what a thief!

That dog is such a wee thief! She made off with 8 hot cross buns at the weekend - the only reason we knew if was her was because I found the remains of the packets under her bush in the garden...

And yesterday I was snacking on some Bourneville chocolate and made the mistake of going off for a minute - when I got back there was a conspicuous space on the sofa where the packet had been. And no sign of the dear Maddie! I ran her to earth under her bush (surprise surprise) but was able to get the chocolate off her before she ate it, luckily, as dark chocolate is even worse than milk chocolate for dogs. Not as bad as an enraged chocoholic whose dog has made off with her last bit of the stuff, though!

the vet after all

She must've been in a fight on Sunday - yesterday her limp was gone but today it was back and her leg is swollen so it was off to the vet (yoga got put on the back burner) with her.. now we have to take our life in our hands on a daily basis for the next week or so, squirting painkiller into her mouth - eeek!

Luckily as she can sniff out (and not eat) a pill at about half a mile they gave her a slow-acting antibiotic injection instead of leaving us trying to make her eat them..a small blessing at least! Now she can swap vet stories with the other two (thank the Lord cats don't get buster collars and bandages for this kind of thing!)... if she lets them get near enough

- and there she is, having a well-earned snooze, waving that poor leg like a flag and daring anyone to come near - see the eyes? "stop pointing that thing at me!"

and then there were three!

- after the dogs have managed to get over their various aches and pains, now the cat is joining in!! When I finally tracked her down yesterday (at the back of a shelf of jumpers belonging to Richard - a cosy wee nest for her) she emerged and limped over to see me. Great, another invalid!

She spent the rest of the evening curled up on the sofa but I was worried she wouldn't be able to jump up for her food. Luckily by the time this morning came she appeared to have got over it and now seems fine - whew! at least we avoided yet another visit to the vet. It'll be Jimmy next, at this rate (the rabbit, who's back with us for a couple of weeks)

good girl Maddie!

She was ever so good yesterday - I was going on a walk with my fellow district Guiders out in the country past Balmoral and took Maddie with us as there's no sheep and a lot of space! She happily ran around at a suitable distance as we walked through the snow for about 4 hours (plus lunch stop at which she had to go on the lead to stop her trying to eat everyone's sandwiches) and was no trouble at all.

Once we arrived back at the cottage we had a cup of tea and a biscuit and an impromptu meeting on the campsite finances while she (having been dissuaded from sampling the Hobnobs) curled up in a ball and slept at my feet - awww....

What a good girl!

and the good news is...

...firstly that this post will hopefully contain better spelling than the last one! I would blame the sangria but it was probably using a different keyboard from the one my fingers are used to. Anyway, we're back and the troublesome twosome don't appear to have committed any more self-atrocities. Maddie's paw is apparently healing well despite the fact that she goes out on her walks on three legs, holding the sore one up pathetically to anyone who notices! (not that it stops her leaping about)

Murphy is still in his headcone and on house arrest. He's really not happy about it and wanders round (or lies in the middle of wherever you're trying to go) looking depressed all the time. I've to go to the vet this week with him for an update and also to pay the (no doubt massive) bill we've been incurring in our absence. Deep breath, everyone!

when the cat's away

the mice will play... - or in this case, when mum and dad are away the dogs will throw themselves into whateer trouble they can find...

We hadn't even left the country before we got a phone call to say that Murphy could no longer walk and was going to have to visit the vet the next morning. It turned out he had obviously thrown himself on a barbed wire fence (such is his dislike of being left behind) and got a cut in his oxter. So now he's on enforced rest for two days (and hating it already apparently - no surprises there-) til the repeat visit to the vets lets us all know what he can and can't do for the next week or so.

Today we got the update that Maddie clearly felt left out in the attnetion (and pain) stakes and had managed to wangle a vosot to the vet herself! - this involved the trampoline so we suspect she threw herself off on purpose - at any rate she managed to tear out a claw...cue blood all over her bed and another panic-stricken visit to the vet for poor Emily, who's looking after them in our absence. Perhaps Murphy had told her his story of when he tore out his claw (several years ago and it's never grown back in again) and she decided to initiate herself into that particular club, who knows?.

Anyway, we've been away for two days and hoping they've all done their worst. Luckily Gizzy is away with Angela so hoping she at least is behaving herself!!!