A Dingo's got my Barbie!!!

Belle does it again!

Last night, or rather this morning (around 4 am) Bentley wanted to go out. Experience has taught that when he wants to go out during the night he's either heard something or he needs to pee. At 4 am I'm not going to try to determine which of these reasons is applicable. So, stumbling out of bed and ricocheting down the hallway, I opened the front door to let him out, and as usual Belle, the walking disaster, had to go out too.

I had just got my body temperature back up to toasty under the doona (there's no central heating here, so the house gets pretty cold during the night) when I heard a blood curdling wail of pain (now, if I was Elmer Fudd talking about precipitation in a bucket, that would have been a pail of wain). I sprang out of bed and tried to find something to put on my feet, and after finding the most inappropriate footwear possible,  I grabbed a torch (flashlight) and headed out into the freezing darkness.

By now the yelping had stopped, so I didn't quite know which way to head. Luckily Bentley started barking so I just followed his noise, shining the light along the fence as I went. After a couple of minutes, something caught my eye, but I couldn't quite make out what it was. It looked like a piece of rope or something hanging from the top of the mesh. As I got closer I began to realise that it was Belle's tail! And instead of her normally pretty face looking back at me, it was her sphincter staring at the sky.

Her foot had got caught in the top of the mesh as she was climbing over the fence to chase whatever was on the other side, so now she was just hanging there, upside down, by her back leg, not moving or making a sound. When I tried to get her foot loose (Kevin Bacon 1984), she started thrashing wildly and I was really concerned that she'd cause further damage. Her foot was wedged tight, and I couldn't be sure which leg it was, as the torch was getting dimmer, plus she was hanging on the other side of the fence so I couldn't get a good look, I just hoped it wasn't the broken one. After both of us struggling for a minute or two, I realised there was no way I could get free her using my bare hands, so I did what any person caught in this situation would do, I panicked and started flaying my arms wildly in a pretty impressive impersonation of one of those gizmos they have at car yards, you know those things that look like 20 ft tall, skinny disco dancers, with the air blower making them wave their arms like a crazy person panicking at the sight of their dog hanging from a fence.

I knew immediately that I'd have to cut the wire to get her out (or so it seemed, but who knows exactly how long it took my sleep befuddled brain to come up with a plan), so rather than calmly turn around and head for the house to get some wire cutters, I spun around and started running. It should be noted here, that the only thing missing was some guy with a set of bongos adding the sound effects to my performance of a cartoon character trying to get from under the 1000lb weight that was about to be dropped on them. My legs were pumping like crazy, but I didn't seem to be going anywhere. Then without warning (to be honest, I've never heard of a pair of slip-ons ever actually warning anyone of anything) I somehow managed to give my slip-ons the slip, which had the effect of making my feet go in the opposite direction to my body. I lurched forward ending up sprawled flat on my face on the cold, wet, dog shit infested grass. The torch landed about 15 feet away and bounced a further 5 feet or so...then everything went dark.

My initial response was to wallow in self pity at my predicament, and that's what I would have done had I not remembered why I was out there in the first place, so cutting my wallowing short, I managed to get to my feet and make it, shoeless, back to the house. Grabbing the wire cutters (I know it sounds hard to believe, but I knew exactly where they were!), I raced back out to free shitforbrains. With the right tool it didn't take too long at all, and minutes later we were all back in the house wondering what the fuck had just happened.

Belle was pretty shaken up by the whole nasty affair, but as a result of the escapade, we now share a strong bond. Not because I rescued her yet again, but because when I did my starting dive for the 100m freestyle, I damaged my knee, so now neither of us can bend our left leg!  (The freestyle was once known as the Australian Crawl, long before the eponymous band. Well, technically it's the swimming stroke that's eponymous, seeing as how it gave it's name to the band and not vice versa (which, incidentally, does not mean pornographic poetry), but I couldn't be bothered reworking the sentence. You're welcome to have a go at it yourself)*.

Anyhoo, she seems to be none the worse for wear this morning, I wish I could say the same for me, my knee is killing me.

This adds absolutely nothing to the post...

* for those keeping score, that soliloquy (if I had actually been going somewhere with it, it would have been a segue) had two sets of parentheses (one of which was nested),  six commas (not all of which were really necessary), five apostrophes (one of which was possessive), one word (used twice) of Greek etymology**, two Latin words (making a phrase still in use today), three full stops (periods) and an asterisk. Quite a smorgasbord of punctuation don't you think? And yet even with all those English language tools, none of it made any sense whatsoever.

** etymology is also of Greek etymology.

Yet another Belle update

I have to go down to the Coast for a couple of days and may not be around much, so for those who are interested, here's a clip I took of Belle and Bentley this arvo (I'll be posting this before I leave tomorrow, which will actually be today, which means I actually filmed it yesterday...ha ha ha, now I'm confused!).

You can see that her leg doesn't bend, but at least she's starting to use it. If I don't see you beforehand, I'll see you when I get back.

So, where are we now?

While I don't want to be totally one dimensional by only writing about Belle, I do appreciate that there are those among you who would like to know what the present situation is. So for those who are interested, here's a more detailed update.

A couple of weeks ago I began to be concerned that she wasn't putting any weight on her broken leg. Granted it was still fairly soon after the operation and the two major incisions had not yet healed, but I couldn't help but think that something was wrong. I brought this up with my local vet each time I took Belle in for an anti arthritis shots, but I obviously wasn't firm enough in voicing my concern, as the vet offered no advice other than it must still be sore. Finally after bringing it up on three separate occasions, she suggested that I take her back to the vet who did the operation (70 miles away). So I made an appointment to see him in four days time.

Before he examined her, he got me do walk her around on a lead so that he could see what the deal was, and immediately said that it may already be a lost cause, and that he had told me that I needed to do regular physio therapy on her. WTF was he talking about?! Yes he did say that I needed to bend her leg every day, but he didn't say that if I didn't do it, she could develop a Volkmann contraction which would ultimately render her leg useless. I had tried to do it a couple of times, but every time I did, the staples would pop open, plus I was scared that I would damage the repair job at the knee (I had visions of re-breaking the leg by pushing too hard), additionally, she was in obvious distress whenever I tried, so I just left her alone.

Apparently these contractions can happen in a couple of days on young dogs (something else I found out later), so it's critical to make sure the joint can bend. Although in truth, I don't believe I ever felt the knee bend, as for the first week the leg was in a bandage, and the second week the incisions were still bleeding so I couldn't really do much. By the time the wounds had sealed, the quadricep had already lost all elasticity. If you aren't familiar with any of this, it's becasue the scar tissue overwhelms the muscle tissue. And if you haven't caught on yet, this condition is a result of the operation - not the accident!

If the leg never regains any function, then the recommended course of action is amputation, which is why I said last week that she may lose her leg, it has nothing to do with an infection. So there you have it, the reason I was so bummed last week. However over the past week and a half I've read all the literature, spoken to several vets (as well as MDW who is an OT) and am now convinced that this happened through no fault of mine, and while that doesn't make the situation any better, it does alleviate the sense of guilt I was feeling.

So, where are we now? After a week and a half of physio sessions five times a day, and crating her for the periods in between, I've managed to get about 15 - 20 degrees range of motion in her knee, which isn't much but it's better than nothing, and I have managed to prevent the leg from seizing up completely. She does occasionally put some weight on it, but not enough for me to think it's the beginning of the healing process, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

An update of sorts.

"That last post seems to have taken a lot out of you!" - Kila

Actually, that's not the case, what has taken a lot out of me is the Belle situation, it's gone from promising to very bleak and it's all quite draining. While all the incisions healed nicely, she has refused to put any weight on her leg, and due to my ignorance and poor nursing, it now appears that in all probability she'll lose it. I'm not going to go into detail about it right now, as I'm just too bummed, if I feel better in a few days I'll give you more of an update.

In other news, MDW is up for the weekend so I'll be spending time with her instead of blogging.

To answer a few questions

Poor little darling! Those buckets are a royal pain in the butt! I can't imagine how she will be able to chew on her Kong toy! When can she take it off? - Karisma

The bucket is more of a pain for the rest of us, as she keeps bumping into things (mostly us) and she keep waking me up when she tries to snuggle up. On the other hand Belle doesn't' seem to mind it that much at all, she can eat, drink, play with her toys and lay however she likes. That said, I'll be glad when I take it off tomorrow.

Roll on Friday~ does your local vet remove the clips or do you have to go back to the hospital? - chrisb

The local vet will be taking the staples out. She will also be giving the anti-arthritis injections for the next 6 weeks. Then she has to go back to Tamworth for the sign off.

Is that Kong about the same size as Belle? - rudee

That's a close up of the Kong, we do have a smaller one (it belongs to Buddy), but I can't give it to Belle as she'd probably just swallow it. It's not as big as the photo makes it look.

Is that really the only address that was on there?  am I missing something?  - degutails

We don't need addresses here, everyone knows everyone. As long as it's addressed using the correct blogger's ID (and you can see that it is) it should get there just fine. Oh, while I have you, I've got this really cool bridge for sale in Sydney, would you be interested?

SOMEWHERE in Australia? Are you kidding me? And, the package was delivered? To the correct "address?" - Swampy

Please refer to the previous answer, and take a number for the bridge auction.

Why is the Kong in the freezer? - Melissa

Why did you put the Kong in the freezer??? - Equoni

I'll let Laurie handle this one..."you pack the Kong full of kibble and peanut butter, and then freeze it. that way it lasts a long time--it's a way to keep the dog quiet for long periods of time while they're licking at hte frozen peanut butter. we gave one to boscoe every day when he was recovering from knee surgery. it kept him quiet for hours, but man did the peanut butter make him poop"

Is that a blue bow on her leg?  Shouldn't it be pink? - Hayden

That's the bandage, sometimes you get red, sometimes you get blue, I don't know why.

that bed is too small! - Laurie

Ok, not strictly a question, but more of an accusation. The fact is, it's not a bed at all, but that has never stopped Belle from claiming it as her own. She likes to station herself there while I'm in the kitchen, as she can see if anything hits the floor, yet still keep out of the way (something that neither Bentley nor Buddy have ever successfully mastered).

It was actually bought for Chewie, and he used to sleep in it all the time, and when Chewie died unexpectedly, Tigger took it over, but then after Tigger died, MDW didn't want it in the house anymore so I brought it up here, there's another one outside somewhere, and the dogs have squashed that too

This is was it should look like  ===>

Belle's going to feel naked when that lampshade suddenly comes off! What do the other pets think of it? Do they ever try to bite at it or pull it off? - Kila

Actually they the other guys a re pretty good about it and leave her alone, but that doesn't stop her from annoying them constantly.

And a few from the previous post....

Was that traffic I heard in the background at the very last? - Karmyn

No, It was the wind in the trees.

So, how long till she can walk on that leg again?? - Claudia

I have no idea, but it will be 8 weeks before she gets a clean bill of health.

Is it OK that she's not using the 4th leg yet? - Kila

I hope so, there is still a fair bit of pain, don't forget that not only was it broken, but she's had major surgery on it too. It's only now that the bruising is starting to fade.

How are you doing? - Joey Tribbiani, Alison, Robin, Mal and several others.

I'd be doing better if this didn't happen.

A care package for Belle

Over the past few days I've wondered how my dog could get whacked by a car - right outside my house - without me hearing a thing. Today I got my answer. At around 3:00pm this arvo, I let the dogs out for a nature break, and found this on my front verandah...

I know the postie comes between 12:00 and 1:00, and if I don't see him (and he has a package for me) he beeps his horn so I can go and get it from him, if it's just letters he leaves them in the letterbox. If I'm not here he comes in and leaves it on the verandah. The thing is I was here (in fact I was right here at the computer), and I didn't hear him beep, nor did I hear him come to my front door (and neither, it seems, did any of the three dogs who were here with me!). So I guess that's how I missed the accident!

Anyway, no use crying over split blood. "What was in the box?" you ask. "This was in the box" I reply...

Yep, it's a Kong, and if you think it looks like it's in the fridge, that's becasue it is (freezer actually). And not only did Belle get a Kong, the guys got some jerky as well, and learning from Joy's mistake, Laurie sent an unopened packet, so it made it through quarantine (unlike the stuff Joy sent).

Thank you very much Riley and Boscoe (and you too Laurie), I'm sure that Belle will love her gift, if I can keep Bentley away. And they'll all love the Turkey Jerky.

I suppose I should give an update, although the truth is nothing much has changed since the last one. I'm getting the staples out on Friday, so that means we can ditch the bucket.

And finally I guess I should post a doggie pic...

That's not a current one, that's from last Saturday, here's a current one...

She's not peeing

She's just stretching her leg....

For those who may be interested

It's nice to see the level of compassion and understanding from all most of you. You seem to appreciate that I have had a lot on my mind lately due to the fact that I have 6 animals here, three of which are currently receiving medical attention (and the other three are just plain annoying). Plus I've had to do a lot of driving over the past few days to go check on the world's most accident prone dog, and then again to bring her home, not to mention getting her up there in the first place (damn! I just mentioned it)

So it's really refreshing to see all the support I've been getting. Here's just a few of the heart warming messages I've received since Belle got splattered...

"Where are those X-rays you promised to share with us?!?  You know I asked to see them from the start!" - Equoni

"Just because she's been at the vets doesn't mean she wants to be lookin' all skank.......get a good outfit on her" - Collete

"bitenot bitenot bitenot" - Laurie, referring to a pet accessory not available in Aust.

"Do you have your Nurses costume on yet?" - Marnie

"Dammit Willow, that picture of her staples clamped a vice on my insides!!" - Claudia

"I think you need to put the cone on and take pictures of yourself. You know, for all of our entertainment." - Nikki, a suggestion that was mirrored by Swampy.

"and PLEASE replace that conehead with a bitenot collar! so she can lie down in peace! i'll send you a link. i know, i know, more $$$.  but damn" - Laurie, again

"Stop running over your dog, asshole." - Jenny

"Update me please or I will mail you a flaming bag of Kobe poo". - Marnie

"ok, i've been very patient. i've been checking over at this blog and watching your little clock tick later and later in the morning. you MUST be awake by now. you MUST know something more. and so you MUST tell me what it is...." - Laurie (this one was due to genuine concern)

"Why in the world would I go and give you money?  It's nice to know that you've got money for future lawsuits though." - and of course, Mark

Those are just a few of the many, many well wishes, however I've just chosen the supportive ones. Besides, I know what you really want...the x-rays. So rather than poonce around any more, here they are...Oh wait! Before we get to the x-rays, I should give you all the technical stuff. It's fortunate that we have several trained professionals among us, and one of them (Rudee) has written it up for us so that we can all to get a better idea of what the heck is going on here:-

Since you're the caregiver, here is how you document this: Incision with staples well approximated, clean, dry and intact. No signs and symptoms of infection. There is still moderate edema in the region. Patient is unable to give history due to language barrier, but it appears there may be significant evidence of alcohol use as evidenced by stashing wine in bedroom area and wearing a lampshade. Will question family re ETOH abuse.

Ok, now for the x-rays:

Before

After

When I first saw the 'after' x-rays I though all those doodles were just scribbles (I don't know what they would have been for, but hey, I'm not a vet), it wasn't until I saw the leg that I realised they were the staples. So there ya go, we're all caught up now.

And the reason for the different colour of the x-rays is becasue they were taken a on two different machines.

Belle update, she's home

Despite what a whole bunch of people seemed to think, Belle didn't come home yesterday (that's why I use words as well a photos, but some folks just seem to only look at the pictures, that's understandable, I'm the same way with Penthouse - I have never read an article in my life!).

Anyway, she's back home now, and looks pretty pleased about he situation, well except for that whole bucket on the head thing...

but at least she's happier than when I went to get her...

They'd only just put the bucket on her, as she was trying to pull the staples out. I've tried taking it off her a couple of times, but as soon as I do, she starts to pull at them so I have to put it back on again. But apart from getting it stuck on everything, it doesn't appear to bother her that much.

"What staples?" you ask, "why these ones of course!"...

And finally, I ask you, does this really look like the vet hates me (he was looking straight at me, but I missed the dam shot, oops)?...

I can be quite pleasant when the need arises (list like any good sociopath), and we had long ago kissed an made up, in fact it was his idea to get a shot with the dog, I only asked if I could get a picture of him for my album "Vets Who've Worked on Belle (Vol 3)". He even showed me how to change the bandage if I needed to.

The South Tamworth Animal Hospital staff are really very good, and we're all friends now. Thanks for the link Colette, I didn't even know they had a site. Peter Best asked me about a blog for their rescue animals (I said I'd help him out), but the way he put it, it sounded like they had nothing at all.

Belle update, post op

Just arrived home with all the latest the details from here...

I have a little confession to make, I got a tad crazy on Tuesday (well strictly speaking, that's not totally accurate, I had a full flown episode of "irrational panicky pet owner" and blasted the crap out of a few people at not only this hospital, but also at my local clinic) so I wasn't quite sure how I would be received. Not that I particularly cared, they may have my dog, but I've still got their money so they have to be civil to me for another day or so.

Fortunately everything was quite cordial, in fact it was almost fruit juice. I was allowed to go in and see her, and I was pleased to see that she was in really good spirits...
There's a few things may notice in this photo:

1. That's a big bone (I bought it on the way up)
2. She now has a cute red bandage (that's the broken leg)
3. There's also a boring white bandage (that's the lacerated leg)
4. There's no water in that bowl!

It's becasue of No. 4 that I have decided to bring her home tomorrow rather than keep her there until Monday as originally planed. Geezes! The first rule of dog ownership is to ensure adequate drinking water at all times. Now, not being a vet, I asked if there was some reason why she didn't have any water (not in a snotty way, I thought there really may have been a reason), but he said there wasn't. I got her some and she drank it like she hadn't had any in quite a while.

So, without making a big deal, I asked if she would be ok to come home tomorrow, and he said she would. On the way up I bought this...

I figure I can provide a better level of care than I saw on display up there anyway. Plus she got a bit distressed when I left her. Also, they said I could take her for a walk outside if I wanted so I thought, "what the heck?", and so I did. She wasn't all that mobile but she was ok. What she was however, was bursting for a pee. I couldn't believe how much she had in her (and it calmed me down a little as they'd obviously been giving her water, but still, I think I'd give her better care anyway).

And just finally, a picture of her new hairstyle...

And as a special treat, I'll have all the x-rays tomorrow so we can really see what's going on!

Belle update, updated

Sorry to disappoint you, but there's no news right now. What I can tell you is that if things have gone according to schedule she will have just gone under the knife. They are expecting the surgery to take between 5 and 6 hours, depending on how much my house is worth. Which brings me to the reason for the delay.

Apparently, seeing as I have no children to give them, the only alternative was give them the deed to my house. Unfortunately this necessitated the involvement of lawyers, and while their hourly rate is less than the vet, they take longer to do their work in order to compensate, hence the delay.

Actually, there were a couple of surgeries that were more critical that had to be done first, and as Belle was stable and in no pain, she was left until today to ensure there was as little swelling as possible.

This vehicle wasn't involved in the accident, it does however go pretty close to what I said when I found Belle. I may have been a little more expressive (read profane*) but I can't really say for sure as I was panicking at the time...

* If you had an Abrams with dirty words written on it, would that make it a profane tank?

Update 7:20pm: I just got off the phone to the dog surgeon (man it's just amazing what they can teach dogs to do these days!) and he was pretty happy overall, but it wasn't 100% the result they were hoping for. The break close to the knee was able to be fixed with a series of cross pins. However after he had successfully implanted the very small pins in the ball joint at the hip end, everything came apart as they tried to get it back into the socket due to the lack of sufficient bone thickness to work with. So unfortunately as was explained prior to the operation, they had to cut the damaged joint out. Basically that means they shape the top of the femur to fit in the socket. I'll go and see her tomorrow, but I'll be leaving her there for a few days just to make sure she's immobile.

Thanks for the support.

I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has left words of support. They may not mend her bones, but reading them gives me something to do to take my mind off it. I'd also like to address what has been a common theme both in the comments, and the various chats I've had with my blog buddies, and that's the idea of a PayPal donation.

Without wishing to offend anyone who has done it, I have always believed this to be a pretty tacky thing to do (with the exception of medical care required by children ). There have actually been blogs that I've stopped reading because the author has asked for money (and not for emergencies either).

Just so we're clear: first off, I sincerely thank everyone for your offers of financial assistance, and I know that a very large percentage of you would donate if I put a button there, but when I cry about the cost of all of this, I'm only crying becasue I could have bought a laptop instead, which hardly makes me charity material! And secondly, you must remember that we've been married for 27 years without kids, so imagine how much money we haven't had to spend on education, clothing and childhood emergencies. Finally this is a pet we're talking about, and as such is our responsibility, pets are a luxury (an essential luxury as far as I'm concerned, but a luxury nonetheless), so it's up to us to pay for our little airhead luxury.

Now, about the whole driver thing...It was only after I got home from the Vet on Saturday and sat down to catch my breath, that I realised that something was a bit smelly about the whole situation. As I sat there re-playing the movie of the events in my head like we all do (at least I hope we all do, otherwise I'm even weirder than I thought), it occurred to me that a) she had been hit by a car, b) it was close to my house, c) she has her address and phone number on her collar, d) she's friendly and wasn't moving too fast so the tag would have been easy to see, and finally e) no-one phoned me or knocked on the door. Conclusion: some fucking asshole just hit my dog and didn't' even stop to see if she was ok.

The thing about all my dogs ('all my dogs' sounds like there's a lot of them, but if there was just one less it would be 'both my dogs' and that doesn't sound so bad), is that while none of them chase cars, neither do they have enough sense to get out of the way. They tend not to actually run in front of cars, but will however, occasionally run along the edge of the road, and sometimes they go down to the main road which has a 100km speed limit and I've seen them almost get clipped, which is why I always go and grab them if they head in that direction; but they normally just go an play in the creek behind my place.

The advances in animal surgery are simply quite amazing, here's an artist's impression of what Belle will look like when all the work has been done. I think you may have to click on the picture to get a better look. Now I don't know about you, but I think it looks pretty spiffy!

In case you're wondering, there's no word on her as yet, hopefully they'll be operating on her some time today. I'll be calling them in a few hours.

The Belle saga Pt1

So, where were we? Oh right, waiting for a call from the vet. Before I bring you up do date, let's just do a brief recap. At around 4pm Saturday, I let the guys out for a pee and a run around. Ten minutes later Bentley and Buddy came back in and Belle was just lying on the grass. I came back to the computer and continued loading songs from my CDs to replace the ones that were lost when my system really did crash about 6 or 8 months ago, and of course, and I hadn't backed anything up (I know, but plumbers usually have leaky taps...faucets).

At around 5:30p I called Belle to come in for dinner, no response. It was then that I noticed her lying by the front gate, there was nothing unusual about that, she likes to play this game where she jumps the fence to go adventuring, but then waits by either of the gates so that I have to let her back in  when she's done (she must think that's hysterical). There was nothing alarming about the way she was positioned, it was just like this, (with her head up)...

You'll notice her front leg is shaved, this is a picture from the last time she got hurt. She wasn't laying with her head on the ground or anything, so there was nothing unusual other than she didn't sit up expectantly when she heard me coming (which I did think was a little strange, as she's normally pretty excited when I come to let her in). Anyway, I opened the gate and she got up slowly and came inside the yard. I then noticed that she wasn't putting any weight on her left back leg, but again, nothing to worry about becasue the day before she had a thorn in that foot, and there's still tons of them about.

It wasn't until she sat down again immediately on entering the yard that I noticed all the blood. I went straight inside and called the vet. As I've said, this was out of hours, so I had to call a several numbers before I got him, and he was just getting ready to go and attend to a horse (now, you have to realise that horses are normally worth much more than pet dogs anyway, but this area has a lot of thoroughbred breeders, and those horses are worth even more, so I was really lucky that he said he'd wait stabilise her before he went).

Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but I've had a few IM conversations about this, and I know I've said some of it already, but I'm not sure what I've said in posts. However, let's just forge ahead. As there was no-one to help with the procedure, I had to hold Belle's leg while he put in the needle for the drip, then I had to hold her broken leg steady while he applied a compression bandage. Once that was done I had to hold the other leg straight out so that he could put some antiseptic and a patch on the deep laceration on the inner thigh. He gave her some pain killers but didn't want to give her too much until he saw the x-rays, which he wouldn't be able to do until the next day as he had to go and attend the horse (which was also an emergency).

So once she was stabilised, we went our separate ways (which ironically were actually the same way, as the horse was out by my place!) and I was to wait for a phone call the next day after he had taken the x-rays and figured out what to do.

The next day I rang him at 10:30a (which he said to do if he hadn't called me already), but I just got an answering machine, so I assumed he was still working on her (which turned out to be the case). At around 11:45a he called me to tell me that he had stitched up the cut properly, and done the x-rays. This is where things took a turn for the worse. As I said yesterday, the breaks were at either end of the femur (yesterday I said it was broken in the middle too, this is not the case, I misunderstood him, plus I saw the x-rays today). The issue it the amount of bone they have to work with at the knee end due to the break being so close to the joint, which will require cross pinning.  However, the real concern is the damage at the hip. Not only is it dislocated, but both the socket and the ball have been damaged. While this is not good news for me (or Belle), it's great news for the Vet; he can finally take that round the world cruise he's been dreaming of.

That brings us to now. I've just got back home from Tamworth (which isn't really 100 miles away, it's only about 80kms) becasue i got a phone call early this morning informing me that the person who was going to take her up, wasn't able to. So I now had to go to my vet , have Bentley looked at (he's fine), have Booey looked at (he's fine too), leave them both there and continue to the veterinary hospital in Tamworth (I'll tell you about that in a day or so).

Oh, I almost forgot, I took a couple of pics before I took her to Tamworth...

Here's the funny thing, after I squared Bentley and Booey away with the vet techs, I went out to the car to get things ready for Belle, all the while panicking about how I would get her out of the cage, carry her out to the car and put her in it. After I had made a space in the back,  I turned around to go and get her and she was standing right behind me, the vet just put a lead on her and walked her out. It made me feel a bit better, unlike the person who left a comment telling me to go fuck myself for some perceived slight. Just what I need right now.

A slightly longer update

Well let's start with an update on the computer. It seems to have stabilised to the point where I'm confident that I can get through the post without it dying. Actually, I know it will...it's has stabilised because I have tracked down the source of the problem, it's what we in IT euphemistically refer to as 'operator error'. Ok! OK! Stop badgering me! I screwed up alright? You happy now??

While I was waiting for the vet to call this morning, I decided to worked off some nervous energy by getting rid of some weird noises the PC has been making lately. It sounded like something was about to explode, and while bashing the top of the system box gave temporary relief from the noise, I somehow knew it wasn't really a permanent solution (although I've been doing it to great effect for about 6 months now). I pulled the cover off and listened to where the grinding noise was coming from...it seemed to be inside the power supply, so I muscled it out of the computer and dissected it (it was at this point I realised that I didn't have a backup plan if I couldn't get it back together again, hmm). The fan was full of gunk (that's the technical term for crap) so I cleaned it up and then squirted it with some Innox. Then I thought I may as well clean up of the CPU fan and heat sink while I was at it:- the fans actually suck dust into the unit and it gets all oily and sticks to things, like fan blades and housings. I was able to disconnect it completely so I could stand up rather than kneel on the floor like I had to for the power supply (oh, I should mention that I didn't unplug anything, that's why it was on the floor).

Anyway, I put it all back together and everything worked great, no noise at all, it was like a brand new computer. But after about an hour, it just died. I thought I had a power outage until I realised everything was on except the PC. OH shit! I tried to get it going but it would just keep dying, eventually I revived it long enough to do that quick update (the post before this one). I decided to put the small air compressor (yes of course I've got two, a big one and a small one) back in the shed since I had nothing else to do, now that the PC was fucked (that an Aussie technical term for 'not working very well'). As I was walking towards the shed it hit me like a thought from nowhere! (I could have said a ton of bricks, but that's so clichéd, plus I don't know how that actually feels to allow for an accurate comparison). When I put the heat sink back in, I forgot to plug the fan into the motherboard! Duh!!

So what was happening, was the CPU was overheating and shutting the system down. So I pulled everything a part, plugged it in and away it went. Did that take your mind of poor old Belle? It did for me. But now I've written a full post, my fingers are too tired to do any more, so I'll have to give you the full story tomorrow (or maybe the next day, but probably tomorrow).

I took some pics over the past couple of days, so I'll upload them and if there's anything good I'll post it here...hang on a sec... Ok I've got a couple that aren't great, but I'll post them anyway becasue I like posts with pictures.

This first one is a little strip of fog that was here yesterday afternoon, oops sorry it wasn't until I loaded it that I saw the shadows and realised it was in the morning...

And this one is the last ever picture of Belle with four good legs...

I've added a new category as I think I'll be needing it. If you want o get the latest update, read the post before this one.

One more thing, the cold weather has arrived!!