Hi Friends,
Well, today felt like a day that I achieved a lot. I started the day by sleeping through my alarm, and waking up about 25min before I was due to pick up my hire care (hired for the purpose of collecting Suzie). Thankfully I only had to walk about 200m to pick the car up, and as it turned out, I had to wait for the guy to open up the shop anyway, as it appeared that he was 45min late to work.
Then (like a fool), I didn't take the $17 for all the tolls you can handle deal, not realise that I'd be crossing more than one toll, which unfortunately (after passing 4 tolls at $15 each), led to my car rental doubling in cost! I really should have just booked a share car for 3hrs like I'd originally planned!
At any rate, after a little bit of fun, and if a little flustered, I arrived in Plumpton (a suburb of which, prior to today, I had remained blissfully unaware) to collect my new fluffy white friend. After the business was sorted with Donna (an animal fosterer who clearly loves dogs of all kinds), I made the trek back into the city with my new lady-of-the-house, dropped the car off and then spent a few hours trying to settle her in to my apartment.
I pud down a big old cushion for her to sit on, and from that point (about 5 minutes after we got home) until some hours later, she didn't move from that cushion.
I then had to head to Wollahra for the final meeting for my Compeer friendship, this one including myself, Cliff (my Compeer friend), Nina (Cliff's healthcare professional) and Amy the Compeer trainer/co-ordinator.
It turned out that Cliff was sitting in the waiting room as Amy and I arrived and stuck up a conversation straight away. He seems like a nice, affable fellow, and I think that our friendship is going to work out well. Obviously it was a little bit awkward being the first meeting, but all in all, I think that it went pretty well. I hope that I can have a really positive impact on his life, even if it's only to give him something to look forward to each week, and a stroll in the park.
At any rate, I came home after the meeting to make sure Suzie was ok, and to try to take her to the park, only to realise that I didn't have a leash for her, so after a quick run to the pet store at Market City (who failed spectacularly at having anything resembling an acceptable harness in the right size for Suzie, that didn't also look utterly revolting, in such a way that the Suzie would surely have been teased by all the other dogs in the dog park!), so I ended up having to cut my losses and just grab a generic leash to tack onto her collar until I can find a suitable harness/leash. On the up side, they did manage to stock brushes, and double whammy, I remembered to buy one, so we spent a couple of hours brushing Suzie's freshly cleaned coat.
Realising that I had an hour spare, I took Suzie down to the dog park beside my building,and she walked quite comfortably (though little slowly) there (a total of about 30m), had a brief walk on the grass, did a little wee and then I decided to take the leash off her so that she could run around a bit. She did not run around about. She did start to walk back in the direction from which we'd come haha.
So I brought her to the grass again for a couple of minutes (which appeared not to appeal to her at all), before we walked back home.
Afterwards I had to go to my volunteer work for the Redfern Task Force (which was great by the way....the people we helped out tonight were all really decent people, and so grateful for the help from St Vinnies), and when I got home, Suzie had moved from the cushion (where I'd left her) and was parked on the rug near the door. I like to kid myself that she was missing me and waiting for my return, but I don't think this is the case just yet.
So then we played the coat brushing game for a bit longer, and then watched a bit of telly, during which I picked her up and let her sit on my lap. At one point, she pushed herself from sitting with her front half on my lap, to sitting with her back legs on my lap, and seemed to have a lot of trouble doing this. Since then, I've noticed a lot that she has very little strength in her back legs, so I think I might have to keep an eye on her and make sure this isn't anything to concerning!!! She's not even 8 years old, so she shouldn't have her legs giving out on her yet! Oh well, I guess I'll monitor and see.....if it's noticeably bad in the morning, I'll have to take her to the vet to get checked out.
At any rate, we then watched some telly for a while, and while she had eaten nearly nothing all day, I decided that I'd have a peanut butter and chocolate chip biscuit that I'd made a batch of on Saturday, and I offered her a piece. She ate it in seconds, and then a few more little morsels. Thankfully this must have served as an appetiser, as I put her by her food afterwards and she at least ate a little bit.
Bless her, she's now parked herself back on her cushion and is fast asleep. Welcome home Suzie :)
OK, so that's pretty much my day in detail. I think the only details that I left out were Suzie graciously showing me what she'd had for breakfast before I picked her up (and leaving it sitting on the rug for me.....thank god it's an ugly rug anyway), and Suzie appearing scared of the stairs, but then managing to make it down them (with me hovering over her....just in case).
Ok Friends, I hope you're all having a great start to your working weeks, and that life is as good for you as it is for me :)
Take care,
Howie..
ps: here's a picture of Suzie asleep on her cushion and blanket about 2 minutes ago :) It's a hard-knock life!
Well, today felt like a day that I achieved a lot. I started the day by sleeping through my alarm, and waking up about 25min before I was due to pick up my hire care (hired for the purpose of collecting Suzie). Thankfully I only had to walk about 200m to pick the car up, and as it turned out, I had to wait for the guy to open up the shop anyway, as it appeared that he was 45min late to work.
Then (like a fool), I didn't take the $17 for all the tolls you can handle deal, not realise that I'd be crossing more than one toll, which unfortunately (after passing 4 tolls at $15 each), led to my car rental doubling in cost! I really should have just booked a share car for 3hrs like I'd originally planned!
At any rate, after a little bit of fun, and if a little flustered, I arrived in Plumpton (a suburb of which, prior to today, I had remained blissfully unaware) to collect my new fluffy white friend. After the business was sorted with Donna (an animal fosterer who clearly loves dogs of all kinds), I made the trek back into the city with my new lady-of-the-house, dropped the car off and then spent a few hours trying to settle her in to my apartment.
I pud down a big old cushion for her to sit on, and from that point (about 5 minutes after we got home) until some hours later, she didn't move from that cushion.
I then had to head to Wollahra for the final meeting for my Compeer friendship, this one including myself, Cliff (my Compeer friend), Nina (Cliff's healthcare professional) and Amy the Compeer trainer/co-ordinator.
It turned out that Cliff was sitting in the waiting room as Amy and I arrived and stuck up a conversation straight away. He seems like a nice, affable fellow, and I think that our friendship is going to work out well. Obviously it was a little bit awkward being the first meeting, but all in all, I think that it went pretty well. I hope that I can have a really positive impact on his life, even if it's only to give him something to look forward to each week, and a stroll in the park.
At any rate, I came home after the meeting to make sure Suzie was ok, and to try to take her to the park, only to realise that I didn't have a leash for her, so after a quick run to the pet store at Market City (who failed spectacularly at having anything resembling an acceptable harness in the right size for Suzie, that didn't also look utterly revolting, in such a way that the Suzie would surely have been teased by all the other dogs in the dog park!), so I ended up having to cut my losses and just grab a generic leash to tack onto her collar until I can find a suitable harness/leash. On the up side, they did manage to stock brushes, and double whammy, I remembered to buy one, so we spent a couple of hours brushing Suzie's freshly cleaned coat.
Realising that I had an hour spare, I took Suzie down to the dog park beside my building,and she walked quite comfortably (though little slowly) there (a total of about 30m), had a brief walk on the grass, did a little wee and then I decided to take the leash off her so that she could run around a bit. She did not run around about. She did start to walk back in the direction from which we'd come haha.
So I brought her to the grass again for a couple of minutes (which appeared not to appeal to her at all), before we walked back home.
Afterwards I had to go to my volunteer work for the Redfern Task Force (which was great by the way....the people we helped out tonight were all really decent people, and so grateful for the help from St Vinnies), and when I got home, Suzie had moved from the cushion (where I'd left her) and was parked on the rug near the door. I like to kid myself that she was missing me and waiting for my return, but I don't think this is the case just yet.
So then we played the coat brushing game for a bit longer, and then watched a bit of telly, during which I picked her up and let her sit on my lap. At one point, she pushed herself from sitting with her front half on my lap, to sitting with her back legs on my lap, and seemed to have a lot of trouble doing this. Since then, I've noticed a lot that she has very little strength in her back legs, so I think I might have to keep an eye on her and make sure this isn't anything to concerning!!! She's not even 8 years old, so she shouldn't have her legs giving out on her yet! Oh well, I guess I'll monitor and see.....if it's noticeably bad in the morning, I'll have to take her to the vet to get checked out.
At any rate, we then watched some telly for a while, and while she had eaten nearly nothing all day, I decided that I'd have a peanut butter and chocolate chip biscuit that I'd made a batch of on Saturday, and I offered her a piece. She ate it in seconds, and then a few more little morsels. Thankfully this must have served as an appetiser, as I put her by her food afterwards and she at least ate a little bit.
Bless her, she's now parked herself back on her cushion and is fast asleep. Welcome home Suzie :)
OK, so that's pretty much my day in detail. I think the only details that I left out were Suzie graciously showing me what she'd had for breakfast before I picked her up (and leaving it sitting on the rug for me.....thank god it's an ugly rug anyway), and Suzie appearing scared of the stairs, but then managing to make it down them (with me hovering over her....just in case).
Ok Friends, I hope you're all having a great start to your working weeks, and that life is as good for you as it is for me :)
Take care,
Howie..
ps: here's a picture of Suzie asleep on her cushion and blanket about 2 minutes ago :) It's a hard-knock life!
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