Me, I’m also back!
March 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Pfff, at last I can write in my diary again. The last time was just after I had my operation. I had this embarrassing bold left leg with a huge cut in it. I looked like a stray dog. But it has healed quite well and my hair is already growing back on. Oh, and all stitches are out as well. Which is good. They were very itchy!!
Since the op, I have not been off the lead on walkies. I really miss that but I think Roger and Claire know what’s best for me. We’ve been over to the vet quite a number of times. My favorite is Mairi, she’s so nice and always gives me a big fuss when I come in. I love a big fuss. I wag my tail and generally trip over all my paws…
Today we went to a place called the “Coral Beaches”. There were loads of other people around as well. Half way we met a group of Spanish ladies and they were very nice to me, giving me loads of cuddles. I jumped up at them and Roger looked quite horrified and yelled something about my muddy paws. They did not seem to bother and all of them gave me a big hug. Roger said to Claire that I was a “babe magnet”. Not a clue what that means but I think they both had a laugh about it…
The picture was taken yesterday. I had to chase a stick Roger had thrown into the water. It was a bit scary but good fun. I think I like water…
In business…
March 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
One of the things we considered doing once we lived here was running a B&B. However we’re not yet sure whether we’re quite up to that. As a good alternative we decided to start a holiday letting business. Over the past months we’ve acquired two properties, which are currently being transformed into holiday lets. One property is located in Holmisdale, part of the township of Glendale. The other one is right across the road from our house! Same address as our house… easy! It will be ready for business by the beginning of May of this year. The property in Holmisdale will need some more work as it needs quite some refurbishment.
Next to the property in Holmisdale, there’s an old byre which belongs to the property. Before buying the property we had an informal chat with the planning officer in Portree to assess whether it was possible to do a conversion of that byre. The planning officer saw no problems with that, which made the acquisition of the property in Holmisdale a very interesting one. We can accommodate another holiday let there without the need for buying a plot of land. Building plots are getting expensive on Skye!
If you’re interested, check out www.go-skye.co.uk. I designed and setup the site over the past weeks, so we’re ready for business…
Back online
March 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
After more than 2 weeks offline, we’re back… What caused this interruption of service you might wonder? Well, it all had to do with the registrar of the domain SKINIDIN.COM. I had it registered with my former broadband provider in Holland, called XS4ALL. However after moving to the UK, I stopped using their service. As I was no longer a customer I could not maintain the domain parameters anymore. Really annoying. So I asked whether I could transfer the domain to another registrar (this is a legal right one has as a domain owner). Only after mentioning legal assistance, they were willing to cooperate and then it took another 9 days for the procedure to complete…
But, we’re back and that’s the most important thing. What has happened here? Quite a bit and I will update you as we move into this week. One thing we’re really happy about is that our Jingles appears to have made a full recovery and is almost back to his own self again. Weather has been really great and we just returned from a stroll at the Coral Beaches. Life is good…
I Taw a Putty tat!
March 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
This morning we found a teeny hole in Jingles’ lower jaw. Yep! He lost his first puppy tooth… I also came to realize that it has been a couple of weeks since we last ran around with toilet paper cleaning up his accidents… He’s growing up!
Knee op
March 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Today Jingles had his knee operation. We brought him in at 9:30 am and left him to the good care of Mary (who he adores) and Dr. O’Connor. Obviously we were anxious to find out how he coped and we had to ring the surgery at 2:00 pm. We did, only to hear that the operation went smooth but that he still was under influence of his anesthetic. So, please call back at 5:00 pm.
We did and were told that it was ok to come over and pick him up. When we arrived, Mary got him out of his little crate and Jingles came limping towards us. It was really very sad to see him plodding around on 3 legs with his operated leg dangling about. There was a 5cm cut stitched up with 5 stitches. Also he had red bandage on his right front leg. This was the place where the needle for the anesthetic had gone in. Also his back leg was shaved. At first I did not notice it and thought he was wearing some kind of bandage.
Coming Saturday he has to go back for a checkup. This is actually quite convenient as we had to go with Puffin, our rabbit, for her injections. So, coming Saturday the whole menagerie moves to Bernisdale… erm… no, all but the hens…
During his op we went to Portree and bought him a really big, comfy bed with Scottish tartans printed on it. He’s in there right now chewing away on his bone. He seems in good spirits and I keep being amazed about his cheery character. I think he has had a big operation for such a small puppy (only 16 weeks old) and he’s still cheery and shows no signs of grumpiness or fear… good boy!!!!
Confused
March 13, 2008 | 1 Comment |
After dropping Jingles off at the vet we went to Co-Op in Portree for the weekly groceries, only to find the shop in a terrible state. They reorganized the whole shop and nothing was left untouched. Probably aimed at giving the customer a better shopping experience. Anyway, the store was full of confused people wondering about with their trolley.
After the groceries, we bought a new lead and a nice comfy new bed for Jingles, a new leather lead (he chewed the old one) and a couple of chewing bones to keep his mind of running about the house. He’ll be spending quite a bit of bedtime for the upcoming week….
Memorable
March 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
This is in someway a special day. Today is the first day that I’ve seen gales in all part of the UK but in the northern part of Scotland. While all the rest of the UK suffers from severe gales of up to 80 mph we have a relatively quiet morning so far. Amazing…
Update
March 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
Yes, I’m back and decided to update my diary a bit. I felt pretty lousy over the past days. I had a really bad leg so I limped about for a while. It’s much better now. I can do my nutty run through the house again but I think Roger and Claire are still quite worried about me. I also had medicines which gave me an upset tummy. I had to whine a couple of times during the night to get Roger out of bed so I could go outside. I hate messing my bed… I also had to miss out on a romp with Doodle. My leg was just too bad… I cried in my crate while Doodle had fun with my frisbee…
Eventually Roger and Claire took me to the vets. I really love going there. Especially the girl behind the desk!! She’s great!! When the doctor came in I had to go on the big table. I must admit I was very quiet. He was doing all kinds of weird things with my leg. After I had been on the table Roger and Claire went away. I had to stay there. At one point they stung me with this thing and after that I got very sleepy. When I woke up, there was a bowl of fish kibble. I love fish kibble!! I begged for more. You never know…
When Roger and Claire came back, I did my nutty run through the vets waiting room. I sniffed all the people who were sitting there. I loved it! Claire said I was causing havoc. I don’t know what a havoc is but she caught me while I tried to jump up to a woman holding a really small, skinny dog. I’m not allowed to jump up, but sometimes I just forget all those rules.
By the way, what do you think of this picture? I think I look quite handsome. Roger took it just after I had put my head in the little burn which runs across the land. He yelled something about drowning…
Busy times
March 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
These are busy times. After a difficult weekend we drove off to Bernisdale yesterday to see the vet. Jingles was to stay without any food and he wasn’t too bad on it. We thought he would tear down the house, but he gave only a couple of whimpers.
Anyway, at about 9:15 we were off. Once there you wouldn’t say he had a bad leg. He almost tore of his collar to get to the girl at the reception desk wagging his tail like mad. We think he likes her better than he does us. After a short examination the vet found his left knee wobbly and explained that the ligaments of the knee were probably damaged, however an x-ray would be necessary to rule any other bad thing out. So we had to leave him there and were told to pick him up at 5pm.
We reported back at 5pm sharp. The vet told us that there were no symptoms of anything else bad but for a swollen knee with moisture in it that should not be there. So the chances are 99% that he suffers from damaged ligaments. The extent to which they are damaged is unknown as ligaments do not appear on an x-ray. To have a full understanding of the damage he will open up his knee coming Thursday. He will then apply two artificial straps on the outside of the joint. These straps will hold his joint firmly and will prevent the body from making scar tissue which could lead to problems later on in his life.
The vet said that he was pretty confident that Jingles would come to full recovery as he’s still young. So we were very happy!! Foremost because chances are that he will recover completely but also we now know the cause of his problems and a time has been set to fix it.
In the mean time we removed a tick from Jingles on Saturday. While petting him a bit on Saturday, I noticed this little bump on his skin. Closer examination showed this blood sucking, ugly tick. Claire had bought a special tick remover tool and we pulled it off after a short struggle with Jingles (always curious). Anyway, we burned the evil bloodsucker and felt really good about it.
What’s up?
March 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
There hasn’t been much activity here over the past days. The main reason is that spirits are a bit down at the moment because Jingles still has a bad limp in his back leg. We’ve been to the vets and got medication for him, however this has ill side effects on his tummy, as they give him the runs. So we have regular midnight hurries to the patio door to let him out to do his business. Besides that we have to keep him as quiet as possible which is no simple task to perform upon a puppy with a big, big will of his own.
Weather has been on and off. Right now we have blistery showers of rain with fierce winds. The only ones not to be bothered are the hens. Despite their reduced freedom, they lay their eggs in the morning and appear to be rather happy.
So, bear with us! We will be back…..
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Latest music...
Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
An Rathad a Bhatarsaigh, by the Vatersay Boys