Charlie comes home

I think it is fair to say that neither John nor I slept well last night.  Memories of the fateful night we lost Chivers were uppermost in our minds.  On that day I had rung the vets (not the one we use now) at about 10.00pm to be told Chivers seemed to be responding but how he fared overnight would be critical.  I had expected a phone call the following morning with an update, I had not expected to be told that he had passed away from organ failure.

We were told to ring after 9.00am for an update on Charlie - I felt so sick I wanted to ring but didn't want to ring if you know what I mean.  I asked John to do it, the number was engaged - twice and then we got through.  Why is it that receptionists are all related to Attila the Hun?  Anyway we eventually ascertained that Charlie was still with us but had to wait for the vet Bambos to do his morning round for an update, this seemed to take an eternity but eventually we ascertained that Charlie was looking brighter (not difficult when one of his eyes doesn't shut) and that we could go down at 2.30pm and take him home if the vet was happy with how he progressed during the morning.

2.30pm couldn't come quick enough.  Charlie was looking brighter but had not eaten nor apparently had a wee or poo.  The vet said he would give him a long lasting injection and we could take him home but if we were worried at all to ring.

Obviously we chose to bring him home but en route we could smell that same shitty smell coming from the basket but on inspection couldn't see anything but by the time we got him home he had obviously wee'd and possibly worse because he was absolutely covered and hadn't been cleaned up from his previous accident on the way down to the vets.  Fortunately Gail had some dog shampoo which she let us have and we put Charlie in the sink after having hosed him down outside and washed off what we could.  Poor little bugger he looked so sorry for himself.  Gail had also recommended some special (any hugely expensive cat food) which was good for animals which had had a gastric issue.  Charlie can be very fussy about cat food but I think he was so hungry even he ate it.  He remained very quiet for the remainder of the day just getting up to have a bit of food.  By late evening he actually wanted to go outside and we reluctantly let him.  We had hoped we might be able to see whether or not his poo was something less like green slime but it was too dark to see.  He didn't stay out long - he just seemed to be happy to sniff the fresh air, he had, after all, been in a cage above a bloody great dog all the night before and there were two other dogs in the room and a rather strong smell of urine hanging in the air.

The vet said that getting him down for treatment as quickly as we did and getting him straight on a drip probably saved him - I hope he has a good sleep tonight and continues to make good progress.