Working or walking

 Good morning, dear Blogger friends. I realized this week that I am either working or I am walking! 

I enjoy both - fortunately!

Last week I was part of a team who took part in a project in aid of cancer, with many other teams of women and men in the area. We gathered on the Country Club sports fields, erected our gazebo, set up the urn and set out the paper cups:  we were selling Capuchino, coffee, tea and hot chocolate to the passersby. Other teams sold wraps; sosaties (meat and veg on sticks which are barbequed) potjiekos (another traditional South Africa dish cooked in a large black cauldron, over an open fire) soup and sweet treats.  

The rule was that from 6pm until midnight, we had to walk around the sports field continuously. At all times, one or more of our team had to be doing the walk, The others may rest or sell beverages. All in aid of a young lad who had chemo and now needed surgery on his knee. 

The local hairdresser set up his stall and people queued up for the shavathon or to have their hair colored. All at a fee. The young gent we were collecting for, had already lost all his hair: a goodlooking teenager of 16. So, this was another way the community showed its solidarity!

As always, when we get together, and especially, when women get together, we had great fun. We were all of a similar vintage and several were part of my Weigh-Less group in town. At 10.30, I suddenly remembered that, although we'd all been together for several hours, we'd not had a group photo. I called a lady from another group, who was walking by, to come and take our photo. 

The core team of ladies who walked and worked together for the greater good!

We had the emergency medical team next to our stall

Our stall, which sold hot beverages and deliciously flavored muffins

On our left was the local school, which is under the headship of my neighbor here on the farm. They sold the potjiekos.  Each team wore a special outfits, which all added to the festive mood of the event.

I especially loved that we could walk at any time and with anyone. I had the opportunity to walk with ladies who had previously been in my Weigh-Less group and since dropped out. It was a great time of motivating them to think about returning and enjoying a healthier lifestyle. My favorite topic is that exercising while eating unhealthily, will not help you lose weight. Follow a healthy eating plan as prescribed by Weigh-Less (which company is now in its 49th year of successful weight loss worldwide), add a daily exercise regime and/or 20 minutes of brisk walking, and you will lose weight the healthy way and maintain it for life. 

By 11.30 I had clocked in at 23,571 steps which translated to 19.5km. 😊👀

A great evening was had by all! 

As always, every Saturday I take part in the local Parkrun. Even though yesterday was beautifully cool, with a slight drizzle, I still didn't have the confidence to take Skabby along.  I told him: next week, Lad! 

Posing with a friend and her dog at Parkrun on Saturday.

So, yes, I am either working or walking.

HAPPY SUNDAY TO YOU ALL! 

All's well!

 Good morning, dear Blogger friends. THANK YOU so much for the care and kindness you showed after I shared Skabby's traumatic experience. 

All is back to normal now again, although my workload seems to have increased substantially. Whereas I am normally quite at liberty to do part of my accommodation and Avon sales admin at the farm office, this week, I have had to ready several documents (read dozens to be photocopied) of Farmer John's insurance policies and other paperwork) which is filed for a consultant to peruse.  

And as always, my guests are in and out at an alarming rate, meaning Thandi and I are up at The Bunker , cleaning after and prepping before guests.

Comfortable and welcoming 

Fresh fruit in season alongside the welcome card

Continental breakfast self-service

Back to town to collect Avon, bring the order home and make up parcels for the customers. This week I did just this; went to the car and because I had bought greeting cards (at the shop where my Avon is delivered), I put the Avon box on the car roof. Because I had bought greeting cards from the shop, I placed these inside my bag on the seat. Closing the car the door I then walked over to the grocery store where I spent at least 20 minutes shopping...

When I walked out into the street, I noticed that someone had left something on the roof of their car. Looking again, I saw that someone was ME!

Mmm...

In between, I have had Skabby clipped and groomed in time for winter.

Can you believe this is the same dog from two weeks ago?

So all's well with the Champagne Valley Hedges household!

HAPPY MONDAY TO YOU ALL!

Thirteen hundred meters too far: continued

 Good morning dear Blogger friends.  As you know, I ended the previous post with Skabby having disappeard from the veranda. 

I never slept a wink that night. From the time that he disappeared I walked through the garden in the dark and rain. I checked behind every tree and under every shrub. Not an easy task. One border of my garden has huge, thick shrubs lining the fence. Skabby lies under these shrubs during the day out of the hot sun, 

Every hour of that night, with a torch, and trying not to make too much noise, I checked behind all the bushes and trees, calling my dog. 

Nothing. 

Later the moon appeared, and I went out again, trying to find Skabby. 

Nothing. 

At 4am I heard Jock from next door, barking furiously. When I went out, he was hurling his body against the fence at the bottom of my garden. With my heart in my mouth (I fully expected to find the body of my dog, nothing more) I crept under and behind a huge bottlebrush. Calling Skabby's name, I heard thud, thud, thud. Lighing the torch in that direction, I saw my darling boy, still soggy from last night's soaking and looking up at me. Even in his distress, this boy wags his tail. I fell on his neck and hugged him. Although emotions were welling up in my chest, I did NOT cry. I wanted to, but I knew I had too much to do and couldn't afford to stop and indulge in tears. 

I had to cajole him out behind this hidey hole and onto the veranda and from there I brought him into the house. I wasn't going to risk him disappearing into the bushy garden again.

At 7.15 I loaded him into the back of my car and drove to the vet. Jeff and an assistant were waiting with a stretcher to carry Skabby into the surgery. However, as Skabby saw Jeff, he wagged his tail slowly, and clambered out of the car onto the pavement. Jeff took his lead and with the assistant guiding the dog, they led  him inside. Den, my neighbor's younger daughter, and I followed. 

Jeff ascertained that the poor dog was exhausted and suffering with sever muscle pain. He injected him with painkillers and a muscle relaxer and told me to try and get him to drink when we got home.  

However, once we got home and I led Skabby indoors, he made straight for my bathroom which has a tiled floor and flopped down there. 

And stayed there

Skabby lay on my bathroom floor from 10am on Saturday until Sunday morning when I urged him to his feet and outdoors for some fresh air

He drank quite a bit of water...

...and wandered onto the lawn 

Then he came indoors and collapsed on the floor in my office.

I phoned Jeff and said that Skabby was not using his limbs and although he had had a drink of water, he was not interested in anything I offered him to eat. Jeff then suggested I perform physio on the dog. He explained on the phone that I had to take Skabby's hind leg, which has three parts, move the foot to ankle part gently. Then move onto the ankle to knee part and massage and move it gently. Then the knee to hip part and move it. Then take the whole leg and move it outwards. Each move I had to do twenty times, every hour. 

I set the alarm on my smartwatch and every hour I performed physio on my poochie. When he has all his wits about him, Skabby doesn't allow you to touch his feet, ears, legs. He runs around in circles. With me working on Skabby every hour, he never moved. 

Performing physio on Skabby , twenty time each section of each limb...

...every hour during the day on Sunday

In retrospect, I realize that the young vet was very wise in advising me to do this for Skabby on Sunday. I don't think anyone held out hope of him making it into the new week (for me, it didn't bear thinking about, I just willed the dog to keep living). Jeff knew that to keep a vintage lady busy administering help to the dog, would help keep my mind occupied. 

Throughout the whole weekend, my Valley friends messaged me  enquiring about Skabby's condition and encouraging me to keep positive. 

By Monday morning, there was no improvement. I loaded Skabby into the car again and drove to the vet. 

Again.

This time one of the other five vets met me at the door and between him and an assistant, carried  Skabby into the surgery and onto the steel table. 

A very sick doggie back at the vet!

The doctor told me he would be putting Skabby on a drip and would phone me in a couple of hours with what he had found. I kissed Skabby's foreheand and walked out quickly

Within an hour the vet phoned me and said that Skabby had sever muscle damage and his kidneys were compromised. 

Eish. I was shattered. 

Nevertheless, the vet had him on a drip and would contact me at 4pm again. When he did, the first thing I said was: I have been so stressed about Skabby, to which he replied, you won't know how worried I have been about this dog, Jo. 

But...

He said, they had a catheter in him and he had passed fluids, which was a good sign. The kidneys had not collapsed as he had thought earlier that morning. He said Skabby had a taste of special convalescent food from the vet's finger, and he was leaving the bowl of tasty food in his cage overnight. 

The next morning he phoned me and said that Skabby had urinated spontaneously which was a good sign. He also said that he thinks the boy is missing his mum and would start eating when I got him home.

I could come and fetch him from the surgery! 

Whoopeee!!!

When I arrived at the surgery, the ladies in reception were smiling broadly at Skabby's improvement. By now a third vet had checked Skabby earlier that morning but was at a farm working on calves.  He phoned the receptionist and said that Thomas, the assistant was able to remove Skabby's catheter and then he could be discharged.  While Thomas was preparing Skabby for release, I bought a new lead and collar.  I told the receptionis that Skabby's made it this far; I know he will make complete recovery now. 

Thomas, using Skabby's new lead and collar, helped me take my boy to the car

I sent all my friends the above photo saying: Skabby is going home! 

It took a further five days before Skabby ate a complete meal in the morning. 

One afternoon Gab came by to drop signed documents for me to take to the license bureau and found me on the floor snapping Skabby He said: is this a photo shoot! I said I am so relieved the dog had survived and no small thanks to him a Nune for their help on that first night. 

Skabby had a serious demeanor for two weeks after returning from the vet. When I mentioned this to Ron, she said the dog had been through a traumatic experience, what else could one expect?

Yesterday I took him to the other veterinarian surgery in another town. It's also owned by the same five vets. Skabby had his Autumn clip and grooming. When I collected him, Jeff was there and said, he was so pleased to see that Skabby has recovered so well. He told me that they had all been very worried that his kidneys would have collapsed. 

My friend, Marielle, who owns a coffee shop and sells natural honey, said Skabby knew his mom loved him and wanted to return to her no matter how sever his heatstroke symptoms had been.  

Skabby groomed and ready for winter. No walkies. No Parkrun. He has a cool garden and veranda to relax on.

Thank you for reading this saga to the end. I had to chronicle it as it is one of the worst experiences I have every been through. It also serves to remind me that Skabby is not going for walks until the weather is cold and the African sun has lost its fierceness.

HAVE A GREAT SATURDAY!

Thirteen hundred meters too far

 Good morning, dear Blogger friends. Once again, I have been absent since posting about my recent birthday. As always work and social commitments pile up and I just don't get to post a blog.

Meanwhile, something happened the last weekend of February that almost ended in a disaster for me. 

I have not taken Skabby to the weekly Parkrun during the summer, for obvious reasons - it's been too hot. However, once a month there is a 5km run/walk starting at a local hotel, meandering along a loop through rough bush terrain and returning to the hotel. It starts at 5pm and although the weather was 30° C, I thought it would be cool enough to take Skabby,

He was ECSTATIC! He couldn't believe he was being taken in the car - for WALKIES. 

At the venue, everyone greeted him enthusiastically as he'd not been seen on walks with me since before Christmas. He lapped up all the attention and squealed and yelped in anticipation of the walk. 

You will see by the way the dog is off the screen - he was pulling me to get started! 

Once we started to walk, I let Skabby off the leash. He galloped ahead, ran between the walkers and runners ahead; dashed back to see where I was; ran off into the bush beside the track. He was SO excited to be walking with Mum again after so long. 

All good and well. We covered 4.5km without mishap; I called Skabby back to me and leashed Skabby up again. As we started off again, I heard my dog's breath rasping. Loudly. 

The weather had closed in and a storm, (of which Skabby is terrified) was brewing.  We crested a hill on top of which Zama, one of the hotel receptionists, had a table a large carafe of iced water. I stopped, drank a glass; filled the glass and poured it over Skabby's neck while I drank another glass full, and poured another glass over Skabby. I asked Zama how far to the hotel from that point. I told her that I needed to get my dog to the end. She said that shortly along the track, I should take a sharp left, and within a few hundred meters I would be approaching the end. 

However, when I reached the sharp left fork, I noticed runners sprinting up a hill to the right. Tugging Skabby's leash, I urged him with me, and we started to climb. Near the top, one of the runners (coming back) told me to turn around as Skabby would NOT make it up the incline. Which I did, with the very tired dog dragging behind me.

We reached the left fork with the river running along our right. By now, Skabby's back legs were buckling and at one stage he pulled me into some bushes next to the track and tried to lie down. I urged him to get up and we staggered onwards.   

Here I checked my steps on my smart watch: 6.3km. Far more than the 5km that we are normally used to. 

The steps leading up to the hotel lawn; I took this photo two days ago, facing downwards. You can see the steep gradient of these steps...

We came to the bottom of a set of 20 medieval stone steps which lead up to the hotel lawn. I managed to put Skabby's front paws on the second step and lifted his hind legs onto the first step. Just then other friends of mine arrived, and the gentleman helped me walk the dog up the steps. We got him across the lawn, and he collapsed on a ramp leading onto the veranda. 

By now it was drizzling, and realizing that my dog was overheated and exhausted, I lay him out on the concrete. Another friend, Bellle, who loves Skabby, came by and seeing what was happening she dashed into the bar and emerged with the largest plastic container filled with ice from the machine. 

While she packed ice around Skabby, talking to him all the while I found a bowl and dipped it into a fountain on the veranda. I poured water over Skabby. 

The hotel veranda was packed with guests enjoying the mountain view before going into dinner. The other runners from the walk, were sitting on a deck above where we were ministering to Skabby.  As people walked past, they'd stop and inquire whether the dog had had a heart attack. Thinking to myself, I hope not, I'd say, no, he's suffering from the heat. 

The hotel owner, Sunny, another a good friend of mine, arrived asking if she could assist in any way. I said I would like to phone the vet and ask his advice. She took me to her office, where I was able to raise the emergency vet on duty who happened to be engaged to the younger daughter of my farmer/neighbor's Gab and Nune. Jeff, who has known Skabby these past six years, advised me to cool him down (which Belle and I had been doing); to calm him down, as he'd be stressed with all the activity around him and to get him home! I shared this last instruction from the vet, with Sunny. 

When we got back to the ramp where Belle had managed to cool  Skabby quite significantly, although he was still very hot, a guest came by and asked if we needed help to get the dog my car. Sunny, who enlisted the help of a young male hotel employee. My Group Assistant from town had walked that night, while her husband, who has just had a heart attack scare, waited on the hotel deck. He took my car keys and within minutes had returned with a blanket which I use on my back seat when transporting Skabby. 

We managed to roll Skabby onto a blanket; the two men lifted each end and between them carried the dog, sling style across the veranda, through a reception lounge, with Sunny going ahead and opening doors and out onto the side veranda to the car park. While wending my way through the guests sitting at small tables on the veranda, enjoying pre-dinner drinks, I thought of how off the wall I am. Recently several of my contemporaries have had scares with their husbands taking ill (like my elderly neighbor at Christmas time) and my Group Assistant who'd had to rush her husband to hospital only ten days before this, here I am following kind people carrying my very sick dog to the car. 

When I arrived home, I parked the car and had no illusions about finding my darling Skabby alive. Miraculaously,  when I opened the back door, he lifted his head. Hallelujah! I dragged him off the back seat onto the lawn next to my car. 

 And thought, now what?

Punching Gab's number on my phone pad, he answered within seconds. I apologized for bothering him on a Friday night, but asked if he and Nune could please come and assist me with my dog which had collapsed next to the car. 

A few minutes later and they both arrived: Nune wielding a handheld torch. They both bent to look at Skabby and when they felt the dog, they were horrified at how hot he was. Nune ran to my veranda and on my instructions had taken a sealed bag of ice cubes from the freezer. Gab and I dragged Skabby across the lawn and onto the veranda. 

Nune and I packed ice around his body while Gab fetched my fan from indoors, started it and angled it towards the dog. Then he took the hose pipe and gently tricked water over Skabby while Nune and I continued to layer ice blocks around and under his body. 

Nune muttered that she could see Skabby drooling. The vet told me afterwards he was dehydrated through saliva and vomit emitting from his mouth. Skabby has very floppy lips and Nune gently placed ice cubes under his lips while I packed ice on the back of his neck. All the while, Gab was gently hosing Skabby's body down. 

After 45 minutes of the three of us, literally fighting for my dog's life, finally Gab said he thought Skabby's body heat was back to normal. He suggested I leave him on the veranda with the fan blowing directly onto him. He also said, he hoped not,  but if ANYTHING happened, I was to call them during the night.

These two wonderful people went back over the lawn to their home for the night. 

As you can see, my poor dog was sopping wet with ice melting under his body. However, here he seemed to be lying in a more natural pose compared to earlier

Once I had gone indoors (I needed a bath after my walk in the heat earlier), I kept coming back to look at Skabby through the glass panels of my door.  I did this every couple of minutes. I couldn't imagine that I would get much sleep that night. 

Then disaster struck! The storm which had built up while we were walking, arrived on the farm. As mentioned above,  Skabby is terrified of storms. I heard a rather close thunderclap seconds before I sensed (rather than saw) the lightning strike. 

And when I looked up again, Skabby was gone!

To be continued...

Praying mantis

 Good morning dear Blogger friends. Once again I have been absent from Blogger. Not intentionally

Here I am back again.

Last week I spotted this bright green praying mantis above my kitchen sink. I quickly took several photos and then, with the help of a glass, I captured it, placed a sheet of paper over the mouth of the glass, and then tipped the mantis out into the garden. 

Safe and sound back into the wild

I'm linking up to Saturday Critters with Eileen, here

HAPPY SATURDAY TO YOU ALL!