All Change

Thursday:
I was on the phone to TERRY (NortherN) with regard to my delema about getting myself, Max, and Kermit up north. After a bit of hummin’ an’ arring he said he and Cindy could come down on Friday night after work, elation and panic set in. Good I was finally going to be heading up north, panic, am I ready, or more importantly is Kermit ready?

Good boys – Bad girls

Well!
It’s 7 days since we set off for Up North and it’s been both traumatic and boring.
Firstly it took us nearly nine hours to do the journey up from Havant via Brunel, Uxbridge, and several service stations along the way, comfort/dog walk breaks.

Many thanks have to go to Terry (Northern) and Cindy for trekking all the way down in the first place. ‘Twas a rescue mission in itself.

Since our arrival nothing much has actually happened, and this is mostly thanks to the adventures of Max. Well ya see, I was so looking forward to this being his big holiday adventure. He’d meet his cousins, cows, horses, and water – what a playground I thought.

First day: Sheena, 14 years old, lives at home. When I say home I actually mean the 3 foot between the kitchen and the living room, in the actual door way in fact. Sheena is old, grumpy and unsociable, to the point she growls as soon as you look at here (if you’re a dog that is). Needless to say Max had much trouble moving from one room to another, in fact he didn’t, he’s a quick learner and one growl is enough to let him know you aint to be messed wiv.

The pen:
Dogs, more of, horses, cows, and more smells than ya could wave a stick at, them too, sticks.

Lucka, big Alsatian bitch, big but very playful once she’s had her bark of the “hello, who the fuck are you? Get off my land.” Chorus.

Sadey. Huskey type thing, mixed breed, small, also bitch. Playful as anything, nice smile, and on heat. Fanny waving all over the place.

So on his first trip to the pen Max has the grumpy ol’ bird, the huge playful but clumsy Alsatian, and the more my size playful but what’s that interesting smell, to deal with. All this and the horses that can be playful, and, what are those small cows doing here?

It didn’t last long. Sheena “stay well away whoever ya are” – and he did. Lucka “come play with me.” And he did ‘til she clobbered him one and he being a quick learner decided she was far to rough. This surprised me however considering the many hours he’s played rough with Noodles down at Marks workshop. Ha, but then again, Noodles is a boy dog!

And Sadey. Just stay well away from her Max. She’s to young and your showing a more than usual interest in heterosexual activities.

So after most of the introductions were over we went for a short walk up to the reservoir and a swim.

The next day we took Max and grumpy Sheena up to the pen. Locked Sadie in the barn for a bit so that Max could have an explore. Mum pottered about and I painted a couple of stables with wood preservative. Before leaving we took the dogs for a walk and a swim. On locking up Max wandered in to the river opposite the gate. When I called him he got excited and run down the river, departing with a paw held in the air and dripping with blood. There and then it didn’t look to bad, so we decided to get him home and have a closer look at it. He jumped in to the back of the Land Rover and we set off.

By the time we got home, only a five minute journey at maximum, the back of Kermit was cover in blood. Max jumped out but by the time he’d got to the back door we realised it was bleeding badly and so wrapped his paw tightly in a towel and drove him over to the vets in Colne.

The vet took him away while mum and I waited. The vet eventually returned to say he’d cut in between 2 toes quite badly and they’d like to sedate him which would mean an over night stay.

Next morning - £240 later, Max is bandaged up and just as bouncy as ever. Today is Monday and this morning he seemed to be more lame than at any time since it happened, he was due to return to the vets tomorrow for a check up and dressing change but we decided to see if we could get him in today. Another £48 later, and he seems happier. Plenty of rest needed, like he’ll like that, and hopefully bandages off on Thursday, to get some fresh air to it.

Dogs have quite webbed toes and what he to appears to have done is cut down between 2 of them and underneath one of them, cutting a tendon, which means in future that toe may protrude slightly and require the nail clipping as it wont sit on the deck properly.

We haven’t had a chance to see Terry and Cindy all week. Spoke to Dave (farmer) yesterday, he may well be coming over tomorrow to pick us up and take us back over to his for a few days.

Except for the very first day when we painted the stables it’s rained everyday since, and heavily. Very grim up north.