Please forgive my brevity and lateness but we are living in very interesting times at present. This New Year has certainly been eventful and I am really, really hoping it doesn’t carry on as it has begun. After all, interesting times in China is a curse. We opened the month with one of our little dogs refusing to eat. Refusing everything – turkey, pilchards, very posh (and expensive) dog menus, even some chopped-up goose from New Year’s day. She was back and forth to the vets every couple of days until she was tested for kidney function. It is not good news, alas. However they took her in and did some dialysis and three days on intravenous fluids and the change was remarkable.
Jacqui had devised a simple but very well balanced menu she mixed up for her and slowly Cynthia began to eat. Then faster until she now eats properly, though everything has to be mixed and mushed with lots of special menu. Jacqui had a crash course on doing some fluid replacement via a drip before we brought her home. We’ve not needed it as she seems so much better but we are watching her very closely.
Cynthia is fifteen this year but we haven’t considered her ‘elderly’ as her mother, Chloe, is eighteen and a half. Chloe doesn’t see too well now and is selectively deaf. She tends to get stuck in corners and yells for help, and in the past few weeks has begun to bark at night. This means I have to get up and carry her outside, then try to get her settled again, generally about three in the morning. This takes thirty minutes at least and can be repeated around five. The record for night shouting is almost three hours last week. Readers may recall we stopped her daytime barking with ‘cello music by Bach but this isn’t an option through the night. I’m beginning to develop real sleep deprivation!
Whilst we have found the eye department in our local hospital so much nicer and easier than the trek to Limerick there are some issues. For the third treatment running Jacqui has had badly swollen eyelids and a considerable amount of pain for up to a week afterwards. This time I rang and spoke to the nurse and he said it might be very dry eyes due to the iodine substitute they use (in copious amounts). I needed his advice so was as polite as I could but had I been able I would have reached down the phone and punched him when he said he was sorry she was suffering “some discomfort”.
Yeah, so much “discomfort” she couldn’t open her eyes for two days or focus properly for a week.
There were also some tech failures from the ongoing stormy weather. Our internet, always a bit dodgy, has failed repeatedly – one reason for the delay in sending this episode. The TV also spends a lot of time telling us there are issues with our signal. One consequence was the unwanted upgrade to my phone which sneaked in as the wifi was restored. Like an unwanted guest it fiddled around and decided to change my camera setting to save to a memory card. Only I don’t have a memory card in the phone. We had a clear sky for once on the night of the “supermoon” and I took some very nice pictures – which all vanished. It’s taken me a few days to sort this out so there are no pictures this time I’m afraid.
Still, we are travelling hopefully through these interesting times. Cynthia is so much better and we are just beginning to be hopeful for her recovery. I finally had to resort to a small amount of Gabapentin on Chloe’s food at night and she sleeps longer roughly every other night, thank goodness. My phone is working properly again and I hope to have pictures next time. We can’t do much about the storms but we are warm, fed and well prepared for most things. The eye clinic? We are planning a quiet mutiny with some subtle sabotage in a couple of weeks unless we can have a good conversation about this. I’ll let you know. And our excellent builder has done some excellent work on our lean-to making it much more weather proof.
Thank you for reading and for your patience. Let us all hope there is an end to the interesting times, both domestic and international. 2026 is already exhausting enough!
Jennie.
PS: I’ve been trying to post this blog for three days! I was starting to suspect it had been hacked but – here I am. Such a relief.