and finally...

at last! dear readers i am finally free of stitches and staples and all things medical! i am only using this picture to remind you all of the trials of lurcherhood. i no longer have to wear these silly shirts, and more to the point i can go off the lead! i am so looking forward to running about on the beach with my lady friend and young rokit!

the final stitches were taken out last night by the vet. i think he was rather impressed by my diy plastic surgery. i wonder if there is a future career for me as a vet? i don't suppose i would have many cats among my following.

while we were at the vets my lady friend also had the once over. she still has poorly eyes and in spite of herself's efforts refuses to have the stuff put in them. and she rather disgraced herself yesterday. i have to say it makes a change to sit on the sidelines when someone else is in the doghouse. what happened was that herself and my boy were watching tv. himself had already gone off to bed as he finds any tv programme that doesn't have a bearded archeologist in a trench or a bunch of little men chasing a ball to be beneath him. herself was giving my lady friend's back a gentle scratch. my lady friend usually loves this and goes into a mesmo with her bottom lip hanging and her eyes half closed.

however, on this occasion herself must have touched a sore place. it is hard to tell where my lady friend is sore as a) she is very hairy and b) she has obviously been bashed around a fair bit by her previous owners and has many sore places. anyway, she whipped round before you could say bonio and sank her teeth into herself's hand. to say it bled profusely would be an understatement. my boy, always good in a crisis, fetched a wad of paper towel to stop the sofa copping it, and herself, looking rather pale and dizzy, sank to the floor in order, no doubt, to lessen the distance to fall if she passed out. my boy asked if he should call an ambulance but herself, having got rather more used to blood around the place than is healthy, said they should wait and see if it stopped. my boy tried to rouse himself from his slumbers but was singularly unsuccessful. himself just muttered that herself should get into bed too. luckily no-one takes any notice of himself when he is asleep as he talks nonsense. that much blood in the bed would not have been good.

eventually the hand stopped bleeding enough to be taped up with the ever-handy first aid kit. my boy made cuppa-teas with sugar and gave herself a cookie. he is such a lovely boy - this was the last cookie and left none for him but he didn't grumble. so calmness returned to the house and eventually herself and my boy crawled off to bed, although my boy almost immediately re-appeared with bertha the bear and his duvet and bedded down on the sofa.

so today herself had to have a tetanus jab and is on anti-biotics, given my lady friend's filthy teeth. the hand is rather puffy and very sore but at least herself can still type. without the internet she would without doubt lose the plot, and i am sure my public would have something to say if i were unable to keep the world up to date with events chez nous.

the vet is going to x-ray my lady friend's back and hips to check there are no injuries there. this will necessitate her being knocked out so while she is under they will do various other bits and bobs like trimming her clicketty-clacketty nails (thank heavens! a bit of sleep at last!) and her matted fur and also taking out her lady-bits. this latter procedure is to prevent her going out on the tiles when she is hormonal and coming back full of puppies. while puppies are undoubtedly very sweet, i somehow doubt they would add an air of much-needed calm to our household.

my lady friend is also going to have some sessions with a dog behaviourist. this is because the biting thing is not something that the peeps can sort out on their own, in spite of many years of living with dogs with shady pasts. my boy said that it was ironic that, after separating a good many dog fights and never sustaining a scratch, herself should end up getting bitten while stroking a dog. i'm not sure why anyone is surprised by this. that's just the way herself's cookie crumbles...