Nellie is doing a lot of sleeping. Here, in Iain's office, where he has taken her to allow me (see below) a little bit more leeway on the odd day here and there so that I don't have to leave her on her own; to make sure she really does rest her paw, and to create variety for her over these three weeks. Iain's colleagues for the most part love and/or have dogs themselves so she gets lots of visits. Anyone coming to see him has had a lean and a cuddle from Nellie too :)
Still obviously on lead and harness for all her short - 2 or 3 times a day - walks though I am trying to vary where these happen as opposed to along the path from our home every single time. While we do live in an amazing place surrounded by fields and with footpaths in to and through the beautiful and quiet countryside that characterises this part of the world, I think it is important for Nellie that a short lead walk along any of the three routes from the house for 15 mins isn't the sum of her outdoor experience for these three weeks. She thrives on going to different places - and I have to admit, so do I.
Just to complicate things further I used a stretchy lead belt arrangement for Jazz (to explain later) last Thusday on a walk I took her, Dex and Archie on, and the pressure it put on the middle of my body aggravated my already temperamental right hip ligament. I was in agony by Friday morning and had to see my ever patient chiropractor. That took the whole weekend to feel better. So even though Iain took Nellie to work or was here over the weekend to stay with her so I could walk them with Archie, I couldn't do more than an hour of slow walking until last Monday of their stay here!!!!
So for both Nellie and I the walls closed in a bit at a time, now I have this holiday, when we would all be enjoying more freedom and all day jaunts to places like Dartmoor. Possibly I miss our usual round of long interesting walks more than she does. She can't tell me of course. Trying as usual to make the best of a bad situation I am using the time to get on with work (lots of schemes of work to create, reading to do, thinking to give brain space to, in a bid to make sure I am not running to stand still next term) and trying hard not to feel sorry for myself!
All Nellie's training (lots of postive reinforcement for crate rest,and calm behaviour)and her inherent wise head quality have come to the fore - she puts her head up for her bonnet as she does for 'harness' and she simply accepts cratey as her place to sleep. 'Bag-y' on her paw for damp/wet conditions is just part of things and she accepts being on the lead (though she stalks along determinedly and reminds me very much of Pop doing the same during her confinement periods for injury/problems and as she does it I smile again as I smiled at Pop when she did. It is a kind of 'right, we're off and I am determined to enjoy this' kind of stance :) )
Bless them.
Nellie and Arch went to see their Aunty Amanda, their physio, on Tuesday, for their routine 3 month check. Wanted Arch checked to keep on top of any negative effects his knees might have on the rest of him and of course I thought Nellie too might enjoy a massage to stimulate all her little muscles and soft tissue during this quiet time. So even Archie too has had a couple of quiet days along with the rest of us!
Last Friday Nellie went back to the vet to inspect the wound and all of us agreed it was looking very good indeed! No sign of the flap that the vet at the show predicted would need to 'fall off', just a lovely neat line.The dressing was changed and we are off there again to have it all checked later today.....
So I have had lots of time to potter in the garden and sit in our lovely garden chairs - and to ensure we have more rain after that sweltering heat recently I bought us a parasol for the middle of the table. Very nice, and yes, it did rain. Though the sun is out today and Archie and I are off for a walk somewhere shortly while Nellie is with Dad at work.
The garden is looking lovely despite being August - so much rain means that everything is still green. I like the veg patch at every stage - the clean, compost topped sparseness in the autumn and winter, the first signs of neat rows of seedlings and plants in the spring, and the slightly blowsy 'just got out of bed' look it has in the summer. Here it is just coming into the latter stage!
I have gathered in all the garlic (loads this year due to the hard winter I reckon) and the red onions and we have spread our home produced garden compost to rot down on the bed ready for next plantings in the Spring. And we are eating our way through all the produce. The courgettes and squash plants are aiming for world domination, though I am not sure the squash are intent on producing the fruit bit. Ordered these as plants this year to get a variety of types instead of growing them from seed (only one type did well from seed for me last year) but so far I am not impressed. Think I will just try harder with seed next year myself. The courgettes I grew from seed and as usual I planted too many so I am picking them small to keep up better.... Just yesterday I made a huge pan of courgette and landcress soup. Very nice.
Way back when Neil and Chester qualified for the EOs Mandy asked if I would look after Dexter for her if she was able to go as his groom and I suggested that I had Jazz too. As she is almost blind, needs drops and has homeopathic needs too, I figured she might enjoy coming here with dogs that she knows and a person that she knows. So they duly arrived, I used the belt thing to keep her near me on the first walk (though really I didn't need it), stuffed the ligament, and so had to choose places to go each day where they got to run about a lot in places that I knew they would be able to while I didn't need to walk very far or very fast! The best day - once my hip had settled again - involved a walk on Martin Down in the morning and then later in the afternoon down to Chapman's Pool, where we swam and swam. Jazz does very well; even though I was way out by the yachts in the sea and a couple of times she was running about trying to find me up and down the beach, all I had to do was call a couple of times and she would pick up the sound and swim on out to me!! Much fun was had with blue ball. It was good to be able to get out and about and to be in the water with the dogs.
Archie also had several wurzel gummidge rolls in the seaweed, Dex just wanted to go back in the water (please!) and Jazz wasn't going to pose for anyone not when rolls were to be had thankyou very much.
Archie enjoyed their company out and about and Nellie enjoyed their company around the house (Dex was even permitted to play with fluffy duck!) so their visit created a different kind of interest for her. Though originally I had intended to have lovely long walks with all of them each day and of course take them to Agility Club show, it didn't turn out as I'd imagined. Still as they say, mustn't grumble...
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