Moo’s Blog

It is Wednesday, early evening (June 20 2007) and Bo and I have been sitting in the library quietly while I read. I leave to go prepare a meal and Bo reluctantly follows. I notice he is very involved with licking his fur. I think he must have siome twigs entangled in it so I get the brush ready to give him a grooming and help with his problem.

However, on beginning to groom I look at the offending area…under his right armpit. There are no twigs there. In fact there is NO SKIN there either! It is red and open. He has somehow torn himself open. The wound is the size of the top of a tea cup. BIG!

The first thing we do is get a collar for him. We have one in the basement from when he had his operation to neuter back in October last year. The collar then was used to stop him licking his wounds. We figure this will prevent him licking it. He lets us put the collar on but he doesn’t like the inconvenience of it. He bangs into things. He can’t get into his usual resting places. He doesn’t settle.

During the evening he is restless. When we go to bed we put the gate up between the kitchen and the utility room as it is hot and would be too hot for sleeping in the utility room with the door closed. I put Bo’s cushion in front fo the back door, a place he is happy to rest normally.

He doesn’t settle and cries on and off throughout the night. I wake a few times and take him outside but he doesn’t need to relieve himself so that is not why he is restless.

About 4am I get up and take him into the lounge with me and I rest in a comfy lazy-boy type chair. Bo decides to come and rest on my lap. We sleep fitfully for an hour or so and then I get up.

I take Bo to the vets for 8am when they open. As it happens I have an appointment for Bo for 6pm the same evening. However the assistant looks at Bo when she arrives and we decide that Bo needs stitches, that the tear is mendable and that they will somehow fit him into the morning schedule.

At nine thirty am we get a phone call to say that Bo is on the operating table right now, being stitched, and that he had to be put under full anaesthetic to work on him. While he is out they check for heartworm.

Four pm we collect Bo and see how his stitching job. We see how to change his wadding and he is bandaged to prevent him licking his wounds. We are pleased he doesn’t have to wear his collar!

Bo is pleased to be home and the other animals especially Jaxx who has been searching for Bo all day, are pleased to see him too.

Bo has a good night’s sleep . He has to be kept quiet for a few days so he is on leashed walks roudn the farm for a while.

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We started putting up the swimming pool on Sunday 3 June 2007 after a week of lovely weather. The first attempt in the exact same spot as last year did not work out well. One side was on ground that was higher than the rest so the pool did not fill up with water evenly. We let the pool down.

Monday 4 June. We let out the water, and moved the pool to “level” ground. We filled the pool. It wasn’t level. We drained it yet again,and moved it. We filled it up. It still wasn’tlevel. We drained it again.

Tuesday 5 June. We moved the pool. We filled up the pool. It wasn’t level. We drained it. We moved it. We started to fill it up and noticed that last year’s hole was once again exposed and leaking. We went out and bought a repair kit to mend the side of the pool.

Wednesday 6 June. We mended the leak and left it to seal over the day.

Thursday 7 June. We filled up the pool. The leak held. The pool was level! GREAT!! Success at long last!!! Now all we need is good warm weather to be able to start using it. The water after filling it was only 8C!! Far too cold for use!

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I have done all my reseach so far on free sites and have got quite far with my family tree. Then I found on the Ancestry site a Beta Press for printing the family tree. So eager to try it I put some information from my tree onto the Ancestry site. I printed off a twenty page booklet and liked the format.

I had been debating for some time now getting a subscription to the site and while I was inputting my tree on the site I got a three day trial. Well it made researching so much easier as the site comes up with possible historical documents (census, and a few deaths).

Even with a free site you can build your tree and invite others to view it.

 Once my free trial period was over I got my year’s subscription to the site and since then I have uploaded my family tree in Gedcom format. I am now going through the tree and attaching relevant historical documents!

I am enjoying having a subscription to the site and wish I had doen it earlier!!

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