Poorly Boy.

Dear Friends and Followers.

It has been another cracking day on the whole. We began our morning at 7 am with the morning brew and a dose of BBC1 news. It is so hard to fine any positives in the news these days and as I do not do politics on my blog I will leave it there.
Up and about at 8 am. Paddy was not for stirring, but Marmite was adamant that she should be fed before anything else. I did make her wait though, she is not the one who rules our boat, even though she thinks she does. Paddy always gets his walk first thing, so he can do what he has too. Over the past few weeks he has not been on his game and it was most definitely noticeable again this morning, so I thought I would take him for his weigh-in and it would give the chance to speak to someone at the vets. 9.30 am we set off on our walk to the vets along the towpath, where there are three Alsatians guarding a horse paddock and buildings. I am always so wary of walking past them, because they really are menacing. Paddy just walks on by without muttering a word. I would take the road route, but first thing in the morning it is a nightmare trying to cross the road. Anyway we made it to the vets without being attacked by the mutts. Paddy got on the scales and he had gone up from 15.7kg to 16.0kg, which is not a lot but at least he had not lost any weight. I spoke to the about Paddy and how we were having problems with him eating and he is just off his game, so she recommended we spoke to the vet and I could see her straight away. At this point I rang Keith, and asked him to bring his wallet to the vets, because any vet appointment is going to leave you poorer. I went into see the vet with Paddy, she ask me what had been happening and I explained how he had been and how we thought it was down to the weather, but he was still not right even though it has cooled down and how he will not eat like normal. She took his temperature and that was fine. His gums were a little pale, but she was not concerned about that. Keith arrived and we sat and talked to the vet about the possibilities and then we decided a blood test would be the thing to do, to see if his Liver and Kidney functions were alright. As we left the vets, she said she would ring us later in the day with the results. We paid the bill for the consultation £42 and the blood test £52 and walked home feeling lighter in the pocket, but needs must for our poorly boy.
We took a slow and steady walk back to the boat, back past the manic mutts again. I said to Keith "If those dogs ever get out, I am going to jump into the canal". I know they are doing a job of work, but they are very un-nerving.

Back home and after a long drink, Paddy retired to his bed for a long snooze. I went and did another two loads of laundry and as I did so it began to drizzle. My thought was "oh fabulous". Thankfully it was short lived and the washing was done and hung out to dry.
The vet rang to say that from the blood tests it looks like Paddy has either got a Kidney infection or his Kidneys are failing. So I have to get some of his urine in the morning, so they can test that. Now we know with Paddy being over 13 years old, he is going to get health issues. Keith and I are both of the same mind when it comes to our animals. Neither of us are prepared to let him suffer or drag out an illness which could ultimately kill him, so we will make a decision depending on the results of the urine test.
I have had many pets throughout my life and none of them have been allowed to suffer. The first pets I had was Suzie the Mongrel and Tibbles the Tabby and White cat. When Suzie passed away, she was buried beneath a bush in the garden. She always snoozed under this bush and it was felt it should be her final resting place. Over the years I had Alsatians, Golden Retriever, Dachounds, Rabbits, Hamsters, Budgies, Finches and Pigeons. The only thing I never had was a pony, which was my ultimate dream, which never came true, but hey there is still time.
My afternoon was taken up with a bit of gardening, our garden is slowly coming together again. We picked all the Raspberries, Blackcurrants and Wild Strawberries, these were had as a pudding. We could really do with some rain, because everything is dry and the canal is lacking depth at the moment. People come up through Cape Locks and either wind and go back down again or they moor up. What they do not do is go up the Hatton flight, so we get some immediate water coming down. What we have to wait for is the overflow to kick in and give us water over night. Hopefully the level will not drop anymore.