Grief stricken

It is with great sadness that I must announce the passing of a dear friend. Today our wonderful companion of 10 years, Scooby Doo, will leave us. His life, of late, has been difficult. He has had to deal with hip and elbow dysplasia, degenerative disc disease (and one operation to relieve compression of the spinal cord caused by this), arthritis, recurring superficial pyoderma, and a non-specific allergy giving him a drippy nose and gummy eyes. Add to that the suspicion of chronic degenerative retinal myelopathy (look up CDRM online to find out how much fun that is), which can't be definitively diagnosed pre-mortem.

I think it's 10 years ago next week since I fetched this bundle of fluff from a local breeder. He instantly settled in, hardly crying at all at night. However we soon realised that he was easily bored and tended towards destruction if not supervised. He was also very sociable and thought that everyone loved him and was his friend. Somehow he worked out how to open the door on our 6 foot upright freezer, the one with the killer vacuum door seal that we need two hands to open. So everytime I went out I would come back to a freezer full of semi defrosted food. A dog crate cured that.

Scooby was loved by most who met him. After all, not everyone is impressed by a large German Shepherd coming bounding over to say "Hello!". Yes we went to training, but that was the one thing we couldn't break the habit of. He loved running around and catching his frisbee or ball. He enjoyed playing tag and hide and seek with the kids, and was ecstatic when the hose was turned on. He learnt new tricks very easily, loving the thinking involved as much as the action.

In recent years his health issues caught up with him. Since New Year this year he has had difficulty controlling his back legs. We were hopeful that, as in previous occasions, it would right itself after a period of rest. Sadly this was not to be.

On Monday of this week I took him to the vets, using the car for a journey of less than a quarter of a mile. He managed to half fall off the ramp out of the car, reversed back into the boot and refused to budge. The vet came out to see him and make sure there was no obvious damage. Then we had 'that talk' about how we were counting in days and maybe weeks, rather than weeks to months. I crossed my fingers and hoped that once again he would prove her wrong. Last may the vet had predicted that making his birthday in October would be pushing it and Christmas was really hoping. My boy proved her wrong then but not this time.

Yesterday he seemed to get worse but I put it down to jarring himself the previous day. Today he cannot walk at all. His back legs won't hold him up and he can just about manage to stagger/drag himself a couple of feet before it becomes too much effort. He has eaten his food wherever he is lying, but has now stopped accepting liquids. He hasn't been outside for toiletting since 6.15 this morning. He is just about managing to roll from one side to the other, by the radiator 'cos it's warmer. It is time!

By 6.15 this evening he will be chasing around that big field in the sky, pain-free and with all the stamina in the world. We will be grief-stricken to lose an amazing friend. Goodbye my gentle giant!

Scooby Doo

R.I.P.

28/10/98 - 21/01/09

Update on the kids

Nothing for two weeks and then two posts in one day - just like the buses run.

D is away in a tent this weekend. Hopefully he has enough clothes to wear to keep warm. I did nag him to pack plenty but there's only so much a mum can do when their son is nearly 17. And yes, that makes us feel old.

D has decided to give up Further Maths. He isn't enjoying it and finds it boring. A & I weren't impressed to start with but we all discussed it and checked on the UCAS site (where all the degree information is listed) to make sure he wasn't hampering any future plans, so we said OK. He now wants to do a degree in Artificial Intelligence, part of the Computer Science faculty at various universities. The nearest place is Southampton, which D says is ideal as then he can save on accommodation fees. A is going to take him to the faculty open day later this year. I think it will be my job to take him to other open days around the country.

K is currently leaning towards child psychology. She is looking forward to college in September and would like to go to Oxford to do her degree. This week she bought herself the books disc for her DS Lite. It has 100 classic literature titles on it, including Shakespeare, Bronte, Dickens, etc. The font size is readable, giving some of these books over 11,000 pages. She is happy with it and is making inroads into Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. She also plans to read Romeo & Juliet fairly soon. Friend A told me that this is one of the plays being shown at The Globe Theatre in London this year. I'll have to check the kitty to see if we can go.

You don't want the flu

Trust me, I'm an expert!

The 104 F fever broke on Christmas night. By Boxing Day I was down to a manageable 100 F, and believe me it made a lot of difference. I got up at lunch time and managed to eat a sandwich, the first real meal I'd eaten since Tuesday. During the afternoon I played a few hands of cards with the family, making sure I was sat away from FIL. Then it was back to bed till the following day.

It took till New Year's Eve before I could face going out shopping. Over Christmas our dishwasher gave up the ghost - not funny when there are 7 of you to feed and wash up after. So on New Year's Eve A and I braved the cold and the crowds (what crowds, I've seen worse on a typical Sunday in Southampton) and went to John Lewis. Our new toy arrived 2 days ago and the kids are very happy. We are just waiting for the special offer pan set to arrive (out of stock of course). Needless to say I was very tired after the trip into town. However I managed to stay up till after midnight but had to forego any partying.

One thing I have noticed is that my memory is not up to speed. Someone at our local Home Ed group apologised for not sending me an e-mail over the festivities, containing some information he thought I should read. I needed a lot of prompting to recall that he was supposed to do this and what it was all about. I find myself getting distracted from the job in hand and then forgetting to go back and finish off - I now know how A feels as this is his default position.

Tiredness is still an issue, albeit diminishing slowly. I am finding it hard to wake up before 8.30. During the holidays it was 9.30 and more usually it was 10.00. This was despite going to bed and being asleep by 11pm.

I have been avoiding as much social contact as I can. My immune system has taken a battering over the last 2 - 3 months and I'd like it to recover. As I sit and type this I am feeling snuffly. Last night I sneezed a few times. No more illness, please!

This cold weather is supposed to go tomorrow. Everyone keeps saying that it should kill off all the germs. So how come so many people are ill?!