OK so Sunday morning I'm wondering how to add to this blog with a few more pics that might be of interest especially as we now have 7 dogs living in the house and we are taking care of three more street dogs in their own environment. Haven't got the time, space or dinero for anything else.
Had to renew passport (173€) earlier this month and also got stuck with a garage bill for 150€ for failed engine mounts. The failure of one puts additional strain on the others and is guaranteed to take out another...thanks Renault... so lots of unwanted expense.
Taking care of the house animals is a fulltime 24/7 job and since there is only Summer and me it gets a bit stressfull sometimes.
Today (Sunday) turned out to be just such a day...
About 4 oclock Summer decided to take Spike and Scruffy for a walk. We tend to take them all out two at a time since all have the pulling capability of a Scania truck...
Spike and Scruffy are still quite undisciplined on the lead and always darting off to one side or the other to investigate new sights and smells, but these uncisciplned movements are generally pre-anticipated and corrective measures taken.
I was beginning to think she'd been gone for rather longer than usual when there was on the door...I thought initially Summer had left her door key behind but no...it was one of the neighbours kids, quite out of breath. He told me Summer had had an accident and was sitting in the road quite unable to move, whilst still trying to control the two pups. She was right down at the far end of the village up one of the side streets. By the time I got there she had quite a crowd gathered round her. someone had taken on the task of phoning for an ambulance because Summer couldnt straighten her left leg and it was pinned under her right leg.
She was in an awful amount of pain; it seems that the pups had crossed in front of her and she had taken a hard fall over their leads, falling heavily on her left hip...not good...
The ambulance has to come out from the next village some 7kms away, so after a quick chat with her and the neighbours I grabbed the dogs and brought them home shoving them straight into their crate. I sorted out the other dogs who had fortunately had their mid afternoon walk before Spike and Scruffy, grabbed Summers passport and handbag and a few odds and sods and was just about to leave the house when the same kid showed up again to tell me that the ambulance was waiting for me...
So back again to the other end of the village, and jump on board. I had no idea at that moment whether we would be going to Loja, Alhama de Granada or Granada itself; but it turned out to be Granada City. The road from the village out to the main Granada motoerway isnt in all that good state of repair, has many potholes and sleeping policemen so it was a very slow cautios ride til we hit the motorway, the the Spanish equivalent of Blues and Twos all the way to the main hospital that deals with accidents and emergencies. The Ambulance driver booked her in initially then said adios and buena suerte.leaving us stuck not knowing what the procedures were and with documentation (E111) that might be out of date...Summer spends a fair amount of time in the UK so has never taken on the Spanish Social Security Health card.
After nearly two hours it became fairly obvious that nothing was happening so I went back to reception and the booking in desk to check; we also grabbed one of the consultants and asked if Summer could please have a shot of painkiller since by now she was climbing the wall so to speak...He returned about five minutes later and gave her a shot that provided some relief. Meantime my enquiries produced a result; within moments she was seen by a triage doctor, and then carted off on a stretcher for xrays.
Then we got the bad news... The ball at the top of her left femur was shattered or sheared, (I'm not sure of the translation) the damage requiring an urgent op to fit a replacement hip joint. We were moved onto another consultant, a young female surgeon and between our Spanish and her English we sorted out what is necessary. An op is scheduled for this afternoon (Monday) pending any other more urgent cases; she will definitely be out of action for at least four to six weeks, will need a crutch or a stick for a while. She will be in hospital for at least a week The recuperation period could be up to six months...
So in the meantime, I've met my Waterloo...Somehow I have to juggle exercising, feeding and cleaning up after seven dogs, feeding self, sleeping and finding my way back to the hospital at least once a day and its an 80km round trip.
If the results are anything like what greeted me when I got back homeby taxi (another 65 Euros...) at 2am this morning the next few days aren't gointg to be easy. The dogs had been on their own for much longer than normal and whilst the Seniors of the pack were reasonably chilled out about it the juniors most definitely were not...The youngest puppy (eight weeks) had soiled her crate big time so she and the crate had to be stuffed in the shower and cleaned up; Spike and Scruffy were making all kinds of a racket in their crate and I suspect there may have been a little recycling going on in their case...their crate was suspiciously clean and dry and odour free...it's taken from 2am to get things back to some degree of normality and its now 5.30am.
So a new day starts...dogs to be walked fed and watered, house to be sorted, must find a nightie and stuff for Summers hospital stay... and then find the hospital again...and somewhere to park...
So caring for the animals has backfired on us... takes a deep breath... counts to ten...OH SOD IT!
Talk to you all later...
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