Rhymes with Deefer

On Monday, Haggis has one of his off his food, looking miserable and sitting there shivering moments. Mum and Dad believe this might have something to do with me appearing a few minutes earlier with mud all round my face as if I might have dug up a long-buried bone or other skanky item which the H has had a chew on. Whatever, Dad has to grovel about under the caravan to coax him out from his misery-laden "death bed" and Mum decides she better call the vet. First vet we come across turns out to be one of the well known "large animal vets" - those guys who specialize in farm animals and for whom dogs are mere annoyance and distraction from proper work. He won't even show today and is tomorrow OK?

But at some point several weeks back when Dad was buying ear drops for me in a Vet Supplies place in Roscommon we were overheard by a bloke asking for them who then followed us out to the car-park. He sidled up to Mum and Dad and in what was almost a "Pssst" (looking over your shoulder to check no-one was listening) moment, asked if we were looking for a good vet. They got talking and he turned out to be really nice and genuine, anxious that we found for our dogs (he admired us in the car) a "small animal vet" and it so happened his daughter had just qualified and was starting in practice in the Castlebar area. Dad saved the lady's name down to his phone and the number and thanked the chap. We went on our way but nobody got sick so we never bothered to make contact. Mum toyed with the idea of phoning the lady, whose name is Aoife (rhymes with Deefer), just to make contact and get 'enrolled', but had not done anything about it.

So, Mum decided to try Aoife (Rhymes with Deefer) out and sure enough, Aoife (RwD) was in the area and available after a vet-call she was making in nearby village Lough Glynn. She duly turned up in the darkness of about 7pm in a big silver Audi with a chaperone for (sensible, given she's driving about in the middle of nowhere in the dark with a car load of no doubt drugs, expensive stuff and syringes and needles) protection. She was lovely. Young and pretty but also a lovely person and a very kind and caring vet. She checked over Haggis on the caravan table, even donning 'murderer gloves' to explore his... um.... fundament.

She pronounced him free from prostate cancer but badly constipated. She started suggesting antibiotics, drugs to free the constipation, pain killers because he was a bit tender and even worming tablets as well as dietary advice including cod liver oil etc. Mum was getting a bit concerned as Mum and Dad had very little cash on them and in England at least, a call out with all these drugs would start to cost you a pretty penny. Not to worry here though - Aoife (RwD) declares the cost all up to be only 30 Euro. Mum nearly had to go have a lie down.

We bid farewell to Aoife (RwD) thanking her profusely for being so brilliant and decided to keep her as our vet for when we need one. Hopefully not too soon.

Deefer (Rhymes with Aoife)