The problems of being a veggie

I was going to give you a coffee plant update today, but that will have to wait and instead you will get an account of Odi's first proper whole day with me.

The day was actually not too bad. We had plenty of pees in the 'wrong' place (the utility room floor/kitchen floor) and a few in the 'right' place (the space designated by us in the garden, which Mountain Man spent some time cordoning off with a wooden surround last week). She also pooed in the 'right' place the whole day, which was encouraging... or rather down to my timing it better. It's not so easy with a small puppy to be ahead of the game and take her to the 'right' place in time. It was more a matter of luck yesterday than judgment on my part. Also, her poos stopped being runny, which, I felt, was a major step forward.

I decided to keep a daily diary to see if there was a pattern so I could be a bit more proactive on the taking her out front. I didn't so much get a pattern of the going out, but did get that she loves to sleep a lot, so much so that I actually felt I might get something else done apart from watching her over the next few days.

We had a little trip to the village shop, where Odi was much admired and then we got in the car and went off to the next village to get a prescription of mine that needed picking up and to see if we could get some chicken or fish for Odi, neither of which I stock in my freezer (being vegetarian has it's downfalls!) just in case her tummy went off again, but we were out of luck. Still it was a nice little trip out and I discovered it's rather good being able to take a dog into a shop rather than leaving her in the car.

So there we were at 6 pm, doing rather well I thought, when I took her out and she had another episode of diarrhoea and then came in and was promptly sick. She didn't look herself at all. This is where, I have to say, the Guide Dog people are very good. There's a 24 hour helpline and any problems it's easy to phone, which I did. The advice I got was, as I didn't have fish or chicken, to feed her scrambled egg and then leave her til the morning and if she was sick again then to take her to the vet. Scrambled egg was duly cooked, but my greedy guts puppy didn't want to know. She also didn't want to drink. One minute she was ok and the next she just flopped down on her bed totally listless. Talk about going downhill fast.

We were at the vets by 7.30 and poor Odi having the ignominy of having her temperature taken. She was dehydrated and not herself, but luckily hadn't been sick again, so the vet decided she could come home with me and I could do the rehydrating by sticking a syringe (minus needle) in her mouth to give her the required dose of medication and also he gave me some special food for her. He showed me how to do the syringe bit and, joy of joys, Odi responded well. So much so the vet was surprised that she was looking for more... there's something about having a greedy dog that is quite good I've discovered!

Home we went with the instructions to give her a small feed and to make it palatable to mix it with warm water so it was nice for her - I needn't have bothered with this last as she was in that plate like no tomorrow - and give her some more medication and let her settle, which I did.

By this time it was 9 pm and I realised I hadn't had anything to eat since a slice of toast around 4 so, as Odi was settled, I cooked myself my dinner. And that's when I became aware just how tired I was. I sat down to watch a bit of TV, but could only just keep my eyes open, so just before 10 I took Odi out to perform and put her in her bed and went off to bed myself.

She settled pretty quickly, I'm pleased to say and woke up at 1.30. I took her out for a pee then put her back in her bed. It took a little longer for her to settle (and even longer for me - I didn't get back to sleep until around 2.30), but she slept until 5.30 this morning. I took her out again, gave her some medication and put her back in her bed and she promptly fell back asleep. And here I am, at just past 7 in the morning, with a sleeping puppy and me wide awake.

After last night's emergency drama I hope she'll be her bright self today and then, joy of joys, we can go supermarket shopping to get some chicken in. I'm not going to be caught out again as I could almost hear the smirking down the other end of the phone when talking to the Guide Dog vet and him saying, 'Feed her some chicken,' and me answering, 'Sorry, I don't have any. I'm a vegetarian'... no sirree I don't want to go there again!