A Very Happy 2023 to You All!

There really isn’t much to report, we have spent all our time keeping our Visitors happy, or at least trying to, and acting as Referee between Tito and Nala!

The weather has been a bit turbulent, considering we were promised that we are now in the dry season, we have had some sun, but late afternoon it has been cold, down to 14°C, which is not fun, and before some of you make a comment, yes I know some of you are in minus double digits, but you chose to live there, I didn’t! 🙂 any rain has been at night, but it still didnt get me in shorts and T-shirt.

Nala is settling in nicely, in fact for a puppy she has been a dream, mostly comparing memories with Pepe, who we had from 6 weeks, and had to house train. Nala knows when she wants to go out, even at four in the morning! She is turning into a good Security Dog, alerting us to any movements outside the boundary fence, which we are happy about, although I am not sure the neighbour agrees, however I am not bothered, his Sister-in-law has been there for the last ten days with her talking Parrot, which was hung up in the garden, if I had had my way, it would have been hung up… over a BBQ!

The only fly in the ointment with Nala, is Tito, he was calming down and stopping his attacks on Nala, but with a house full of Visitors, he has started again. The ‘Calming collar’ I bought online, impregnated with lavendar, arrived, and was a total failure, it was faulty, they had forgotten to impregnate it with anything, it just smelled of rubber, so it went in the bin. Yesterday, Tito bit Marcela and my Mother-in-law when they intervened in his attacks on Nala, thank  goodness he has a broken jaw, otherwise they would have had more serious injuries. On the plus side, Marcela said to me this morning, “There is no way I am sending Nala back, we’ve got to sort this” (In Spanish of course!)

Nala has been helping me around the house

But it wasn’t just the recycled timber she found, it was cut branches left at the bottom of trees, my garden shoes, Marcela’s trainers, Tito’s lead, in fact anything that wasn’t bolted down, however she was only interested in ripping the wood apart, everything else was abandoned around the garden.

It was even suggested to me that Nala should have her own Instagram Page, and more fool me, now she has one “nala_loveandlicks”, how long I will keep it up, I have no idea, but the girls at the Vet Clinic were cooing over his photos, so for the time being I have no choice.

Pepe, had a week of suffering, after his first of Round two Chemotherapy sessions, so when he went for the second session on Thursday we told them about it, and they have upped his Meds, which seems to have done the trick.  We are still awaiting the return of Pepe’s leg support, I told the Vet that I was far from happy when we saw him, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Marcela cringing, but I wont sit back, and watch him suffer. For some reason anyone over here with the Title of ‘Doctor’ in whatever field they work, seems to be idolised and put on a pedestal, I have no idea why, and there are plenty of examples showing why they shouldn’t be.

Last week, I had a phone call from a Doctor working for my Health Service Provider, SURA, saying she was revising the Medication I was on, and that my Family Doctor had not put me on the correct doseage of one of my tablets, and she was increasing it immediately, I had been on this tablet for years, with no apparent ill effect (high blood pressure), but aparently she knows best. Because she was talking so fast, I put her onto Marcela, so I didn’t miss anything, this Doctor said she was referring me to the Nutritionalist… I am glad she was talking to Marcela, because I refuse point blank to go and see one, I went about seven years ago, and walked out, and not complied with any of my Family Doctor orders to go and see one again, I wont be going this time. Marcela told her, and the Doc burst out laughing, and said that was up to me.

My Mother-in-law has had a bad cold for the last week, and as my luck goes, yesterday, I caught it from her, and in a matter of hours I was full of it, so mid evening I went to bed, only getting up to see the New Year in, I feel a bit better this morning, just a sore throat and sniffles, so hopefully, that’s the end of that.  In the mean time, I will toddle off and feel sorry for myself.

I wish you all a Happy New Year, and hopefully better than the last!