Dog's life ... in good hands

These last days Erika and I have been busy with my guardian dogs like real moms. We have been checking up on Steve, Tipsy, Princess,Chiquito, Chiquita and even Crazy Mojo, since they started to cough too much. Steven actually was the first one with this problem, so he was the one to be taken to the vet. We wanted to take with us also Princess, since she had this weird tumor/cyst full of blood attached to her leg that made her walk in a very uncomfortable way and made everybody think that she was a Prince more than a Princess...

Katya and Tonya helped us by giving us a ride with the truck. Impossible to convince Princess to get into it. She tried to bite Erika so we let her go. Not easy to take Steven either, who is not very used to car/truck rides, so while the girls were in the front of the truck, I was in the back trying to stop Steven from jumping to the street every time we turn. A real struggle... End of the ride at Clinic Road with an exhausted and pissed off Steven and an Estela with the hair like after a street fight.

It was not easy to take him to the very nice big motor home where the vets Gavin and Lance, provide with efficency and care and with no charge all the treatments for the pets. Once we thought we had Steven in it...he ran away and it took a leash, a rope and the strenght of Erika to carry Steve and his 52 pounds in her arms inside the vet's office.

Dr. Lance was extremely efficent and lovely with Steven. He took his temperature, cleaned his eyes, gave him some shots for the cough, antibiotic,

antibacterial and cleaned and cured a couple of wounds in his ear (he has been fighting a lot lately. I mean Steven not the vet...).

While Erika and Katya were looking in other direction, I was paying attention to the details (yes, I would have liked to be a vet :) and the patience and how caring the vet was with our Steven. No charge for any of the services. We just had to buy some cough medicine.

He told us to take him back next week for a follow up and wrote down all the info such as name, weight, owner's name. Of course, we tried to take Steven back to the truck but he ran away. A few hours later he was back at Salt Raker but he kept some prudent distance from me during the following days every time he saw me with the cough medicine bottle...

Something similar when we took Tipsy and Princess a few days later to treat their cough and to have Princess checked for the cyst. This time, instead of the truck, we went by walking. As Princess follows me everywhere, we assumed she would go with us...and she did. When I tried to convince them to enter the motor home Tipsy was Ok about it, but Princess tried to leave the premises.

After I sat for a while outside the building she sat beside me and in segments of 3 meters each, I went approaching the place and finally the vet (this time Gavin) went out and checked her outside. Tipsy was a total lady. She received her medicines without problem. Princess allowed him to check the cyst and an appointment was made for the surgery.

Today morning we took Princess by walking and she received some sedative to be able to get her into the OR (or something like that) and once there, some anaesthesia. Erika waited outside and I stayed with Princess and the two vets watching the surgery that did not take longer than one hour. Actually the longest part were the stitches. Princess stayed for a few hours there because she was asleep and late in the afternoon I went to pick her up.

She was kind of stoned still and she walked really slowly. However every time we found other dogs on our way... she barked at them and tried to fight.

We also found Dale on our way and she offered to take Princess in her car but Princess refused to get into the car... so she continued by walking.

Anyway, we arrived home, she drank water, she ate and now she is resting a bit. I have to cure her every day with Peroxide and antibiotic ointment until some of the stitches are remove.

We are so glad she is free of that cyst and we hope she feels better soon.

We are also really happy about the way the vets treated the dogs. They are so dedicated and efficient and they are so lovely with the pets. They provide an excellent service, every day, morning and afternoon and with no charge.

It was one of the rare and nice surprises on the island and I think it was necessary to write about it.

See you all soon again.

At Water's Edge ... edge??

Well, last Tuesday night, since Earl had been in the neighbourhood, it was understandable that the waves were kind of crazy, the surfers happy, we (divers) understood that we had to wait a few days to go back to the underwater life ...

Thankful because the winds were not so strong, no damages at sight, Fiona decided to go far to the East and Gaston disappeared into the ocean, I took my time to contemplate the ocean every evening, and morning... and afternoon... waiting for the waves to calm down and start the cleaning process (there was sand almost everywhere...) .At least a little bit.

But no. That never happened. Every night I went to bed with my iPod because the noise was too loud for my taste and every time I went out to check the proximity of the waves, they were kind of closer... yes, even leaving some kind of memorabilia on the deck.

When finally Thursday evening, all the dogs decided to go to sleep somewhere else I realized that probably the deck had become a bit dangerous.

So I asked Kirk what was going on with the waves and everything and he explained stuff to me about the winds and things like that but suddently he interrupted his own explanation to ask me: - Why? Are you spending the night still at Water's Edge with this weather?

I said: - Yes, why?

And he replied: - You should go somewhere else when hurricanes are around.

I felt in his tone that it was kind of obvious but what do I know about hurricanes? Nothing. Except that they have people's names in alphabetical order, they form when there is a low pressure system, and some other scientific stuff that for prevention, safety and common sense are not very useful...

So I promised I would go somewhere else for next hurricane, hoping the waves will go back to their normal behaviour today but no. Still our usual calm turquoise waters are only in my memories but not in front of Water's Edge that now more that "edge" is almost "in".

When I came home this afternoon, the waves were breaking against the deck and the water sometimes reached the street on both sides of the house. Weird. Really weird.

Before sunset, the dogs one by one disappeared. Probably trying to find a dryer place to stay...

Only Tipsy, Paws and Chiquito stayed. Tipsy looking at me with those 'May I come in?'eyes, Paws trying to find a corner where to sleep and Chiquito hiding his attempts to open the kitchen door, unsuccessfully.

Now it is 8.30 pm and nothing changed so I do not think it will improve tonight. Let's see what happens tomorrow....

Between Earl and Fiona

And yes. It's hurricane season and the wind is all around the island. Earl was as close as 100 miles or something like that with winds of around 135 mph. Level 4.

Yesterday night was really noisy and the wind kind of strong.

Cockburn Town (well, you know, our "downtown") seemed so lonely...

SandBar was closed the whole day. Joan's Deli at least was closed when I stopped by in the afternoon. I spent most of my afternoon at Salt Raker on line but Erika told they would close around 7. Everyone was trying to stay at home, waiting to see what would happen.

I went to Cee's early in the afternoon to buy some things to have at home and the moment I left the supermarket rain and wind started. Useless to wait really. So I started walking while Princess looked at me like asking: Why? Why do you have to choose this moment?

Anyway, halfway home, Uli stopped his car and gave me a ride and avoided me the effort of fighting the wind and end up in the pond...

Late at night, at home the waves sounded as if they were in my bedroom, so iPod on to make sleeping easier...

My guardian dogs (now they are around 6?? or 7?? ) decided not to sleep on the beach for obvious reasons and at least 3 of them (Princess, Paws, Steve) were on the deck.

I came home around 9 pm after having dinner at Osprey with Valerie, this French diver/art gallerie owner who came a couple of weeks ago, and with whom I have been diving (deep dives!!! :) a lot. We tracked Earl in her iPhone for a while and it seemed to be already moving away from us but around us, it did not seem like that...

She left me all the things she did not use and did not want to carry with her (that usual gift/treasure for us, who live on ths island and know the value of conditioner-hair repair treatment-etc. stuff...). Among other things, she left me some food such as turkey for my dogs since I am vegetarian, so all of them had some kind of "hurricane special" last night. Thanks, Valerie. Steve, Tipsy, Princess, Paws, Chiquito and Chiquita loved it and I think they were a little surprised about the unusual menu.

In the middle of the night I woke up to go to the bathroom (located outside) and I had to fight a while with my door to open it but it was ok. The waves looked unusually high but not thaT scary anyway. The sound was not nice though. My bathroom floor was wet but not completely flooded (there is a leak on the roof and when it rains too much it is flooded...) so it was not that bad... and I fought again to open the door to come back inside but that was it.

Now, being a bit later than noon, wind still here but not that strong, it's sunny and the ocean looks like in winter but Earl is no longer close to us.

Fiona is 640 miles from us, but it seems that her path is going to be NE taking her far from us.

This is just the beginning of the season so candles, batteries, water, food, credit in the cell phone, Off, always. And good thoughts and good vibe to keep the hurricanes away. The best thing is all of us look after each other and our little beautiful island.

See you tomorrow or some other day before weekend...