18 December 2016 (Sunday) - Poorly Puppy

I woke rather earlier than I had hoped; I had this plan that if I got up and had a shave and did stuff I might then go  back to bed and get back off to sleep again afterwards. It is an idea which has worked in the past. Half way through my ablutions "er indoors TM" unleashed woop-ass on me as I had supposedly woken the puppy.
I went back to bed leaving her to deal with "Furry Shark TM" (after all I never wanted the puppy) but I didn't really get back to sleep. I got up after a couple of hours to find her and the puppy both snoring on the sofa. I quietly made some brekkie and took it out of harm's way.

"er indoors TM" had stuff to do this morning so I kept myself hidden. I sorted out various bits of paperwork concerning my various vaccinations as the nice people at Maidstone Hospital are asking questions. Occupational Health departments do that. I then put together a little video of what's been going on in my world over the last six months, organised a booze up (not in a brewery), and played Gems and Genies for an hour or so. Having a lazy Sunday seemed rather odd as we are usually out and about every Sunday.
I soon got very bored, and came downstairs to find "er indoors TM" was sorting out the Christmas decorations. She was also sorting out the dogs; the key-winder to her Christmas music box had gone missing and although "Furry Shark TM" was suspected of having eaten it, "Furry Face TM" wasn't entirely above suspicion.
I went and hid again.

 We went out shortly after mid-day to do a spot of geocache maintenance in the Tenterden area. We had a rather good walk through some rather pleasant countryside; both dogs seemed to be enjoying the walk. There was a minor incident when the puppy got zapped by a stinging nettle, but all things considered it was probably the little one’s best walk so far.
Or so we thought…

As we drove "Furry Shark TM" wasn’t settling. About twenty minutes later just as we were driving into Maidstone she went berserk; screaming and thrashing about with legs at all sorts of odd angles. We abandoned plans and made a bee-line to the vets. I phoned the vet to give them the heads up. Mind you I didn’t ask for an appointment; I *told* them we were going to have one in about half an hour’s time (and managed not to blub whilst I was doing so).
We made good time and soon enough we were at the vets. The vet seemed to agree with my diagnosis of shock after an allergic reaction to the stinging nettle, and he gave my puppy the steroid injection that I was  expecting he would. He also gave us some steroid cream just in case.
As the vet said, an older dog with harder feet would just walk straight over stinging nettles. "Furry Face TM" does; mind you he just finds other ways to make me cry like a baby.
Fifty quid later we were on our way….

I did think about completely blowing plans and staying at home with the little dog; but I was glad I didn’t. The original idea for the day had been to meet the tree-climbers for the last part of their afternoon then go back to Jo’s for dinner. What with the detour to the vets we met everyone at Jo’s instead. "Furry Shark TM" slept all the way to Dartford, and the combination of an hour’s sleep and the steroid injection worked wonders. We arrived with a completely different dog. No cries of pain at all, and she was soon charging about with everyone else and their dogs. The puppy running and playing like a thing possessed at 5.30pm bore no resemblance to the puppy screaming in pain at 3.30pm.

I was glad we’d gone to Dartford; it was really good to meet up with friends. We had a very good dinner, and after dinner we have an excellent game of… well, I don’t know what the game is. It was some sort of TV trivia quiz game; it was really good. And our team won…
The evening was only marred by "Furry Shark TM" tiddling on Jo’s carpet.

My puppy then slept all the way home and is currently sleeping on my shoulders behind my neck. She seems to have completely recovered from this afternoon’s episode.
Little debacles like today are the very reason why I never wanted the puppy… I don’t mind the expense, it’s the heartache I don't like...

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