I LIVE!!!!

Oh my gods... I don't think I realized how vital the internet is until my account went dodgy on Wednesday! I was seriously going bonkers every time I wanted to blog or chat with someone or find something out and couldn't! ARGH!

We had a pretty good weekend - Saturday at home and gardening, Sunday to distraction class with Verity and Hope. I took Verity in first and gosh what an absolutely great day for her! Verity had hopped out of the car happy, eager to go into the training building, happily fanning her tail in big circles and she was fairly prancing with these high steps, nudging my pockets to see if I had goodies and generally being a big goofus!!! I know that doesn't sound like a major thing - in fact for Sierra or Hope or Cade it's standard opperating procedure - but holy moley - for Verity that's a major step!

When we got there, only a few of the demo team were there so it was quieter than normal and I could tell Verity was comfortable with that lower level of activity. Her respiratory rate was still up a hint from normal base-rate and the smallest corners of her eyes were squinty so there was a little bit of stress going on but on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being totally relaxed and 10 being highly stressed, she was down to maybe a 1 or 2 from her usual 4-5 range, which she was much happier and easier to engage/keep engaged/ask to change her attention. She was showing far more happiness and playfulness than stress. In fact she was actually PLAYING with me, dancing around my legs, tuggy - the same as she does at home - in the training building with other people working their dogs!

Jenn's car had broken down so a few people went to go help her and her dogs. She needed a bit of a breather so she stayed back in the building along with one or two other people who wandered in and out while the rest of the class went down to the oval to practice outside. At one point, one of the people who'd left to pick Jenn up drove her big blue SUV by close to the door so that it blocked off the view entirely. This was enough to worry Verity... the whole SEC thing again. She was still taking treats but reluctant to disengage her attention and the way she was taking them felt as if she was taking them almost without really registering the food for the next few minutes.

Since she'd had a mild worry, I decided to back off a bit from my plans and opted to hang back at the building with Jenn for a tea and rather than take Verity down to the oval where there'd be the higher number of people, a novel environment (I've not worked her out there as we usually train inside) and higher activity level. That turned out really well actually, Jenn is pretty savy with anxious dogs as one of hers has some similar issues she's working around. So all in all a pretty wonderful day!

Monday was decent enough, more gardening and hip hip HURRAY my Wyandotte hen has finally gone broody! I was starting to think I was going to have to hire an incubator to hatch any eggs. Now let's hope Jarrah the Rooster has been doing his bit (this can be a problem with them due to their very fluffy bums...) and those eggs are fertile! If they are in about 20 days I should have little chicks!

Now for the downer... last night Miss Hopie decided to run out into the paddocks by attempting to jump (going full tilt) between the lowest string and the second lowest of the barbed wire, clipping her leg as she did so.

She tore herself a nice big triangle gash going up from just over the knuckle to wrist. It was all the way through the skin, peeling back down to muscle but luckily it didn't bleed much and after it stopped was a nice dry wound so we didn't have to make a 1am run to the ER.

I rang the vet in the morning as I was sure it'd need at least a few stitches and probably a bit of tidying of the edges. The vet was out but the receptionist clearly thought I was over-stating matters. I'm guessing they're used to people thinking things are worse than they are. I decided simply to drive out as the vet herself is usually pretty good about such things. Nope, surgeries all morning so 4:30 was the earliest says the receptionst.

Meanwhile Hope is doing nothing to convince the receptionist she's got anything more serious than a papercut - dancing about, animated, wanting to play, snuffing for treats, hopping on the scale and sitting while pointedly looking at me for her click and treat. "Fine," I said pointing to the leg. "Can I have some gauze and vetwrap then? I don't want this flapping about all day, exposed while we wait another four hours." She paused, "What? Gauze? Vetwrap?" (Er, is it called something else here in Australia? I've no idea... bugger.) "Yeah, just some gauze and some vetwrap - elasticish self sticking stuff that goes around it so at least it's covered and stays put?" She looks at the leg I'm pointing at. "Oh. OH! That'll need stitches, let me just go talk to Jayne..."

Anyhow, long story short she talked to Jayne who agreed with my original assessment that yes indeedydo - it did need stitches and we'd have to actually do it as a surgery and put her under. Bugger. I was hoping we could do a local. Meh. But at least it won't leave a visible scar. I've decided her vet-wrap bandage is officially a fashion statement - at $470 it costs more than most of my wardrobe, so it must count as a fashion statement right???

The fun part? I'm supposed to keep this hyper little booger from playing, running or in any way stressing the stitches while the heal. Wish me a miracle all, this is Hope we're talking about - "sedate" is not a word in her vocabulary!