Thursday 24 March 2011

School reunion


A curate's egg of a day.....

A very early start this morning, woken by the most terrible stench, at 4 a.m...... Downstairs to discover a repeat performance by Flossie of last year's awful illness - lagoons of malodorous liquid offerings throughout the ground floor. Evidently, I had slept through her usually-effective whines of "Let me out - now! NOW!"

No sign of Flossie herself though. Eventually I found her hiding, ashamed and upset, behind the sitting room curtains, and coaxed her gently back into her bed while I cleaned up - for almost an hour. Cats were thrilled to have back door and windows opened at such an early hour, and went on neighbourhood patrol with enthusiasm.


Off to the feared vet, wondering if we should cancel our planned reunion with Flossie's Auntie Fran. The vet said "There's a lot of it about." He had seen five dogs with the same symptoms recently, all of them Jesmond Dene dogs, and advised no river or sea bathing till she had recovered, but said that she could visit with other dogs. Flossie was given two injections whilst hiding behind me, and some antibiotics for the week, and I rang Fran to see if she was still happy to have us visit. Fran was cavalier about the whole thing, so off we went. And after such an unpleasant start, what a lovely tonic of a day we had!

We were early, so we had a walk round lovely little Warkworth, stopping to take photos on the ancient bridge. The tranquillity was shattered several times by the screaming sounds of fighter planes from the nearby RAF base.





Flossie was thrilled to see Fran again, having said goodbye to her in October, when she left after her 12 days at boarding school to come and live with me. Very touching to witness. Fran's dog club chum A was visiting too, and together we went off to walk another of their friends' three labradors through the Morwick (pron. Morrick) estate; we made up a pack of three humans and nine dogs. The sun shone, the weather was delightfully warm, and everyone got on famously together.



Flossie, tongue hanging out a mile, was in heaven. She loves being part of a pack.



A group photo was set up. Tongues were rudely stuck out at the photographer, and two of the boys, as boys will, went a little further (click on photos if you really want to know....).


From left to right: Flossie, Wellington, Smokey, Louis, Luka, Molly, Georgie, Polly and Pip


We called in at the nearby Morwick Dairy Ice Cream Parlour, and sat in Fran's dog-laden van to eat our tubs of deliciousness (in my case, two scoops: chocolate and coconut raspberry ruffle - I must try to make the latter this summer!)

After a late back-to-front lunch, dessert first then egg sandwiches, we said goodbye and came home, and Flossie put herself to bed very early indeed. She had enjoyed her reunion very much, but thinks that getting up so very early in the morning isn't something she wants to do every day. I quite agree.


We hope for a peaceful night.

16 comments:

Pam said...

Oh dear, poor Flossie and poor you.

That does look like a lot of dogs.

Hope the night passes without incident.

Lyn said...

oh dear hope Flossie is 100% again soon, still you had a lovely day out!
LOVE
LYN
XXX

flwrjane said...

Quite a day. I hope she feels better soon. She certainly is sleeping with wild abandon.

I do believe Flossie has the biggest tongue of all!

xo jane

Frances said...

What a fabulous day for all concerned. Love the pic of all the dogsThey must all be so well trained to sit all together for a photo. Been to Warkworth many times when we lived in Morpeth, but not heard of Morwick Estate before. Hope Flossie gets well soon....not good scraping up sick etc from the carpet is it?

the veg artist said...

Poor Flossie. Poor you. I don't think I would have made such a good recovery as either of you after being up at 4am!

rachel said...

Frances, it wasn't sick.......

mountainear said...

Poor Flossie - hope she's better soon.

PS Round here we we say he's got his lipstick out...

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Poor Flossie , stomach cramps are horrid .
Poop in the wrong place is horrid too.
With any luck the medicine will work , you'll both sleep like logs and feel much better tomorrow .

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

Hope Flossie feels better soon.

That's a handsome pack of happy looking dogs!

judy in ky said...

I'm happy to hear that the day improved, after such a sad (and early) beginning.

Shelagh said...

After such a dreadful beginning for you and Flossie, I'm so glad the rest of the day went well. Hope she's all recovered by tomorrow.

xo

molly said...

What an hilarious group shot of all those lovely dogs! Looks like a great place for a romp....Hope poor Flossie feels better again very soon. Might be a bit of a strain on her mum's forbearance if she had to spend too many mornings mopping up that unmentionable substance!

Rattling On said...

Do vets prescribe those pink tablets for everything? They're what we always seem to come away with! Hope she feels better soon, though it didn't seem to slow her down much!
Re yesterday's bit about moving cats... we did it a lot in the past and never had any trouble at all. We hardly kept them in other than overnight each time. I was told once that cats are people or place animals. If it's you they stay for then it doesn't matter where yo take them. If it's the house, then they're the ones who try to find their way back. Don't think you'll have a problem there!

Anonymous said...

Poor Flossie - please tell me she didn't get the new carpet! What a grand day out - it's a while since we were last in Warkworth. Ice cream in the sun - perfect!

Lesley said...

Oh Lord...not a great start to the day, in fact possibly the worst way to start a day ever!! But kudos to you and Flossie for getting over it and making the rest of the day even better to compensate.

Love the doggie pics, especially the group shot. Flossie by far the most beautiful and, just I think, the longest tongued. I've never been for a walk with 9 dogs. Think 6 is my record. Sounds and looks like heaven.

I hope you and your trusty mop were not called into action again. Bet you slept with one ear open last night!!!

Lesley x x

Catherine said...

Love the group photo! That's cute. Looks like you all had a lovely day.

Sure hope Flossie is feeling better ~ poor pup!
xo Catherine

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