I visited a local school today to accept a donation of dog food on behalf of the dog rescue group. The kids had been collecting cans for weeks and were very excited about the project. I had to make a loo stop along the way but got there on time and made a nice speech to the assembly.
I got back to work afterwards, and one of the first things someone said to me was “do you know your fly is undone”.
Kind of a shock, because the place and the people seemed so ideal for Ebony. We thought she had finally found a home. The people are upset about it, but it’s a farm and Ebs has been causing too much disturbance with the other animals.
They said Ebony is food aggressive. Well, they leave food lying around all day for the dogs to snack on whenever they want it. Clearly this doesn’t work for Ebony, she was fine with our two when we fed them together. Once a day, own dinner bowls.
They said Ebony is attacking their other dogs. I’d had reservations about their old cattle dog, Teddy – he and Ebony had a fight the day we took her there. I felt a bit sorry for old Teddy losing his place, clearly he was no match for Ebony. The fights have continued, with blood drawn, and Teddy relegated under the house. Their new puppy dog has also been the occasional subject of attack (around the food I’d say) and the people were worried about little kids getting in the way.
So Ebony, who I can’t help but love for all her high-spirited faults, is coming back. And I think Ludelle would like her to stay with us for a while, so she can settle down a bit. H has some time off and is going to get stuck into building a secure compound for her to stay in when we’re at work.
But at least I can drive again! Doctor says my leg may take 2 – 4 weeks to heal, and I should keep weight off it during that time.
Being on crutches has its good and bad points.
Bad:
they get in the way
sore arms and hands
can’t carry stuff
untidy house
Good:
great talking point
people offer to help
handy pointing device
stairs are an interesting challenge
Actually, the offers of help has been a difficult thing to accept. I am so accustomed to my own self-reliance it is a shock to realise I can’t even carry a cuppa to my desk (unless I want it over my shirt). I think it is natural for people to want to help, and I have to actively resist my own natural urge to politely decline.
During yesterday’s storm the gum tree behind our shed finally dropped the huge branch we’ve been worried about. Right onto the garage roof over our car port. Left quite a mess, put a hole through and bent the steel frame.
After the storm, H was straight onto the branch with his chainsaw. As he freed the branch, the thing flicked him off the roof – he and the chainsaw went flying. In different directions luckily, although H still did some damage to himself. Seems ok, poor bugger has had everything happen this weekend, will be going back to work tomorrow to relax!
Prior to putting my leg out of action on Friday morning, I’d set out to give Ludelle a hand with Ebony, a lovely little Lab girl I’ve mentioned before. Normally I would have gone on to help with the other dogs at the pound but had planned to leave early for work.
Ebony had been staying in the backyard at Shirley’s place, not far from the pound. Ludelle would stop by to feed and exercise Ebony every morning, since old Shirley is a bit too frail to look after an energetic young Lab on her own.
During recent storms, Ebony had to be moved into the pound as there’s not enough shelter in Shirley’s yard. More storms were predicted for the weekend and Ludelle was very worried because this time there was no room at the pound. So Ebony came home with me.
Ebony and Boss ended up getting along fine.. in fact I think she rather wore him out. H really liked her, she followed him around everywhere and responded well to him. She’d been with us just 24 hours when we got a call from Ludelle – there was a family that wanted to give Ebony a home!
We took Ebony out to the people today and liked them a lot, Ebony settled right in with them. She’s on a farm, with lots of room to run around, dams to swim in, kids and other animals to play with. The people, Guy and Sandy seem very sensible and caring people and we had a good feeling about leaving Ebony there.
Have almost managed to get past the shock of suddenly losing my mobility, after tearing a calf muscle on Friday. A friend asked what extreme sport I’d taken up, but I wasn’t even doing anything like that at the time it happened. Unless you count returning overdue library books as an extreme sport. I had jumped out of the car and was about to jog to the library entrance when I felt the snap.
It was the same leg that had the ankle injury last month. I’d turned my ankle while walking one of the rescue dogs, trying to get him away from some wandering cows. I think this was a major factor in the latest leg injury.
I got myself home and just cried. Not from the pain, I’d been feeling stressed all week at work and it seemed like the worst possible timing. Thank goodness H was home. He took me to the doctor, then to the hospital to pick up some crutches. He has been so good, making sure I rest properly, getting the meals, and looking after everything. I’d brought home Ebony (a rescue dog) to care for too, so he really had his hands full.
I phoned work and let my poor, overworked boss know. That was really hard, I’ve been doing my best to try and support her and this was such a let down. She was very good about it, and helped swing me an earlier ultrasound appointment – tomorrow, instead of next Friday.
Not in any real pain, only when I have to move. The crutches are really uncomfortable. Moving around puts a lot of strain on my good leg so I’m trying to avoid it as much as possible. Finding this very hard. I’ve been reading up on this type of injury, it takes a long time to heal. This means no more walking dogs for a while.