastic bag, bandage literally black!

eek!

back to the vets

as you can see I've now found the wire! so here's poor old Murphs in his latest injury incarnation. His painkillers have worn off at the moment he's on a downer and has retired to bed now.. more pills in the morning!

Life according to gizzy

My "free" afternoons have started - free from paying work, that is! now I can tackle all the non-paying things that need to be done (hmm)

Gizzy's take on it all is, typically enough, to see it as a great opportunity to get fed more often! but I'm holding out - she's sitting on the table as I do this, staring me into submission. It ain't going to happen, sister!

updates

well we've been back to the vets and the good news is his ears are now tickety-boo so we can get rid of the eardrops.

The bad news is he's got a fresh bandage on his paw - I had to hold him down as she slit the old one off and he was flailing around - he got free just as she was unwinding the padding underneath and ripped it off with his teeth - I bet he's been dreaming of that all week! It's very clean so all good but had to put another one on - boo! Now he's got to last til Monday with this one. And of course keep taking the tablets...

more battles

..and that's two - hoping there won't be a third. It was like Animal Hospital round our place on Sunday - poor old Murfs managed to slice part of the pad of his paw completely off! We don't know how, there was no glass or anything around but he was away in the woods so it could have been anything.

We were at one of Emily's horse shows so we stopped at the burger bar for lunch before we ended up taking him home to the emergency vet cos it wouldn't stop bleeding - I think we were getting a reputation for cruel and heartless owners given that we were standing enjoying a burger while Murphy at our feet was bleeding. To be fair we didn't realise it was so bad til it was still bleeding when we got home.

45 minutes at the vets later we arrived home laden down with disgruntled dog (head in lampshade again), MORE painkillers and MORE antibiotics!

I was going to post a photo of him, head in (badly beaten) lampshade and yellow-and-green bandage on foot, looking VERY sorry for himself.. but I've lost the cable to get it off the camera.

Then the cat decided to get in on the act that evening and threw up everywhere - out of sympathy I presume (or a desire to put a spanner in the works of me serving dinner, one of the two)