Where do I start?
Goodness where do I start? It has been many months since I have written and so much has happened since I last wrote.Let me see.... hmmm oh yes well we did eventually get off on our holiday to Queensland, gosh it has been and gone and now seems like a vague memory!
It took us three days to get up to Pomona where Annette and Paul live and we stayed with them for almost 4 days. So good to catch up with them and to experience their happiness with their gorgeous little baby boy Logan. I am so taken with him. Such a cutie. In those four days you could see the amazing changes in him, it made me think back to when Kate was a baby and appreciate being with her when she was that age.
We did some sight seeing with them and also some by ourselves. I think the highlight during that time was to go to Tin Can Bay, a gorgeous little town where they have managed to have two wild dolphins visiting and being hand fed. It was an awesome experience one I will never forget. Although a very short time with them, it was so good.
We then took our time coming back home. Was glad to get home, only to be out of the car for some time. We did stay a couple of days in a little town called Woolgoolga in New South Wales, which was a nice break.
During our time away we were constantly in touch with Geoff as our older dog Sassy decided to not be well. At first we thought it was because we both were away and usually one of us is there at home while the other goes to Melbourne. Even Milly was off her food for a while. But Sassy did not pick up so Geoff took her to the vet. He reckoned her arthritis was causing her a lot of pain and gave her a needle to relieve it, increase her tablets and see how she goes. She was off her food and Geoff was hand feeding her and making her eat. He was so worried about her as she was not good, but assured us she was o.k. no need to come home.
By the time we got home, Sassy had picked up and seemed reasonable. We had seen her go down in the past but not as bad as she was this time. Geoff went back home and Sassy started to deteriorate. By Easter Saturday she would not eat, could not be bothered to get up even for a walk. It was awful to see her like this, she could not even walk properly as her back legs were giving way. I had made up my mind that morning to insist to Gerard it was time for her to leave us and realised this would be very hard for him. He worked the morning shift and would not be home til 11am. When he got home I mentioned Sassy was not good and thought we should take her to the vets, and he agreed and said he thought it was time to say goodbye to her.
I rang the vet, made an appointment and Gerard had to carry her to the car. The vet was very nice about it all and agreed it was time. He could have given her another injection to relieve the pain but said she would be back again within a couple of days and she would not get better. So the time had come. It was a very traumatic experience for Gerard and I thought he was going to have another anxiety attack as he was losing it. He managed to pull himself together and the vet carried Sass out to the car. The drive home seemed like an eternity. Unfortunately we took the "Old Harry Holden" and so Gerard had to drive home. I wish we had taken my car even though it would have been covered in Sassy's hair and it is so hard to vacuum out.
Gerard decided to bury her in her favourite sitting spot which was beside the verandah by the back gate. She used to spend ages sitting there watching the world go by. At first Milly seemed o.k. we let her see and sniff Sassy before burying her as we have been told it is good for them to realise they are gone..... I don't know about that, but Milly was enjoying being Queen Bee and having all the attention. Letting her sleep inside as she did not really like sleeping outside by herself. Gerard was not too happy with this, but I managed to overcome that problem with him. As the days passed Millie started to change and was getting paranoid, looking for Sassy I am sure, she was jumpy, would not leave my side even more so, starting to have funny turns and just completely odd..
Not even two weeks had passed and I went to the vet to pay the bill for Sassy and noticed a note on their message board that a 9 year old golden lab needed a good home. Her owners had had so many changes over the last months and her male owner had passed away. She spent most of her time with him and he took her to their farm often with him. After he died her "mum" had to leave her at home a lot while she worked and she got terribly bored even though she had a little dog for company during the day. Her "Mum" had to tie her up during the day otherwise she got up too much mischief, digging up everything, chewing everything and just being a real vandal. It was such a hard decision for her "Mum" to post the ad, but felt it was the best thing for the dog. When I got home I mentioned to Gerard the ad reluctantly as he said he needed some time before thinking about another dog. He did not say much but later in the day asked me what the ad said again and would I ring the person and see what the situation was. I had to ring the vet first for the number and then no one answered the phone. I rang again in the evening but no answer still. I finally rang the mobile number and got in touch with the owner who was in Tasmania for another week having a long needed holiday. When she got back the following Sunday she rang me and we made arrangements for her to bring "Missy" down on the following Monday morning.
Monday morning came and when Kayleen pulled up and opened the car door, there bounded out a younger, slimmer version of Sassy! She was full of energy and so friendly. We brought her inside and introduced her to Milly, she was fine, protective of me as usual and not much more of a reaction! We agreed to keep her til the Friday and assess the situation then as to how she was going.
Well I think that night she decided she was not going anywhere and so did we! She had mainly been an outdoor dog so we wondered how she would go being indoors at times. The first thing we were not used to was the fact that we had a bigger dog wandering around the house. Sassy did not like walking on the floating floor so she would only go into the loungeroom. We put a blanket down on the lounge floor and made Missy sit on it and that was to be where she would sit when she came in at night. Milly had her little spot also. She responded to this demand pretty well after a few times of telling her inbetween getting up and wandering around a bit and being reassured she was o.k. Not to mention it was her first night away from home.
She was rather smelly bearing in mind Kayleen did not have any time to bath her after being away for two weeks and she had had the run of her backyard unsupervised for that time. Smell put aside she managed the evening pretty well. She was so tired and did not want to go to sleep while inside but you could see her eyes getting very droopy on her.
She also has a little expression on her face when she is unsure of what is happening. At first I thought she was snarling with no sound, but it is quite a harmless facial expression but oh so cute!
The evening went well she settled down and when it was time to go to bed, she followed Milly out to the verandah and the two of them curled up on the trampoline bed together as if it was the usual every day thing to do! It is amazing how well she and Milly have got on, Milly has improved immensely and I think she was pining for Sassy in her own way.
Missy also was used to the two cats that lived in her home and they also had an outdoor area. So when Missy came here she did not even really notice the cats at all. Ashley was so funny, it was if she did not even notice a difference in the dogs, not the least worried by her. By the second night she was rolling around on the blanket where Missy was sleeping not even two feet away from her feet. Missy looked up at her for a second and then just put her head back down and went to sleep. Rusty on the other hand hissed and hid away in our wardrobe for a few days. It was not until I grabbed her on the fourth day and shut her out into the cat enclosure with a few scratches to my arms for a few hours. During that time she needed to use the litter tray and had to see Missy on the other side of the mesh on the veranday. Missy did not even bother to come to the door, it was all Rusty being paranoid. Then the worse thing for Rusty happened. ""THUNDER"" Rusty can usually hear it a few hours before it even arrives, you know something is going to happen when she appears out of the blue, growling, making such funny noises with her mouth shut and rubbing up against you and the dogs! Sassy used to have her all over her so what was going to happen now? Eventually we let her out of the enclosure and she was in the spare bedroom with me while I was on the computer then the two dogs came in and Missy was sitting down by the door and Rusty had to walk past her to get out... well the rest is history. She overcame her fear of Missy, but not the thunder. So it is like it was before, a dark coloured dog and cat and a ginger coloured dog and cat..
All I can say is it is as if Missy lived here all her life, she has settled down so well and is part of our family now.
posted by Jill @ 2:02 pm
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