Cariadus

It’s almost exactly six years since our greyhound, Tim, was run over on the road outside our house. He lost so much blood he almost didn’t survive. His right foreleg was so horrifically broken I was sure that he would lose his leg. I was amazed when the vet said he could fix it. The caveat was that it would be a long process, it would be expensive and there was no guarantee that he would have full use of the leg afterwards. Even if the bone healed nerve damage could render the leg useless. Amputation would be quicker and cheaper. It didn’t take us long to decide that if there was any chance of the leg being saved it would be worth it.

Tim had to endure six months of painful treatment and many times I wondered whether we’d made the right decision to try to save it. The vet, Stefano Susanna of West Farm Veterinary Clinic in Cowbridge performed a minor miracle in saving the leg, including an operation to pin the bone and fit a metal frame to the leg.

Throughout this time we had much-needed moral and financial support from Greyhound Welfare.

And now to see Tim run through the water on the beach with a look of pure enjoyment on his face, or striding across the sand, you would never guess that he came so close to losing his leg. A miracle indeed.

My father was taken in to hospital this evening. He’s 86 and very frail. He’s a diabetic but in the last couple of years the danger has been going hypo rather than hyper (ie his blood sugar level has gone too low). But suddenly his blood sugar level has shot up to a dangerous level so he had to be admitted to hospital. He seems reasonably well in himself so hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s home again.

And on a slightly different note, I have to take the dog to the vet tomorrow to have a growth removed from a very delicate (and private) area. He’ll need to have a general anaesthetic so I’ll have a very groggy dog to deal with tomorrow with a sore private part…