it never rains but it .... rains

dear readers, remember last time i posted? i bet you wouldn't have thought things could go downhill on the blogging front from where we were then what with herself having only the one operative hand and all that?

well, they did. last sunday herself was stroking my lady friend on the head. this is the usual place my lady friend needs to be stroked. she is a nervous wreck, as you know. my lady friend had a little cut on her head from a misunderstanding we had over whose breakfast belonged to who (or perhaps whom?). herself had a look to see how it was doing, which elicited a curled lip from my lady friend. given my lady friend's nervy nature herself gave up and went to stroke her shoulder to re-assure her, whereupon my lady friend went at herself with some vigour, injuring her other hand.

this is not the first time that my lady friend has forgotten herself. there was an incident in january when herself was given my lady friend a gentle scratch on the back and my lady friend whipped round and sank her teeth into herself's hand, going through a vein. there was a fair bit of blood and gore and shrieking. the peeps put this outburst down to my lady friend having a sore bit on her back from an old injury of which she has many. so my lady friend was x-rayed and prodded whilst under anaesthetic for other things, but nothing was found in her joints so the evil vet said it must be some other problem. after that point the peeps stuck to the head area for stroking.

just before we moved to our new house there was an incident where my boy dropped a cherry tomato and without thinking went to pick it up as he was worried my lady friend would choke. my lady friend had to fight for every morsel of food in her former life and, probably without even thinking, whipped round and sank her teeth into my boy's hand. to say he was upset was something of an understatement. he is a gentle soul and could not believe that his kindness had been repaid so roughly.

under normal circumstances any dog that bit my boy would be on a one way trip to the vet but the peeps and my boy were under huge strain with moving house and everything else that was going on with them so they all felt they couldn't deal with taking such a step. they all felt my lady friend's behaviour was not through nastiness but because of the life she had endured. so life meandered on and things settled down. we moved and got settled in and all was well.

but sunday changed all that. herself was in a very bad way with no hands at all. she wept and wept. it was pretty obvious to all the peeps that this couldn't go on. the following day himself bathed herself and washed her hair. he went off to work leaving her with sliced bread to put in the toaster for lunch. with the help of the mega painkillers that herself was given by the hospital for the other hand it became possible during the course of the day for her to move the index finger and thumb of the bitten hand so at least she could do geeky things on her laptop. but the middle and ring finger were not so good and by monday afternoon the hand was not looking good at all.

luckily on monday afternoon the lovely kidney counselling lady came to see the peeps. this lady is helping them get their heads round the whole kidney thing. she has 3 dogs of her own so she always gives my lady friend and i a lot of fuss too. she took one look at the bitten hand and said it needed seeing by a medical person. the kidney lady works at the hospital so she knows about medical stuff. eventually herself was persuaded to make an appointment at the docs. it is just as well that she did. herself has blood poisoning from my lady friend's ghastly teeth. i could have warned them about this given my own marital problems.

the doc has put herself on 2 sorts of anti-biotics. one sort stop you drinking alcohol and the other sort stop you going in the sun. herself said it was just as well she was not planning on a booze cruise. she had to levitate the hand (this means keep it in the air). she was to go back the next day to have it checked and if it wasn't a bit better it was off to the hospital to be put on a drip. so yesterday off they went again. it seems the hand is just about holding its own but the doc filled herself with dread having explained about infections in hands and scarred tendons and all sorts of horrors.

meanwhile the issue of what to do with my lady friend remained. herself has never believed in re-homing a dog that is a biter. her first ever dog was put down after he became vicious, some 30 years ago. this was from lead poisoning after being shot. but my lady friend is not vicious, just terrified. when herself collected her from the kind man who had rescued her he made her promise to bring her back to him if things didn't work out so herself rang him to see what he wanted to do.

"she must come back to me!" he said without hesitation, "if she doesn't settle down here i will have her put down but we will see how it goes." the kind man has a farm in a remote area and he doesn't have children visiting. the peeps were hugely relived. the kind man is not sentimental and if things don't work out he will do the right thing with my lady friend but at least she is going to have a chance to sort out her poor muddled head.

so on saturday the peeps will take her down to devon. i will be a divorcee. in spite of it all i will miss the old girl. we have become quite close. but i cannot bear to see my peeps so traumatised, especially my boy. so i will be brave and strong for them...