Boo Boo comes home...

We had an exotic visitor in the garden today - I only realised when I noticed the tell-tale perfectly formed pellet of poo, about the size of a peanut looking like a perfectly produced bit of brown icing from a star shaped nozzle.  What creature has a bottom like a star shaped nozzle you might wonder...

... all will be revealed but I must just say that the first time I encountered these perfectly formed turds was on the path at the front of the house and I thought they were seeds from something so I dutifully collected them and threw them into the borders so that they might come back and flower at some point.  Little did I know that I was actually lobbing little parcels of manure which hopefully will have added to the nutrients in the soil - but I can't be sure!

So this morning I encountered the pellets and recognised them to be what they are and having recognised them to be the waste product of a garden visitor I set about finding said visitor because I knew that the Bobster would be interested to know that they are about.

"They" in this instance are caterpillars from the various Hawk Moths we have here.  I had thought this to be an Oleander Hawk Moth caterpillar but on closer inspection this is a Vine or Silver-Striped Hawk Moth caterpillar which is fabulous but doesn't have such impressive markings as the Oleander one nor the Death Head one which I found in Gregoris's one year when I was cutting back one of his shrubs.

So Vinny the Vine/Silver-Striped Hawk Moth caterpillar had taken lodgings in the vine which we brought with us from the UK (coals to Newcastle I know) and the evidence of his existence was scattered on the table underneath which is where we eat so not nice and also I didn't really want Vinny to be munching his way through our vine which produces lovely sweet black grapes if given the chance.  So I located his fairly easily even though his body was the exact same colour of the leaf upon which he was dozing and took him for a photoshoot before finding him a new home on the vine which comes over into our garden from next door and which has never produced a grape to my knowledge probably because it gets ravaged by hungry caterpillars!!!

Vinny will have to keep his wits about him if he is to survive the millions of birds that have set up residence in next-door's roof tiles but I am guessing from his colour he may not be such a tasty morsel for them.

I am hoping at the appropriate time I will get to see an Ollie although we only have one small oleander bush in the garden.  Ollies have much larger 'eye' markings and splashes of blue in their markings and the Deathies are the most spectacular of them all or at least of the ones I have found so far so will keep an eye out in Gregoris's again to see if I am lucky enough to photograph one of these.

So today John finally went to see someone about his knee/leg issue - at last we will get to the bottom of what is wrong and get it sorted - whatever that might entail and however much it is going to cost.  His initial consultation with the doctor we cannot claim back from our insurance - we know that but we weren't sure how much that was going to be because the consultation was also going to include an ultra-sound.  The surgery for Dr Athanasiou is above the USB bank opposite Paps and is a cool, calm and spotlessly clean place.  The sign outside says that Dr Athanasiou specialises in treating adolescents so John should be right at home there!!!  The Doctor was a very nice man - and he got to the source of the problem straight away and diagnosed a Meniscus Tear which he thought could be repaired with rest and physio - in fact he didn't recommend an operation (much to John's relief) and when writing out the prescription was more than happy to remove an item when I recognised that we had it at home.  John was really impressed and as a result I think he will actually do as he is told so that he can return to playing sport without fear of aggravating and making it worse.

We went from the Doctors which cost us just €30 plus whatever the prescription was going to cost to Marios the physio to arrange an appointment for John.  He too confirmed that an operation would not be necessary and that if John carried out the exercises the tear should repair itself.  Not sure how much his sessions are going to cost but as the insurance company have confirmed they will foot his bill we don't need to worry on that score and as Marios recommended the best thing we could purchase was a bag of frozen peas to 'ice' the area it looks like he isn't out to rip us off.  John thinks that as Marios deals with the footballers injuries and has got Boogie back to fitness he is the right guy for the job.  It was all very positive and armed with his peas and his prescriptions John has made the first steps towards sorting out this problem - YEEHAH RESULT!!!

We eventually got the call we had been waiting for from the vets this afternoon to say that Boris could come home.  We have borrowed a dog cage to put him in as he has to be confined to barracks for a week.  The vet agreed with us that the wound was probably caused by a spider bite which had gone bad and gone bad very quickly.  Her surgery skills were outstanding because you can hardly see where she repaired his ear - just a neat little line of stitches and there is no reason for the ear not to remain intact which was a worry.  Boris has to wear a collar to stop him from scratching at the affected area but unfortunately this has freaked out the other cats who don't seem to recognise that it is him and Charlie is very upset by the cage and Boris.  We are going to have to manage this situation carefully.  When Boris first got home he slept on the sofa but then we moved him and the cage into the spare bedroom so that the other cats could come in and out as normal.

We were supposed to have had a Drouseians Day out today so to make up for it we went to Fitos with Di and Rob for an early supper - it was the hottest evening of the year so far and we sat outside eating our meal and melting!  It was a lovely evening and great to have a relax and some good food and company after a stressful couple of days.

Back home we had to try and keep all cats happy which meant Boris being shut away for the night which he hated - in fact he screamed the place down for about 4 hours between 3.00am and 7.00am and then fell asleep like his batteries had been removed.  Both John and I are absolutely knackered - next Thursday and the stitch removal will not come quick enough at this rate.