Bridge over the Stroudwater canal at Ryeford

When we woke this morning our cat Bomble was worryingly quiet.  He could hardly move and seemed very fragile.  After watching him as we got up, I realised that we needed to take him to the vet to be checked, so I got Helena to help put him in a cat basket.  I drove Helena to her work and then took Bomble to the vet without an appointment.

I didn't have to wait too long and a very good vet whom i didn't know, quickly identified the main problem, which was the series of skin wounds he'd received from a big fight.  there is a very vicious cat living nearby which is always attacking other cats, and even people, and I'm sure that Bomble had once again tangled with it.  As the weather has improved the cast are out establishing their 'territory' at night and I expect that is when it happened. Hopefully the anti-biotics will work quickly.  He seems a bit livelier this evening although he still hasn't wanted to eat.

I had several call outs to day to do errands and managed to deliver some paperwork to the District Council offices this afternoon on the far side of town.  I took the opportunity to drive a little further westwards along the Stroudwater canal to another stretch that has been regenerated which I had never visited.  This is at a place called Ryeford where there are still some light industrial sites close to the canal.

I parked at this bridge, and because i only had twenty minutes spare I only walked a short way along the canal in both directions to get a sense of what is there.  I photographed some ducks and ducklings, which I have added as an 'Extra photo'.  I'm blipping my last picture before I had to rush off to pick up Helena again, which was of the profile of the bridge looking west along the line of the canal.