Drip and splash...

It's been a roller coaster two days, which has left me feeling quite drained. I walked to our local vets yesterday morning to pick up antibiotics for Rosie and to have a chat about Gemma's progress overnight. I was told that she was stable, the blood tests were reasonably optimistic, and that once she'd eaten she would probably be allowed home. Such a huge relief!

I cancelled an afternoon visit to a friends house, so that I could be available to fetch her. But then we received a much less welcome phone call after lunch. Gemma had undergone a catastrophic decline, appeared to be developing septicemia and there were also concerns about her kidney function. The prognosis didn't look at all good...Fortunately she's insured so we gave the go-ahead for more aggressive treatment, to give her a fighting chance.

In the meantime we prepared ourselves for the very real prospect that she wouldn't be coming home and how we would deal with her body. Pete was going to Chatsworth and wouldn't be back until Saturday, which made it all the more traumatic. After an extremely stressful few hours I rang again in the evening and spoke to the lovely vet who said that she was responding to the new treatment which included oxygen, strong opiates, very strong intravenous antibiotics and fluids to flush out her kidneys and keep her electrolyte balance acceptable.

He assured us that he had seen dogs as ill as her make a complete recovery, and though she certainly wasn't out of the woods, her prospects were looking a little more hopeful. Today she's continued to make progress, and has even managed to eat sixteen biscuits, drink some fluids independently and shown interest in grooming herself.

I've tried to occupy myself with report writing, to fill the time between phone updates. I was hoping to take Rosie for a morning walk but we had heavy showers most of the day and didn't get out till dusk, which is now ridiculously early. Rosie's completely back to normal, and coped very well without Gemma, even playing with a couple of other dogs we met.

My photograph was taken in a brief spell of sunshine after the heavy rain, and is an attempt to capture something of the feel of the last two days. I'm sorry for the complete lack of comments - my mind has been rather preoccupied...