We had three days of lovely spring
weather. The hens were out for hours, digging and chatting with the magpies.
Monty and Eric were busy tooting away, each climbing higher up on the manure
heap than his friend. It looked funny in a Monty Python sort of way and at the
end I thought they were going to try the stable roof, but courage failed them.
It was very noisy, though....
The sun was out and Mindy, Mandy,
Molly and My ate their hay outside, sunbathing and doing their "We are
happy and young!"- hopping and head butting, with each other. I groomed
them, brush going hundred and ten through their woolly coats, while the game
was going on and I was, yet again, impressed that they never knocked me over.
They performed their staged fight in the yard where there was still more ice
than sand on the ground, and stayed upright. I do worry, that they will fall
and break a leg but keeping them in all the time is not an option, they tell
me. So we sand (grit) like mad... It's a funny project, sanding, as the hens
follow me around, thinking I'm preparing lunch, for them. In the end we are
quite a procession, scattering and pecking around the place. I was relived to
let the sheep inside, in the afternoon, all safe and sound. Mindy walks in like
the Queen, calm and royal, My hops a bit because she can, and Mandy looks
worried. It's her expression for most things and then she smiles, when you tell
her everything is as it should be. She just worries... Last in is Molly who got
so exited about the fact that I had brought some of their favourite bread with
me that she fell over. She landed on her back, legs in the air, on the rough
stable floor. She did not hurt herself, I think, but it still makes you wonder.
Poor Molly needed a long hug after that. She hides her head in my arms and then
she leans her whole body weight on me. And then everyone ate a lot of bread....
Mr. Chip spent one of the sunny days
visiting the vet for all his tests. Blood was taken and medicine inserted, then
more blood taken. It is clear that he really does not like it. His way of coping
is to hide his head under my arm and it ends up looking like the vet is
treating half a terrier. The good news is that our slightly older dog is
responding well to his medication and if all goes well he does not have to go
back before the end of April. We celebrated that with a big chunk of cucumber!
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| Credit: Dasha Dimitrova |
Today we woke up to a beautiful
snowstorm. Our sweet, active hens will complain loudly that their digging
project is being delayed, our four sheep will snuggle up inside with a good
book and Monty and Eric will continue with their gallop, around the place. Mr.
Chip will help out by eating as much of the snow as he can muster, before the
cold makes his whole body shake. Then it's inside and under a woolly quilt, a
happy but slightly frozen dog....
We used to have winter for months on
end, skiing and snowshoeing and long walks on the frozen snow with Mr.Chip. Now
it's three weeks of very cold, then milder winter, then spring, back to a
blizzard.... It's hard to keep up and the storms are getting worse. Climate
change in all its glory and yes, I am being ironic. If this keeps up we will
have very confused plants. More light and warmth means they will start to wake
up and then Bam! another cold spell. We are not big fans of cold weather, the
hens and I, but at least we know where we are. Spring walks on snow that
carries is also Mr.Chips way of getting to places he does not normally have
access to and he loves that. Now we plod along on the same tracks and hope we
don’t
fall over, on the ice.
Cushing's syndrome in a dog is
treatable, as I know I have already told you. Mr.Chip gets a medicine called
Vetoryl, the most commonly used drug, it seems. Having Cushing's in the house
means you are always on the lookout for abnormal behaviour in your friend. Excessive
water drinking, lack of energy, lack of appetite and so forth. Vomiting is also
on the list, so when Mr.Chip had a real go at that, one evening, I was already
painting horrid pictures in my head. Turned out that if you do not chew, but
inhale a piece of melon, it needs to come back up, again. I did not even mind
washing the rug, when he was done. I was just relieved, once again...
Horses and rabbits, for example, can't
vomit. It's a big problem, if they eat something they should have avoided.
Rabbits can get fur balls stuck, that they can't get rid of. This means an
operation, if the owner is alert enough to spot the problem, I guess. So we are
happy that dogs can help themselves by making pieces of melon fly and that rugs
can be washed. I did think of the Heimlich-maneuver, though, but I was too slow
to try that one out, thank goodness!
Text by Nina
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