By the way...

The funeral and celebration went fine - it was sad, but it was lovely at the same time.

Neither of my cousins came which was very sad - one has a good excuse, the other not one. Hey ho - their loss not knowing their grandmother, she was a wonderful person and a fantastic gran. I, and my siblings are far richer from knowing her.

The vicar was fantastic - not too goddy, and with a real human touch - he read the last bit of Watership Down at the committal, which was very touching. I'm no Christian, though spiritual, and I would be happy to go to his church services!

My face was not brilliant - both the crem and the church were very cold, although I kept my hat on. I was hurting quite bad by the time of the waky bit later - ran home to get more drugs and the dog (Ellie loved Gran, so I felt she should come). In all I had 3 doses of tramadol ON TOP of my usual tramadol, plus 3 lollipops. Yikes. By the evening I was really rough, throwing up and trembling with the pain, very boring. Once I had emptied my stomach and taken a sleeping pill I did get to sleep which did settle my face down. So today I'm exhausted as a result.

Now we have the daunting task of clearing Gran's house - but this is also a fun adventure, as she hid all kinds of things hidden in all kinds of places!!

Niki x

Poorly Cirrus and Fab Doughnut!

Today a day of two halves - Cirrus had the vet to see what was going on in his lungs - answer, definately pnuemonia. Not good. He took a tracheal wash, despite Cirrus constantly coughing, which can make it hard - they don't usually cough constanly while the endoscope is down, so it shows how senstitve his trachea is. There was some blood as well. He's got quite a bit of mucus down there as well despite not ever having a runny nose. Though I read that horses with a productive cough often look as if they are chewing and swallowing after a cough (ick!) which he has been doing.

So when the vet has the results of the cultures and analysis we'll be able to give him the correct antibiotics - kinda hope they are injectable as he's much easier to do that to than try and get him to eat them!! Poor baby seems to be feeling well enough in himself though. I took the opportunity of him still being somewhat sedated to do his feet!!

And the other half of the day was much better - I'd found a cheap shetland bridle on ebay, and found that they also sold mini magic bits, so I got both. I took them out to Doughnut and he was so laid back I ended up bitting him for the first time! He was fab - put the bridle on in bits and he accepted it very well, then I led him (on the headcollar) up to the house to show everyone how grown up he was - and back. He was mouthing it as you would expect but not fighting it or disturbed by it - happily thinking he should be allowed to eat the grass! This is him:



So proud of him! I'll leave it a day or two, then do it again in an equally casual way - seems to be the way to do things with Do, just assume he's going to be fine (while keeping a weather eye out of course). His owner was worried that he would be afraid of big blokes, but he's been totally happy with my dad and Alex, my BIL - though both have nice friendly aura's even though they are big men. I can imagine he'd be different with someone less approachable.

So good day in its ways - at least we know more about what is wrong with Cirrus (and I'm glad I did call the vet back in, not that anybody really could ignore such a persistant cough, and Doughnut made it special with his achievement.