Nearly a Disaster

I was determined from the start of this blog, not to fall into the trap of just reporting the happy, good news stuff. My main issue with family photo albums is that you see a succession of happy occasions - weddings, Christenings and parties and everyone poses with their most false wooden smile. I get the impression that they contain a very incomplete set of memories and I like my diaries and journals to be 'warts and all' complete with mistakes and plans that didn't work out so well. Well, today we nearly had just one such event and pure luck has me here tonight having, to a large degree, gotten away with it.

4 o'clock this after noon had me messaging Mrs Silverwood along the following lines.

"Ooops, I nearly broke Poppy. She managed to break away from me and got clouted by a car. Luckily the car was travelling slowly (on account of us cowering in the verge) and it was only a glancing blow but it knocked her over and put her in shock. Nothing broken and (says the Vet, Aoife) no internal bleeding, just tender bruising down her right side. She (Poppy, not Aoife) is a bugger for trying to chase passing cars and our lane is narrow and has no 'pavement' as you know, so we walk along the middle of the lane and then try to retreat into the verges or a farm entrance as cars approach. I wind in the extendy-leads and hang on. This time (like most times) the lady in the car slowed and waited till I had what I thought was a firm grip, then we smiled at each other, nodded our thanks and she pulled through. Just at that point Poppy made her dash and, to my horror, I obviously didn't have the button on the lead pushed down hard enough. Poppy ran into the side-skirts of the car just by the front wheel and got knocked flying, luckily back towards me and away from the back wheels. She was winded and shaking but got back to her feet and even tried to carry on walking home. The lady stopped and was horrified and very upset but I made it very clear that it was entirely my fault. We were both very relieved when Poppy came to and stood up on all four legs! Anyway we're all back home, warm and vetted now and my own blood pressure is nearly back to normal.
Hopefully we will all make a full recovery and she might finally learn that cars bite back."

This was a lesson learned for me too. From now on, the dogs will be walked on non-extending leads in the lane even if they do get under my feet. The Flexi-leads will be reserved for round-the-estate walks and in the woods. Aoife was, as ever, brilliant. She checked Poppy's gums for colour (a symptom of internal bleeding), her heart and lungs with stethoscope and articulated all the relevant joints. She thinks that Poppy is merely bruised and is very tender along her right flank. She gave her an injection of Vitamin K (which would help with any internal bleeds) and of pain killer. Poppy being Poppy, made more of a squeak and a shrill fuss at the injections than she had by nearly being totalled by the car. She advised us to feed Poppy a little every couple of hours, mainly to see whether she can keep food down (she can) and offer her water. We are doing that as well as letting her walk gently round the front lawn to see if she'll pee. So far she hasn't, but the prognosis is good and we hope she will get over the bruising and pain over the next few days. The lady driver will be very relieved to see us all back out again. She must be going through a world of worry now; she was only nipping out to collect her little ones from school.

As I go to press, Poppy is sleeping in the kitchen. She has had her evening dose of (oral) pain-killer and looks OK, sleeping now but bright and alert when she is awake. Her brother Towser is very confused about why his sister can't play with him tonight. 

Meanwhile, in other news, the geese are now regulars out in the sheep field. Liz and I shepherd them out there each morning and back in the evening. Soon I will build them a little house and they may end up out there all the time, being locked up in the fox-proof house at night rather than brought back to the calf house. They are still a little wary of us, probably because we man-handled them to clip their wings but at least than makes them easy to shepherd. You just hover behind them and they waddle away in a small group, turning left and right depending on where they can see you from.

They are loving grazing the grass although they do not seem to have yet discovered the enamel bath and how to get into it. I am feeding them grain at the same place each day as advised, to try to get them used to us and to know that we are a good thing. So far the chaffinches are the only takers, but they do peck up the grain I put in their corral in the evening. They are delightful birds.