Grievances and first signs of Spring

Thursday to Sunday, August 16th to 19th

First thing I need to do is have a chat with the vet as the medications and instructions on how to administer them are not very clear at all. It turns out, that I need quite a few more pills. The vet is going to prepare everything and leave the parcel in her mailbox so I can pick it up.

She explains that there must have been some kind of infection and goes on to comment that Cameo's teeth are remarkably good and it wasn't coming from there. Interesting. I had been told that his teeth were totally rotted which I couldn't understand because just before leaving for overseas, I had the family at the vet's for their vaccinations and to be checked out and the verdict had been the same then: Cameo's teeth are remarkably good.

There had been other messages from the house sitter in which she berated me for the way the dogs were being fed, accusing me of feeding them all the wrong stuff to make Cameo so sick. Naturally, this was followed with a new diet plan she had devised, complete with strict instructions that I was to adhere to that in future.
Goodness me. Cameo had come to the ripe old age of 14+ years on my diet to become so very ill the moment my back was turned? Ridiculous.

Poor Cameo, he didn't think it ridiculous though! His mum disappears and the diet gets changed. Nothing was the same anymore. No wonder he wanted to throw in the towel. Life was just not worth living anymore.

I had also been told that Cameo could not get down the 2 back steps by himself anymore and that walking on the sand at the beach was too much for him.
When we leave to go for walks, he hops down those steps quite lightly and has no more problem getting into the car than he'd had before. He just needs a little bum-lift.
So far, so good.

We go to Randall's Bay Beach and Cameo has a wonderful time at the beach, walking on the sand, looking no worse than he had before.

That was a lot of negativity and unnecessary worry. Luckily, as far as the dog saga goes, all is well that ends well.

The sliding window that had been forced open shows only a crack in the top corner. However, the catch no longer catches and the window can now be slid open from the outside. That's a real worry.

I'll have to have that fixed rather sooner than later.

The house sitter did write in her notes that she had a spare key cut which she placed in the shed on a shelf - easily seen! Although I'm none too pleased about it, I don't bother saying anything. But when I go through the pile of receipts, I find that a second spare key had been cut two weeks later, a fact that she hadn't seen fit to mention. When I text her to ask what that was for, I get back some cock and bull story about how my locks are very hard and the keys very weak and so it broke and had to be replaced.  

That's funny, because I have always managed to turn my keys with just the fingertips of my arthritic little hands. To 'break' one such key would take at least a hacksaw and some considerable elbow grease. In other words, somebody has now a key to my house and I dread to think who it might be.

Ah well, looks like I'll have all the locks re-keyed as well.

But more of that later. The weather has been a little better the last couple of days and all around the place, there are first signs of spring to cheer me up.

Daffodils

Earlycheer Jonquils

Snapdragons

Forget-me-not

Gardenia under the bedroom window

Japanese Jasmine behind the hen house

More Jonquils and Daffodils behind the shed

Lily of the valley

Camelia buds

Small Grevillea

other small plants beside the hen house

It is related to proteas

Michaelmas Daisy

Emu Bush

Another Grevillea

Happy doggies waiting to go back inside after a lovely beach walk.

But wait, there is more. There are flowers in pots on the veranda.

Sweet William

Alyssum

On Sunday, the weather is so abominable that we stay home all day. We have a nice visitor this afternoon though.

And so ends my first week back home.