The Old and the Young.

There is good news about Ken,he has made friends with a horse next door to his new home and they are having a trial run to see how they get on together over a longer period of time.So far it is looking good so I am very pleased.It now looks as though he may be able to stay out in his new home.
The terrible picture of an old dog with a head wound was taken today at the vet. This morning,shortly after Rhian and Gail had left for the Vet, a van drew up in the yard.Three men on their way to work had spotted a dog tied up by the side of some toilets in the local village Pen-y-groes. To their horror the dog which was an elderly crossbreed had a bad head wound and was clearly in a state of shock.They had some difficulty getting hold of him as he was so distressed but succeeded in lifting him into their van, they then asked a passerby for the nearest animal shelter and brought him here. It was evident that he needed immediate expert attention so I tried to take him in my car but he was so agitated he would not stay still on the seat so Rosie who has a dog crate in her vehicle transferred him to that and rushed him to the vet. All we know at the moment is that he has had a trauma to the head and his old body is just a bag of bones, his backlegs have signs of total muscle wastage. He is on a drip and the next 24 hours will be crucial.It may be that it will be the kindest move to let him go but we want to wait until he is over the shock and the vet can properly assess his condition.
Then at the other end of the age scale we were asked to help with Minnie a 10 weeks old collie pup as the owner was having great difficulty housetraining her! She had also "bitten" the 12 months baby. This is why I always recommend families to wait until their children are past crawling and toddling stage to buy a pup. Babies and pups DO NOT go together.Unless you are a very experienced dog owner I would always say no to that idea. Pups do bite, they bite for attention, because they are teething themselves but mostly just in puppy play. In fact Minnie is a darling little dog, a little shy but sweet and no different from any other puppy I have ever seen. House training takes a long time with most dogs and at 10 weeks she is only just at the start of her training. By the way Squiggles collie who was also brought to me after her owner said she was vicious(she was 16 weeks old) has gone to a home where she will be taken to agility classes and is doing well. Collies just love to be kept amused, they are too intelligent to be left unoccupied for long periods of time which is why collies are not suitable for every home.
I have not had a day off for 9 days so I will be off tomorrow until Monday, next blog probably tuesday. If there is any news of the old dog I will ask Rhian to post a short update.