Summer Time part 2

It is great with the summer being here, we get all the fresh fruit etc. The smell of fresh bread I have made in the mornings, fresh fish and tomatoes to die for. I made fresh Lemonade tonight as well which was GORGEOUS! (Lemons from the garden)
Not sure why I felt the need to tell you about this but......

The people we rent the house off (who live next door) are away in Switzerland at the minute, they are great. We always spend a lot of time with their dogs who are fab. However, last week, we got home and somebody had left the gate open and the dogs had escaped. One was sitting by the gate and I didn't see the other immediately. She eventually came running towards me from her kennel and would not leave my side. She was also shaking. Justine said it must have been gunshots (we get quite a few around here) as she is really nervous anyway but I sensed something more. There was a look in her eyes that I can not describe. Anyway, because of this I decided to stay outside with her for 10 minutes. over the next ten minutes she went from looking a little odd to weeing and pooing (my Mum reads this you know...) everywhere, collapsing and foam coming from her mouth. To cut a VERY long story short, I managed to get the Vet from his bed and made it to the surgery where Cindy (the dog) collapsed outside. The vet gave her injections and various other things to try and keep her going. It turns out she had been poisoned (probably ate food near a bin that was put down for any rats that may have been lurking after Easter) After about an hour we left, she was ok but we didnt know if she would make it through the night. At the time the vet said that we only just made it and another 10 minutes and she would be gone. We got home very weary to find the other dog with foam coming out of her mouth. Back on the phone to the vets, vet back to the surgery. The following morning 'Chocolate' (the second dog) was fine. This amazed us as we thought she was the bigger worry. Unfortunately Cindy had gone downhill rapidly. She did not move for four days literally, not even her eyes although they were open. They put tiny bits of food next to her both to try and get her to move and eat (she was on a drip). We took the other dog in to see her in the hope it might brighten her up, it was so funny.... we lifted Chocolate onto the table so Cindy could see her and, although she didnt move, she realised that Chocolate was near her food so started growling at her! That gave us hope. As we left, the vet said that the following day she would probably die. We went in to see her the following day (as we did everyday) and as I went in I saw her eyes following me so we knew there was a little progress. The followng day she was well enough to be bathed, which was a good job because she stunk (imagine she could not move and still needed the toilet, not pleasant). Two days later she was lifting her head up a little and they left the kennel door open but she would not move to come out. We arrived quite late that day and they explained the situation. She was wagging her tail a lot when I got there so I moved about 5 metres from her kennel and called her. You could see the desperate look in her eyes as she wanted to come to me so badly. She started trying to get up, fell about a bit and slid out of her kennel and VERY slowly staggered all the way to us. There is a youngish girl (23) that works there and she had really fallen for Cindy. She saw and went running to the vet so excited that we had got her to move and walk a little. She then went and did the biggest wee all over the floor (Cindy, not the girl that works there. They would have sacked her for that I think.). I mean literally two or three minutes. Having told us she wouldn't be going home for a day or two, the vet let her go home that night! She had to go back for injections for a few days but now, we think she is fine. A nice end to a horrible story.

One of the worst things about the whole episode was ringing Switzerland to tell her owners. My Greek is not great but trying to explain that on the first night was not easy. They were so thankful for what we did. Anyway, thats it for now

Keep Safe