Just Popping in to Say Hello.

Problems arose on Wednesday morning with a phone call from our very good friend who was looking after Merlin while we were away. The old lad has not been too mobile for the last month or so, we assumed due to the advancing arthritis combined with the accompanying muscle wastage; but, quite suddenly, he had not only lost the ability to walk but couldn’t even stand up. A visit to the vet and a drastic increase in his dose of pain-killers meant that we high-tailed it back home to decide what to do, though I was already pretty certain what the outcome would be. Seeing his condition for ourselves didn’t boost our confidence any but we took him home with the intention of seeing how he faired overnight before making any decision. I was puzzled that he seemed to be much heavier than he should be, to the extent that I hurt my back picking him up.
Yesterday morning, fifteen hours later, he had eaten and drunk reasonable amounts without passing anything, from which I guessed that his kidneys were no longer functioning and we took the decision to take him back to the vet to be put to sleep. He had a rough start to his life, first by being born a corgi which was followed by having a most unsuitable owner; however, he hasn’t done too badly, defying the odds to reach sixteen years of age.
 
We are now back on holiday, having woken up this morning feeling somewhat drained, and had an outing to Troup Head - the only gannetry on mainland Scotland. The RSPB site is small but the birds are quite spectacular and the sun shone down on us.