Life sucks ...

Absolutely cream-crackered at the moment. Sat an "exam" last Monday to see if I am still worth employing, then returned to start packing contents of office up for my fifth move in 3 years.

New office is quite pleasant and I have managed to arrange it so that our desks are shielded from the door by a partition and filing cabinets, but there are about 20 crates of stuff to be unpacked and rearranged tomorrow.

Every time we move, there is more to cart around because whenever my boss clears out his study at home, he brings it in to the office "just in case". I wouldn't mind, but the Registrars all get copies automically on qualifying and there is always a duplicate set of journals etc in the library. I did manage to get rid of a few boxes full of paper which he hopefully won't notice.

Oh well. I suppose the first thing that I shall have to do is dig out the telephone. It was really nice to have a day without it last Friday. Didn't do anything else either, so will have to type clinic notes frantically for the next couple of days as I shall be on leave from Wednesday. Too knackered to get excited, though.
 
Oh dear, poor Dougal.

I was tidying up in the kitchen just now and accidentally nudged one of his food bowls against another, causing it to make a loud "clink".

All of a sudden Dougal was by my foot with his eyes still closed from sleep, making tiny kitten sounds of alarm. He had started running before he was awake and his blanket is still in his hammock in a cat-shape, sweeeet.
 
Brother's little whippet / Bedlington cross has the same symptoms and lump as Dougal had a couple of years ago. While I am lucky to have a great vet who charges minimal fees to give Dougal a fighting chance, my brother and his family moved to Torquay last year. Their local vet has removed the lump from Bonny's neck and it has been sent for tests, but if the diagnosis is the same as Dougal's, they are facing some phenomenal charges if their vet is not the same as our wonderful Mary and her team. (I recently sent a lady I met in tears in Tesco to her as the other vets had told her it would cost over £1,000 for 6 months' treatment).

Is anyone here in the Torquay area and, if so, is there a veterinary practice that you would recommend?

Your advice would be greatly appreciated as Iain's kids adore that little dog.
 
Poor little Bonny had her op this morning.

Apparently the cancer is very aggressive and there is nothing to be done for her.

She is at home with the family for a few days and they are to take her in when they are ready.

She's such a sweet-natured little dog. Damn, damn, damn.
 
Bedlington/whippet crosses are my favourite dogs; look like miniature deerhounds, and so good natured. Can understand why the kids are so fond of her. Rotten thing to happen. Very stoic little dogs, are whippets. Very sad to hear it.
 
Thanks Moe. As you say, Bonny looked like a miniature deerhound. Daft as a brush, the kids would dress her up and she would bound around the house in a pink tutu or the T-shirt that they made for her. Very sweet-natured and high-spirited, but not a nasty bone in her body. Darling little dog.

Catherine (Senior Niece) rang me in tears just now. RIP Bonny.
 
With whippets being such sweet little dogs the Bedlington side used to worry me [Bedlingtons being dogs with 'attitiude', I always believed] but everyone I've spoken to over the years have said the Bedlington/Whippet crosses are sweet natured. My very old Observers book of dogs mentions a 'long haired whippet' as a breed; obviously no longer in existence. I guess that, with whippets being northern dogs a lot of Bedlington/Whippet accidents happened. Of course they wouldn't have quite such a problem with barbed wire accidents, the nightmare of whippet owners, as they run too fast to see where they're going sometimes, and have no coat to offer protection. Pass my condolences on to them, please. I lost a beloved spaniel when she was only 6; no age at all.
 
Thank you Moehat. Much appreciated. The kids were upset but have consoled themselves by making an album of photographs. Their mother has her eye on a litter of lurcher pups who will be ready to leave their mother in about 5 weeks. Surprised she's prepared to wait that long. She does tend to go out and replace any animal that dies within a week - 2 max. I don't understand that. It almost seems disrespectful, but that's probably just me.

Barbed wire is horrible stuff. As you say, whippets and greyhounds having such sleek coats and going at such a speed would get terribly tangled and torn. Hopefully not an experience one of your dogs has had?
 
We have a new game. Dougal is an excellent goalkeeper!

He sits between two of the armchairs and it's my job to fire anything that comes to hand at him (rolled up bits of foil, ping-pong balls, small pinecones etc.). Dougal crouches "in goal" watching, then launches himself to either catch the object or swipe it back to me.

He can get a bit over-zealous if I have to retrieve something that he hasn't hit back to me and I get clouted sometimes for helping myself, but never nasty with claws.

Because of the weather he is cooped up indoors a lot and there's only so much sleeping a cat can do! He is bored, so starts inventing games and demanding attention, hence the new game.

Can't believe it is nearly 2 years since he was so sick. I know he won't have a long life, but at the moment he is so lively and happy it is easy to forget that it is borrowed time.

I will never regret opting to have him treated, but we owe everything to our wonderful vet, who charges the barest minimum to make it possible.
 
I've probably asked this before, but does he have Burmese in him, because he behaves like one? I've just had a narrow 'vet's bill escape' in that Hattie got very poorly when she went to the seaside for a few days last week but seems ok now. I didn't know that you could give dogs Pepto Bismol for bad tummies, but it's worked a treat; the liquid form looks like windolene but dogs seem to prefer the tablet form. Must point out it's not for cats as it contains aspirin which is very poisonous to them. Still haven't got to the bottom of what was wrong with her; I didn't go with her but supposedly she didn't eat anything yukky on the beach.
 
He does have many personal characteristics of a Burmese, doesn't he, Moe?

Thinking about it, apart from always having been very wary of strangers, even as a kitten, he loves interacting with "his" humans (me, my mother, my sister and the lady next door but one). He is possessive of me, even with Tilly, and guards his territory fiercely. I'm not sure whether this is a natural character trait though, as having lived rough for almost 2 years, he might just be defending his cushy berth from invaders.

He certainly hasn't gone so far as to invade next door to beat up their cat on its own hearthrug as Oscar once did (because I made a fuss of her when she came to say "Hello" to me!).

In appearance Dougal is a deep red and white long-haired cat (not so long these days, though, but he still has the mutton-chop whiskers on his face). He has a long, broad nose, a broad, deep chest and long legs, very like a Burmese - or a Siamese. His paws, however, are pure English moggy, in that they are quite big and rounded, rather than oval.

His eyes are slanted - more like a Siamese than a Burmese - and he goes cross-eyed when investigating something close to his face. His eyes are an unusal colour for a cat in that they are more of a light hazel than either amber or green.

On the whole, having outlined the above characteristics, do you think he could have a bit of Siamese in him, rather than Burmese? They both love to interact with humans, although the Siamese can be naughtier. (He certainly has the big character associated with the Oriental breeds.)

Sorry to hear about Hattie and glad to hear that the cure was so simple! I never knew either that you could give Pepto Bismol to dogs. Thanks for the warning about aspirin.

I've finally managed to take the stress out of giving Dougal his steroid tablet on alternate nights. After trying every way of putting it into food, I hit on the idea of a spoonful of yoghurt. This usually works a treat, but sometimes if he only licks it then leaves it I have to resort to ramming a pill down his throat!
 
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I'd forgotten the joys of giving tablets to cats. I wonder what the record is for the amount of time they can keep it in their mouth before spitting it out into a corner somewhere. Or how many legs they appear to grow when you're trying to force it down them.
 
Colin Phillips said:
He was a truly thick cat.
Click to expand...

But well-loved, no doubt.

What a pleasure he must have been to treat Colin!

The number of places that I have found spat-out pills - long after I thought he had swallowed them too, little ...

I have found a pill in my slipper, down my bra, stuck to a cushion and - best of all, in Dougal's armpit the day after. Thought he took them too quietly. :D
 
I'm not sure if it is the weather, but Dougal is not himself at the moment. He has spent the last few days wrapped in a blanket in his hammock and barely moved. Nor has he come up to bed with me at night.

His legs don't seem to be healing so well after he has his chemo - although I think that he makes the skin raw by licking the injection site, then makes it more sore and licks it some more, until he has an open wound.

Sometimes he wakes from sleep shaking a paw.

I noted a gland under his jaw was up the other day and quite large, but it seems to have gone down again. (I do check his glands frequently as they do enlarge and go down again, but this one felt different and a bit "boggy".)

Hopefully it's just the weather and he is preserving his energy.
 
Hope he picks up, but it doesn't sound good. Mind you, I'm pretty sick of the weather at the moment.
 
Had a bit of sunshine the other day and Dougal perked up no end. Unfortunately he is having a heavy moult at the moment, so looks unbelievably ragged and tatty.
 
Not been on for awhile but glad to read that Dougal has picked up again. And so sorry about Bonny. Dougal does look like a Burmese, in his face shape. It's amazing how long he has lived considering what he suffers from. Your vet is an Angel. I think it must be one of the worse as[ects of being a vet, knowing that youi could prolong or even cure and animal but money gets in the way. My old vet in the US took care of my dog when I could no longer afford to keep buying the medications, he only charged me at cost and no vet fees.

Very interesting Moe that dogs can have pepto bismo, I did not know that.
 
Hi Isi, glad you're back.

Dougal is borrrrrrred at the moment and driving me crackers. He should really be having his afternoon kip, but for some reason has decided that not only does he want company but wants attention too.

I'm busy trying to do some coursework and am about to give up, as he has walked all over my desk and is now trying to dig up the landing carpet so that he can get into the bathroom.

I shall give him a game on the stairs and then curl up with a book so that he can cuddle up.

He does look so tatty at the moment, with almost bare patches all over, matted bits at the rear end and a completely bare front leg that he keeps aggravating by licking it. I smothered him in aloe vera again last night, which seems to have calmed the irritation down a bit, so hopefully he will leave it alone long enough for the raw patches to heal.

Otherwise he is in good spirits. We are into bonus time so I will probably start to worry over every little thing.

Better go, he's swinging on the office curtains now. Little show-off!
 
He's learned how to open the fridge!

I came home yesterday afternoon and found him stretched out asleep in front of the open fridge door. He had found his packet of chicken and eaten a bit, but found the cool air even more pleasant.

I closed the fridge, made a cup of tea and walked back into the kitchen to find him lying on his side trying to hook the bottom of the door open again.
 
Oh my God - Dougal is so talented! ha ha.

It's funny how cats appreciate heat and cool so much. Especially if not feeling 100%. Ours will lie on the cold tiled floor if hot and then when chilly curl up right on a radiator until their fur smells singed.
 
So glad to hear that he's ok. Jut had a sudden urge a couple of minutes ago to check the forum and see if you'd written anything about him. There has to be Burmese or Siamese in there somewhere; they're the only cats I know of that open fridges.
 
My friend's Siamese - Amos - could open her fridge. She used to tape it shut with duct tape.

Dougal hasn't needed to raid the fridge since the heatwave and is now cuddled up to a heater as he moulted so heavily while it was hot that the sudden downturn in temperatures caught him totally by surprise and he is almost bald again in parts.

We have just had a good game of kitty football on the stairs - basically I stand at the bottom and retrieve the ball whenever it bounces off the stairs and out of play.

Nice to know that I have my uses -besides being a convenient hot water bottle/ bridge from windowsill to sofa/ protector from scary noises outside etc.

I think he was watching our resident ghost a few weeks past as we were sorting through a lovely smelly fleece when he suddenly stopped and stared up at something by my chair. The funny thing was that I took a photo at that moment because he looked so pretty in the sunshine. When it came out there was a huge "orb" just where he had been looking.

I know that these often show up on digital photos and are often light reflecting off dust particles or tiny insects, but this was an ordinary throwaway camera, which is not so sensitive. It's also the first time that I have caught anything like that in the house. None of the other pictures have them and the one afterwards was taken just a few seconds later.

The "house guest" has been a bit more active during the past couple of months, but the cats are not particularly bothered - although it can be a bit disconcerting whilst watching or reading something to see them suddenly raise their heads and watch something cross the room. Bad enough when one does it, but when both cats suddenly wake up and watch the same area from different positions. Hmmm ...
 
Oh boy, what a great laugh to start the week!

While cleaning my teeth, I could hear a pheasant through the open bathroom window. We have one who lives about a field away, but this one was very close.

When finished in bathroom I went downstairs and could hear little mewing sounds and some thumping on the front door. As I opened the door Dougal almost fell in, he was pressed so close to it.

Meanwhile, parading around in front of the door - only 3 or 4 feet away - was a massive **** pheasant strutting up and down and eyeballing Dougal and me. Almost as if saying "Bring it on, Fluffy!"

Tilly was sitting in the window watching with eyes like saucers.

Poor Dougal. Bullied by a chicken in fancy dress!

Sympathetic as ever, I'm still laughing at the thought of the looks on both cats' faces.
 
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