Dave brought home a big snapper the other day for our dinner. It's the first time we've had fresh fish in quite a while. One of the downsides of our busy season is that we don't have much time to hunt.
The kitties know when Dad has fresh fish, though, and beeline for the kitchen where they look pathetic and cry incessantly for tidbits. In this mood, they even let Tilly come in close!
Wednesday took the Girls, our friend Mary and me to the garden spot of Carnarvon. For those who haven't been there, I can't recommend never going enough. It's just not an attractive town, has a bad vibe, is kinda icky and generally unpleasant. It does have some lovely plantations and you can buy local fruit and veg there, so that's an upside, I guess. But if I never have to go back, I'll be happy.
Why did we go? Dora needed to have an xray to make sure that she didn't have any bladder stones. The vet can't do them up here at the moment as the head vet is very much pregnant with twins and doesn't come up to Exmouth now and the second vet only does basic consults every other Wednesday (more or less). It's a little frustrating to have to drive 4 hours each way for something that should be able to be done here, but there you are. Since we needed to go down for Dora, I asked if we could also have Tilly desexed while we were there. She's still shy of six months, but they said it wouldn't be a problem, so at least we only had to head to Carnarvon once.
We left Exmouth around 0530 so we could get to vet's as early as possible in case Dora, too, needed surgery. It was pitch black when we left but the sunrise brought beautiful light and made the newly green areas beautiful. It looked like there was still a lot of rain bands to the East and the cloud cover provided a gorgeous ceiling.
The Lyndon River, just south of the Coral Bay turnoff, is still running pretty hard across the road.
Dora is a great car dog - she simply lays down and snoozes most of the way. Tilly is not a great car dog - she constantly runs around the car, chases imaginary beings across the back window, sits on Dora, barks at Dora when Dora won't play, chews whatever she can get a hold of, pushes into the front, cries, whines, talks...for four hours. She even convinced Mary to let her sit on Mary's lap for a little while!
She found our "puppy proof box" a great place to stand to drool on me, too - I guess next time I should flip it over!
Once we dropped the dogs at the vet, Mary and I headed into town to do some shopping and browsing. There is a Target Country, a Woolies supermarket, a newsagency and a Rockman's clothing store LOL I did buy a new pair of shorts for work. After an hour of cruising the shops, we decided it was time for a coffee so hit a sidewalk cafe. The scenery and passersby weren't interesting enough to dawdle so we wandered back to the car and decided to go to lunch!
One thing I will say for Carnarvon is that they have an excellent restaurant out at the working marina. The Harbourside Cafe is top notch with a menu that even I found multiple mouthwatering items on.
We ended up not being able to make a decision so ordered three or four things and just sat there in the pleasant early afternoon indulging in a feast. Everything was excellent and we totally overate - but it was worth it!
The restaurant has a lovely view across the canals and even the parking area has a swaying palm.
After lunch, we headed back to vet's as we hadn't heard anything. They had completed Tilly's surgery and she was recovering on a comfy dog bed, but Dora had just been put under GA for her xray. I was a little concerned as we did want to drive back that afternoon and it was already 1pm. The vet had told us in the morning that she was going to do Dora's xray first thing in case they needed to do surgery and I don't know why she didn't do it that way.
They also clipped Dora's nails and weighed both girls. Tilly is growing fast and is now 23 kilos (about 50 pounds!). Dora is doing great and is down to 44.28 kgs. She's got another 8 kgs to go, but we are on the path.
We also found out that Dora will have to go on a very strict, special diet as her urine test showed things were all messed up...she had a ph of 9+ when it's meant to be about 5. So she begins a very strict new regime of canned prescription food starting on Wednesday and running for four weeks. She's not allowed to have even a morsel of other food during that time. After four weeks, she changes to a different Rx food and the vet says she needs to be on that for life...it's a huge change and we'll see how we go.
Her allergies are also acting up because of all the pollen in the air from the masses of vegetation that's popped up due to the recent rains. So she's back on special shampoos three times a week, ear drops (which is always a joy) and special lotion every day to try to alleviate some of the discomfort. My poor multi-million dollar, spotty girl!
On the upside, luckily Dora did not have any stones so ended up being able to simply wake up and come home. She was a little groggy in the car
and Tilly was much better behaved on the way home, gotta love those drugs!
Once home, Tilly was not happy. She ran away into the backyard and promptly laid flat in a mud puddle. Since the vet said it was important that she not get the stitches wet or dirty, I was really impressed. It took both Dave and I to corral her so I could scoop her up and carry her inside. Once there she was much better, so I don't know what got into her.
Dora slept all night and most of the next day, but Tilly showed no signs of being sore or slowing down Thursday - she was back to her energetic, crazy self. We are trying to keep her a little calmer than normal for at least a few days to give the stitches some chance of surviving!
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