First of all the excellent news that Amanda has defied modern medical science and is home making excellent progress ! After scaring the bejezus out of us before Christmas she has dismissed the home hospitalisation team, is walking again – slowly – and we are sure she’ll be out and about soon so long as this continues !
The ancient Brittany Spaniel who I thought had been dumped on us is back with his carers, the misunderstanding over dates being the cause for concern.
Talking of Brittanys our own Isabelle nearly broke my heart last week. Isabelle is now three years old and came to us completely traumatised. She was in such a state that even now after almost three years has passed I still cannot stroke her. She will come towards me bottom wagging (she doesn’t have a tail) and will take treats from me, but if I stretch out to stroke her she runs off. She now comes out on walks with us – after accidentally getting out by sneaking out in the middle of the crowd -and never runs off. However, last Sunday as I came in through the gate Balto our English Setter who should be called Bolto, took me out at the knees and ran off with Josie and Isabelle in hot pursuit. I didn’t worry too much as they all know the area well. However, when Josie and Balto came back but Isabelle didn’t I started to fret. I won’t bore you with the details of the whole angst filled four days, suffice to say that after being outside for four of the coldest nights of the year she came home on Thursday not a gram lighter and full of beans. I on the other hand hadn’t slept for four nights, had eyes so swollen from crying that I could hardly see and was exhausted from walking miles over the hills and valleys behind our house !
Our little Lulu is still with us and is clearly made of very strong stuff. Every morning I expect to find him lifeless in his bed, but no, that little (big) heart is still beating away. Today I took him to be clipped and stayed to help Virginie, who runs Os’car toilettage in Prayssac, as I knew it wouldn’t be easy. It wasn’t. Poor Virginie was frightened he would have a heart attack on the table, but no, he just thanked her by doing a poo. He has now had a bath and is snug in a very unmasculine pink jumper !
I’m off to the UK just for three days on the 16th, going to visit my new Great Niece, Maggie Ann. I’ll stay with Susie and on the Friday we are going to have a day in London followed by a show (Wicked), then on Saturday off to Streatham to see Maggie Ann, Sunday lunch with a group of friends and home on Monday. Soo looking forward to it.
Adoptions going well, delighted to say that Lucien went off to what looks like a fabulous home today, he really deserves it, such a great dog. Scruffboy also went to a lovely couple, Mengo is reserved and will be away next week – you won’t believe how many calls we had for him – and Max who has been so patient got his reward a couple of weeks back finally being chosen.
My ‘Grrrr’ of the month goes to the unspeakably horrid people who owned a lovely young female Lab mix. The dog was given to us by some travellers who had found her and decided they didn’t want her. Danielle found that the dog was in fact chipped so she was able to trace the owners who are Doctors. Now usually when this happens the owners are over the moon and very grateful. However, ‘phone messages went unanswered and after a week, a friend of Danielle’s went to the address on the identity records only to be told that the people had been very upset when the dog got lost but had got used to it now so didn’t want her back !!! I have very rarely seen Danielle angry, she has seen so much nothing surprises her, but on this occasion she was seething. We think we have someone on our waiting list for the dog but if it doesn’t work out she’ll be on the adoptions page very soon.
Right, that’s about it for this month, just to say that for those of you in the area of where The Quercy Local is distributed, look out for my article in praise of adopting adult dogs.
Also, Danielle and I are still in need of any old blankets you may have. Oh, nearly forgot, we are collecting books and dvd’s for the Easter sale already so get in touch if you need us to collect.
Love,
Sue x