Sod's law

I generally only work two days a week at the moment, those two days being Saturday and Sunday and so as 'sod's law' would dictate it was yesterday, while I was out at work that my previously mentioned neighbour (mother of 'Bart') should suddenly be taken very ill.

Thankfully PG was off work ill himself and stepped into the breach. An ambulance duly attended poste haste, a paramedic did his stuff and off she went to our local hospital.........40 miles away!

All this left us not only worried but with one or two difficulties, the first being a very confused Bart, the second, that the lady in question only has one relative in the UK, a son who she has no contact with and all other relatives scattered around Germany, we speak no German and they no English. With that in mind we decided temporarily to abandon ideas of attempting to contact someone and wait until we had some news from the hospital.......we would cross that bridge if we got to it.

So Bart was our next problem. Given that as nice as he is, he would happily have our cats for a small snack, we couldn't take him home with us so we began a rota of feeding, walking and dog sitting. All this sounds quite simple but I suddenly discovered that never having kept a dog I was slightly at loss as to exactly they require. Added to that, despite turning the place upside down we could find no 'Bart food' and by now ( I did'nt get in from work until 21.00) the shops had shut. I also had no idea how long he would tolerate being on his own before he would get stressed.

The feeding problem was temporarily alleviated by the discovery of a large packet of dog treats and the second by the introduction of the 'keeping Bart company' rota!!!

I phoned the hospital later at night and after some difficulty finding her and convincing them she has no one else in the UK they overlooked that I am just a neighbour and informed me she was 'comfortable'.........what the hell does 'comfortable' mean in a medical sense? I decided in the absence of any more detailed information that it at least meant she was in no imminent danger and finally got to bed.

06.30 this morning and it was dog walking in the rain before work.....oh joy.... and then more 'doggy treats' to keep him going until I could get home from work with something more appropriate in the dog menu line.

I worried all day, spent my lunch time trying to choose between the dog diets on display in the local shop, well aware that if I chose something he took offence too it would be me cleaning it up, and raced home at 17.00 for another walk in the rain.

Having fed and walked a now slightly miserable Bart I phoned the hospital again to discover his 'mum' was one her way home *sigh of relief* but apparently with a problem with her heart that as yet can't be identified *sigh*

Somehow I think Bart and his 'mum' are going to become more of a feature in my life for a while to come.