Sunday, May 18, 2008

And Now We Is Cold...

Last week, 8 a.m., T-shirt and flip-flops. This week, long-sleeved T-shirt, fleece, waterproof jacket and walking boots. A typical English spring.

It's been a sad weekend. My father's cat, Henry Kitten (he never grew very big) went AWOL during the week. He was of feral stock, and was rounded up along with his mother by the Cats Protection League at a local feed mill, as part of a trap-neuter-release programme. When he didn't come back home on Sunday, we all feared he'd heard the call of the wild and answered it. Yesterday, coming back from an outing with the dogs, I spotted a black body on the verge, a couple of hundred yards from my father's house. I went to fetch Dad, and it looks very much like Henry. Unfortunately he looks to have hit a car head-on.

Then (big mistake) I read the last chapters of Merle's Door, by Ted Kerasote. It's a wonderful book, about a man who tries to put himself in his dog's shoes, and let his dog have some choices about the way he lives. The two of them lived in a national park, and spent their days out in the wilderness - but the ending is a three-hanky job.

As a result, I've spent today fussing over Herbie. First, I thought I'd found a new tumour in his stomach - I'd actually found the end of one of his ribs. They're all knobbly at the end, and so are Holly's - it's nothing new. Then I went to clean his ears out, and found that they were black inside. Not just dark brown wax, but deep charcoal black. I wondered if this was one of those symptoms of cancer that no one talks about, because it's too much of a bad sign. Maybe his brain was starting to rot and leaking out through his ears.

Then I remembered I'd repotted a few plants yesterday, and put the spent compost on one of the flowerbeds. Herbie had had a really good dig, and redistributed it all. When greyhounds fold their ears back, the ear canal is wide open. He didn't have a brain tumour, he had compost in his ears. Only person with a leaking brain round here is me. Very glad I didn't call the vet.

5 comments:

Fiona said...

Oh, Handh, reading your post i didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So did a bit of both. So sad about Henry Kitten. It's awful when things like that happen. Compost in the ears? Brilliant story :o)

Emily and the Labradors said...

Glad to hear Herbie hasn't lost his brains! You gave me a good little laugh... sorry!

Anonymous said...

Too funny! I am so glad, too, that Herbie's brains aren't leaking out!! You did get me really worried for a minute, thinking that I didn't remember Cole going through anything like that...and a bit relieved that we hadn't experienced that symptom!

I'm so glad that you're having moments of humor through everything with Herbie. He and Holly look absolutely beautiful in your last post! I can only imagine that your life must be very full.

Thank you for the book mention, I've put it on hold at the library.

XO,
Teresa and Bridget (and Cole)

Ari_1965 said...

Cold and rainy here in MN, too. But sunshine forecasted for tomorrow. Buddha went to the vet today for a checkup and a bordatella booster. She said that she'd had to give "your dog must lose weight now" lectures to her first eight appointments of the day and so was pleased that Buddha is a trim 62.5 pounds. I felt very smug. Now if someone would only limit me to two cups of dry food per day and some low-cal biscuits, I could be trim, too.

Linda Seid Frembes said...

Compost in the ears! Hilarious. Perhaps you could have just thrown some onion sets in there and started a garden!

But so sorry about Henry Kitten. So sad to lose them in that way.