What a Fantastic Weekend!

Wow, for the past week or so the weather has been truly great. Bright sunny days and temperatures of 30 degrees. Not that I like the heat that much, but I do like to be out in the sun.

This weekend dad took me to the woods as usual. Only this time he'd forgotten to take my lead with him. That meant getting out of the car and walking with him on the street and across the road without it.Now it's not a busy road as it's in a residential estate and is not a main thoroughfare, but all the same I showed just how good I can be. There were two ladies with dogs just coming out of the gate to the woods as I was getting out of the car. I didn't even pay them any attention even though they barked hello at me. I just stayed close by dad as we walked over and into the wood.

Once in the woods I did all my usual tearing about in the trees until I was too hot and breathless. Then I found one of the known watering holes. It had dried up into a sloppy muddy mess, but that didn't stop me from dashing in for a cooling lie down. That meant a great swim later at the big pond to get the, by then, dried and caked on mud off.

On Sunday we had an early barbecue. Mum and dad don't usually light up until 5-6pm. But Sunday meant going next door to Guinness and Tiger's house. They're a couple of house cats that like to be in the garden in the good weather. I'm not sure they like me too much though. I went over to say hello to Tiger and she hissed at me. So I pretty much left them alone and just kept an eye on them both.

Dad took this picture on his phone (click for full picture). He reckons I looked so cute he couldn't understand why the cats can't just be my friends. It was so hot dad made sure to hose me down every time I dried out - you can see I'm still a little damp. But even though I was dripping wet I behaved myself and didn't do my usual trick of sharing all my water with everyone else by shaking or trying to lie on them.

Empty Wallet... Again

Things have been going pretty good this month. So far the daily Tabasco's have stopped and I've been back to being myself.

Following the messing about at the vets we finally got the blood test results and they showed the KBr levels were actually below what they should be. Not that I fully understand what it means but it came back as a 6 but the range it should be in is between 8 and 20. So that means upping the KBr. Instead of 3 x 325mg tablets twice a day it now increases to 4 x 325mg twice a day.

Now to many this might not sound a big change. But when you consider that each KBr tablet averages £0.25 each. I say average because we have to buy 720 tablets for 3 months - this is made up of 1 x 500, 2 x 100 and 20 individual tablets. The 500 pack is obviously cheaper per pill that the 100 pack, which again is cheaper than the individual ones.

So £0.25 per pill adds £0.50 per day, £3.50 per week and £14 per month. Even though we use the cheapest on-line pharmacy we could find this month sees a bill of £252 for the pills (including Epiphen) for the next 3 months.

So cute, I'm so Jealous

Dad took me out for a walk round the park late on Sunday night. It wasn't dark as we're supposed to be near the middle of summer - you wouldn't think so from all the rain we had today!

As we were on our way back a guy with a young rottie on a lead walked up to us. Dad didn't put me on the lead or anything and the guy came over and asked "How do you get her to walk so well off the lead?" - as if he has anything to do with it! I'm just good all on my own.

So dad and the guy got talking and turns out that "Maisy" was 9 months old and was going to the same school I went to. Now I'm not an unfriendly dog, I just don't really get all the bouncing around and chase me games. Sure it was nice to say Hi, but Maisy just wanted to bounce around and play - kids huh!

Dad said Maisy was a very nice looking dog and gave her some fuss. They talked about training techniques and I just sat there being good as they talked. I get a bit jealous when Dad pays attention to anyone but me - it's not just dogs. If he talks with mum I have to put myself in between the two of them just so I'm not ignored.

Hopefully we'll meet up with Maisy again. They said I might be a calming influence on her young exuberance.

As it's prescription renewal time dad phoned the vet and they explained that the last blood test for KBr levels didn't work out and they wanted to retake them. So we did that trip to the vets last Thursday. Just as before I sat there the vet jabbed me with a needle and I didn't even show that anything was going on.

So they said call us on Monday for the results. Dad didn't do that as he was busy Monday, so called on Tuesday - only to be told to call back on Thursday as they're not returned yet. More delays. Good job dad planned a little ahead and planned on getting the prescription two weeks before the tablets ran out this time.

If they aren't ready Thursday that means we get into a pickle about ordering on-line and allowing shipping time. I'm beginning to think that because we don't pay the vets extortionate drug prices they decide to make our life difficult.

No Fair!

19:45 I'd been lazing behind dad whilst he was on the computer. He noticed me have a couple of Tabasco's, so when one turned into a full seizure he didn't expect it.

Turned out to be another draining one. Afterwards I didn't want to get up. I just wanted to lie there and sleep. Dad wouldn't let me though. He makes sure I get up and go outside for some air and to walk about a bit. I'm not sure what he thinks is going on, but all I want to do is sleep.

I think we'll need to up the dosage of the KBr to see if that helps. We'll give the vet a call in the Morning.