Hedges kitties and dog

 Hello Mum's blogger friends; this is Ambrose. I have had to wait to post about the kitties and our doggy friend. Mum has been worried about Skabby being ill (he's getting better now) and she has also been very sad. We, the Hedges pets decided to be good to help her! 

Chappie on the lawn

I, Ambrose with Skabby the dog who is healing 

Mama in another part of the garden 

Missy asleep on top of Mum's cupboard

Update on my Skabby

 Good afternoon dear Blogger friends. As posted last week, Skabby had been to the vet. He improved during the week. Not once did he go off his food and never was his enthusiasm for his daily walk diminished. But he was a much quieter puppy; at times looking quite introspective. 

Here, after is daily swim in the dam, he had just nose greeted this cow through the fence 

I loved this cow's markings 

Friday morning early, I went onto the veranda, picked up Skabby's leash and clipped it to his quick-release collar. Normally at this stage of our walk, he is so boisterous and jumps up and down excitedly. Today he sat - actually sat - while I leashed him up, then walked alongside me to the car. Always before, I have had to have help to get him into the car; this morning I opened the door, and he jumped onto the back seat and lay down. 

Lying quietly  on the back seat for Mum

Note the introspective look! 

He put his head down and lay like this all the way to the vet 

Inside the vet, I was met by the same young vet who attended Skabby last week. Together she and our lovely Indian vet, Dr Arwa took him into the surgery and closed the door. I waited in the reception area. Within less than ten minutes, Dr Arwa brought him out. Skabby was dripping blood on the tiled floor. The vet told me that it wasn't an abscess but blocked saliver ducts. This caused the fluid to build up and gather under his chin. The vet had drained fluid as he could, inserted a plastic drain, secured with a gut stich and asked me to bring him back to the surgery on Tuesday. He has to continue on the antibiotic meds as well. 

 

Back home, I crushed his tablets into warm milk, added meaty chunks and set it in front of Skabby. He ate with gusto and at the same time, the plastic drain fell out of his neck onto the floor. As my doggy is quite well, I decided against going back to the vet. 

We will see the doctor again on Tuesday.

I am linking to Saturday Critters with Eileen here

HAPPY SATURDAY TO YOU ALL ! 

In memory

 Good evening dear Blogger friends. Many of you may remember how, three years ago, I lost my darling husband, Grant very suddenly. You can read about it here

Today is the anniversary of his death and I have been inundated with wishes, phone calls and WhatsApp messages from friends and family. 

I scrolled through my external hard drive for photos and posted on Facebook. Here too, I was showered with loving comments and kind words about Grant. 

I thought I'd share these here too. 

Grant with his mum, Pam . She outlived him by two years

Easy Rider Circa 2002

Our first years as bikers 

In 2006, Grant moved an entire earthmoving fleet from a gold mine in Guinea to another in Mali. He traversed a distance of 1800 across the wildest and roughest terrain known to man. It took him 53 days. He kept a journal and took over 700 digital photos. I intended to write about his odyssey but somehow life got in the way. I hope to write it one day - soon! 

He was meticulous about the condition of his trucks and other machines; even in the wilds of Africa! He was approaching the his destination in Mali so the roads are kept in peak condition by the mining company. The previous 1600km were so rough that some days he only covered 25km and it always fascinated me how happy he was for this progress!

Grant was a keen on the outdoors and loved fishing. Here he is fly fishing in the Niger river, the border between Guinea and Mali, West Africa 

Grant and I spent two years in Khartoum, North Africa. I blogged extensively about our experiences at the time. Am I glad I did. I have had a few forays into my archives reliving these times. 

Grant and I spent many a Friday (Sunday in the Islamic calendar) touring the Nubian desert in his Landcruiser 

We attended a Sudanese wedding while we were there 

On our breaks in South Africa, we toured the country and neighboring states on our BMW motorcycle.

Namibia on two wheels 

SA national roads boast sweeping passes which are a biker's delight and architecturally superior bridges across our many major rivers. Photo ops of  the bike on a bridge was my forte and my old biker always obliged by posing in a relaxed manner while I clicked away 

Posing at the Tropic of Capricorn in Namibia in 2014

Grant and I at a friend's funeral in 2014 

Lake Victoria in Tanzania

Grant, project manager in Mwadui diamond mine doing a presentation 

At Grant's niece's wedding in 2013

At a motorcycle rally in Bloemfontein in 2017

On the farm in the Drakensberg 2017. Grant was my trusty gardener 

Day hikes in the Drakensberg 

Grant striding out at Parkrun early 2017 

Six months after Grant's death, friend and at the time, employer, artist, Steve Bull commissioned a painting of Grant. He said it was an honor and a pleasure immortalize his old friend on canvas 

Missed greatly; never forgotten