Posting days: Sunday and Wednesday and, sometimes, maybe, extra ‘news flashes’!

Wednesday May 11th  2016

It’s Monday, and no sooner has poor Isis set paw in her own home again than she is whisked off for her monthly anal gland appointment. As usual, I drive up to the locked gate at RSPCA Newbrook Farm and press the intercom button in order to gain access to the parking bays next to the animal hospital building.

“Are you a Blue Badge holder?”, asks the receptionist.

“No”, I explain, “It’s not me. It’s the dog. She refuses to walk and she’s too heavy for me to carry from the car park.”

Usually, Isis will not even walk the very short distance from the disabled bay to the hospital door. But today she not only does this, she actually enters on her own four feet. This is a novelty, Isis.

In the reception area she trembles in anticipation of the ordeal to come, but when we are called, she walks obediently to the consulting room, stopping for a weigh-in on route.

What a good dog.

She is 13.65 kilos, a little less than last time. This is an ideal weight, declares the vet after a little judicious prodding.

For several weeks now, Hairy One has been worrying her front feet which are by now red with saliva stains and inflamed. She is prescribed a short course of steroids and must have her feet bathed in Hibiscrub each time she returns from her walks.

That’ll be fun.

After an enthusiastic greeting in the park from Nancy and Rufus, who haven’t seen her for a week, she enjoys lots of sniffs and thirty minutes of ‘free’ running on her extended lead.

But life’s pleasures are short-lived. On her return home, she is only allowed to eat breakfast before being subjected to her next ordeals: a foot bath followed by a rear end shampoo and rinse.

Go on, Kerry, laugh at me.

It sure is a dog’s life, Isis.

Isis came from the Aeza cat and dog rescue and adoption centre in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@aeza.org or  www.dogwatchuk.co.uk