Blonde or something!

Friday’s blog ... forgot to post it!! Blonde or something!!!


I NEEDED my coffee this morning!! It was essential - we had a rather traumatic evening last night as one of our kitties was knocked down by a car. 

Waiatarua Reserve early on a Friday morning

The young girl who’d knocked her over was devastated - she couldn’t stop apologising but it wasn’t her fault - cats are wanderers and our two are no exception. The young man with her carefully placed Shimmer in my arms and my heart nearly broke .... her beautiful face had taken the brunt of the crash and the jaw was shattered, her eyes rolling back in her head. I feared the worst and the look on the vet’s face when he saw her didn’t allay my fears. He told us her jaw was broken in several places and she has severe concussion ... concussion kills, broken jaws don’t. He administered meds to make her comfortable and try and reduce the swelling but I could see he was worried she wouldn’t survive.

When the phone rang this morning at 7 I’d prepared myself for bad news ... but it wasn’t bad news! She’d made it through the night ... her vital signs were good and she was alert and looking at him. If her vital signs remain good during the day, he’ll operate this afternoon and see what he can do to repair the jaw. She’ll need a feeding tube until the jaw heals and possibly a tracheotomy to help her breathe properly for a while ... but he’ll clarify all that once he’s seen how bad the damage is.

Phew .... these furry 4-legged friends of ours sure give us grey hairs. There’s still no guarantee Shimmer will pull through this but there’s hope and that’s so much more than what we had last night.


Any wonder my morning fix was so necessary.

Julia and I went back toWaiatarua Reserve for our ramble this morning. The hounds love it there because they can be off-leash for the entire walk. I did a really silly thing - a blonde moment I guess - I sunk the Zinger, much to my hound’s dismay.

A Zinger, for the uninformed, is a doughnut ring shaped piece of plastic that you throw with the aid of a special stick. Indy has a Zinger but he doesn’t find it half as amusing as my hound does. Yesterday they managed to break the Zinger ... I guess Zingers aren’t designed to be ‘the rope’ in a tug-of-war between two chocolate Labradors.  

Getting to know Wally ... the Dalmation ... he was huge!

The little white one at the back of the bridge
 is scared to come past these 2 big brutes!

Anyway, the Zinger now has a split in it and no longer floats ... but I forgot this .... and threw it into the pond at Waiatarua .... and it SANK. The hound swam around in circles trying to locate it, this confused look on her face - she put her head in the water trying to see it ... but it had drowned, lost in the mud at the bottom of the pond.

The rugby ball came to the rescue ... she’s a retriever after all ..... so in went the rugby ball and she lost interest in trying to find the Zinger and fetched the rugby ball instead. Fast forward 20 minutes and I’m still standing on the edge of the pond throwing in rugby ball after rugby ball after rugby ball. Julia in the meantime, is trying to persuade Indy that swimming’s good for him ... somehow I don’t think Indy believed her. Much coaxing and many treats later and Indy’s going in the water to fetch the treats - now he thinks it’s a great game ... not only does he get treats but he gets tons of praise too! What’s not to like about water!

Ready ......

..... Steady ..... and I missed the GO!!!

Update on the kitty - her jaw is broken on both sides where it attaches to the cranium, the worst possible place to be broken. The only way to allow it to heal properly is to align the fractures up and then glue the teeth together - which is what he’s done. She’ll have to be fed through a feeding tube for the next 4 to 6 weeks to give the bones time to knit but she won’t  need a tracheotomy as she’s breathing well. They’ve pumped her full of meds and she’s sleeping comfortably but won’t be allowed home until early next week.

All good news and tomorrow we can pop in and see how she’s doing. My only concern now is the damage this will do to our bank balance ... 

Another long exposure of my city at night!