On The Island

I think we all managed to get some sleep, even though Mal had to give Ellie a drink about 2am. But Ellie did settle.

She has her first of many tablets at 6 am, so Mal went off to the allotment early.

The appointment with Gracie at the vets was at midday. She was really nice, went through all the recovery procedures saying to take it slowly because of Ellie’s age. She took photographs of Ellie’s bruising and swollen hock to send to Andre, the surgeon and also made a video of her hobbling. If he says it is all OK then we just return for another check in a week. She also showed us how to do the physio on her leg.

In the evening we watched the Lioness’s , not the best game but they did manage to win on penalties.

Ellie became a little more mobile, trying to get herself into the garden, without Mal having to lift her.

 

We took Ellie upstairs and another rough night with her panting and not settling. I think it is in between the pain killers.

So, the first day of her 3 x 10 minute walks a day. Mal carried her to the field and she had about 6 minutes on her feet, very wobbly but starting to use the muscles. She really didn’t want to do any more.  Phew this is all hard work. Next we have massage and a hot compress.

I did look and more bruising has come to the surface on Ellie’s leg so Mal rang the vets and they asked him to send a photo. We have an appointment tomorrow. Yes they  should have made that appointment for us but no one phoned. I think the walk was too much too soon but it was instructions from the surgeon. We will see tomorrow. They told us to stop the walking! No compresses either yet.

Mal went to the allotment, lots of courgettes at the moment and look what a beauty he saw..

…… a peacock butterfly.

We sat in the garden in the evening. Ellie just lay on the grass.

A decision was made that she was not as happy as before the walk and so better for all of us, we all slept in the living room for another night.  Plus she had her soft recovery collar on as she has now started taking interest in the wound.

Ellie’s cruciate operation day. We took her to the vets as requested at 8.30am. I told Jack I would be a little late and we worked our lunches around being early in case I had to dash off to collect Ellie. It didn’t seem probable as she would be a long time under anaesthetic and therefore quite a time recovering. The surgeon called Mal with all the details at lunchtime, so surgery hadn’t  started and then called him later to let him know the operation was successful and to collect her at 6.45.

I had gone into work to keep my mind otherwise occupied!

Mal cooked dinner ready for my homecoming and then at the appropriate time we went to collect Ellie. It surprised us after being told everything by the nurse and given 6 A4 sheets of instructions and three lots of pain killers/anti inflammatories that when she brought Ellie out to us, she had a blanket holding up her back legs. We tried to get her in the car and it was obvious she had no control over her back legs at all, obviously caused by the epidural. Even more of a struggle when we arrived home and tried to get her out of the car.

Poor Ellie, a pretty independent kinda girl. She struggled and struggled to stand all to no avail, so she panted and panted. We ended up with me on the mattress from the spare room on the floor in the living room and Mal on the sofa, between us we managed to comfort her a little, try and carry her out in the garden in case she wanted to do her business….no she didn’t because her back legs wouldn’t work.

We have a soft collar for her but the ortho surgeon would rather we didn’t use it if possible as it stresses them out more. It is here IF we need it.

 

Down to the allotment for Mal for more weeding.

More Live Aid and when Elton John said his drummer was Ray Cooper. I went out with a drummer called Ray Cooper way back. I looked him up and the same one…he came from Watford. I remember going to see The Who with him.

We had a meal voucher for The Blazing Donkey Hotel which Jem and Dom gave us for Christmas! We have been trying to book for Sunday lunch but they always seem to be busy. We booked for today and were surprised when we arrived there was just us and a table of four.  It is dog friendly, so we booked for the “dog area” and then decided Ellie would be better off at home if it was too busy. So, no Ellie we had a seat in the restaurant.  From start to finish the meal was awful. The price had even gone up overnight from £35 to £39 for a 3 course lunch and a pint of beer was £8.  All OK for quality, none of this was!

The menu we were sent had fish on the main course “we sold that yesterday”. There was also a cheese board (Mal’s passion, thinking there would be some lovely local Kentish cheeses)……..”don’t have any cheese today”. We had smoked salmon to start which was OK but I wanted some salt and had to go looking for a salt pot!! BASIC!!! Then roast beef, I asked for horseradish sauce. The waiter didn’t even know what we were talking about but went and asked in the kitchen. “No” was the reply but you can have some brown sauce!!!

The beef was so tough I couldn’t even cut it!!! I asked the waiter to tell the chef and I wanted a doggy bag as my dog may enjoy it but I couldn’t eat it. He returned with this…..

I guess that made us laugh but we did expect an apology even if the chef couldn’t face us!  The broccoli was hard stalks and flowers that had turned yellow.

Next Eton Mess, a tiny glass dish with a huge dessert spoon to eat it with.

The other table of four were having exactly the same problems. We had said at the beginning I would do a Trip advisor review saying the price had gone up and to ignore the menu online. I don’t like giving negative reviews but they obviously couldn’t care less or someone would have come and apologised.

Mal handed over our voucher and we left saying we would not be returning.  This was so sad as it was a present we were looking forward to enjoying.

Back home and we watched Wimbledon men’s final. A shame Alcaraz lost. One way and another not the best day!

 

Ellie certainly is a little madam. Now she has had a few days away and different sniffs and smells, she decided she wanted to go to the field opposite as she does when she is well. She just stood at the front door and barked and barked. Who is in charge here? Mal carried her over there, she did her business and then waited to be carried back!!! I guess she had to be carried to the grass outside the lodge and she couldn’t see the difference.

I went shopping at that dreadful place Westwood Cross, only because I wanted to go to The Range and then they didn’t have what I wanted.  I think Tesco were having problems with their freezers and they had notices saying if you couldn’t  find anything then ask a member of staff. When I did manage to find one her reply was ‘Maybe we haven’t got any’! Helpful. What has happened to people nowadays? I moved on to Sainsburys .

We watched some of Live Aid , 40 years old. Now that was good music. Quo first, their soundman was Malcolm Kingsnorth who frequented our pub . We knew him well. After Quo he worked with Billy Connolly and sadly in 2004 Malcolm passed away.  

 

Another hot day predicted and so we packed up and left at 9am, to avoid too much heat on the way home. The air con was on in the car and Ellie slept all the way home in her hammock!

Unpacked and time for tennis again. Very little washing to do as we had a washing machine in the lodge and of course it all dried!

It will be an ideal Wimbledon final on Sunday Sinner v Alcaraz.

Mal went to the allotment to water everything and I watered all the garden.