Whizzie

Sorry, I've got that wrong Sam, What I meant was that if people share with me I can't find a way to get it over onto the WagTails page unless I save & copy. I've just popped over & seen 2 new likes - thank you Sam & Jayne

We do have a WagTails House page - 218 likes which isn't bad as we've only officially been open 2 weeks. People can post there - the only trouble with a Page tho is that most people's settings show posts by the page & not by others. I think that is just a Facebook thing but if anyone knows how to improve on it please tell! Also don't seem to be able to share from the page so have to copy over Any experts out there?

A sorry saga of a fence dispute has rather taken over my parents lives at the moment. Really hoping it can be resolved without any more stress & sleepless nights. My Dad has enough worries without this! Delighted to get a text from current WagTails guests to say how lovely the house is & today they posted a photo on their facebook page of their Dad pretending to surf on a piece of driftwood on the beach. Lovely weather for them so far. No further news re James yet. I don't like to text/ring his wife too often Should really have done some garden tidying but instead cleaned utility/dog room. Lots of brown water after washing their beds! Have cleaned some windows but badly - lots of smears, oops! A while back reported a dangerous tree to Parish & District Council. It had dropped several large dead bits into the road on a few occasions. Tree was felled a couple of weeks ago & I felt bad as I'd only intended for dead bits to be removed, They've now chopped the tree up and the huge trunk was probably about 80% rotten and half the top totally dead, I feel better now. It was an accident waiting to happen as it overhung the road near a bend. Instead of feeling guilty I will now think of myself as potentially preventing a serious accident!

Sam, there is only one of you. Even wonder woman has limits on how many places she can be at once! You need to be a little kinder to yourself - just compare your achievements to the average person and give yourself a pat on the back once in a while! The world of animal welfare is full of things that need to be achieved - but they can't all be done by any one person.

The birdtable and birdfeeder have gone from next door. Can only assume they have seen the visiting rats for themselves & decided to stop feeding them. We didn't say anything & rather enjoyed watching rats shin up & slide back down again.

For those following James' story, I've just heard that the surgery went well. The next 72 hours is crucial to establish if all the transplanted tissue of various types is viable. Glad he has this stage behind him & really hope there are no complications now.

Hope the bad emotional stuff soon passes. My parents moved to near us last year after Dad's diagnosis. That involved dealing with 37 years of clutter from a large house, double garage, greenhouse, 2 sheds, 2 allotments & a loft bigger than many people's houses! Yours can't be as bad as that!

I have been back to the hospital today to see James who is much brighter in himself but he faces major surgery tomorrow that is expected to last 10 hours. I have seen his leg or rather what is left of it. It is encased in a sort of vacuum pack with black sponge covering large areas which need grafts. It's not just the skin though - they have to rebuild muscles, tendons and are taking bits from his back, calf, thigh and possibly his abdomen. There is a 5% chance of failure which would probably result in amputation. The surgery was delayed because he had a chest infection - he had a cold/cough just before the accident & as he was immobile in bed it got a hold on him. My visit was cut short as the main doctor arrived and wanted to start marking James up ready for the surgery. It really does illustrate how life can go so wrong in just a split second. Scary! Poor James.

Great news Jazz. Fingers crossed for you!

Discovered today that James has yet to have the further surgery as someone else's operation overran. Friday now & apparently they are taking muscle from somewhere in his back to reconstruct his leg. I'll probably visit again on Thursday - hubbie has said he doesn't mind me being late home on Valentines Day.

More surgery for James yesterday - plastics working on his leg - so hope he has come through okay We have ice here instead of snow - amazing how it has almost gone at work 6 miles away but all still here in our village Off to work soon so regrettably no time to comment on everything but wishing you all well with aunts, ailments, hormones, CVs, houses, sulky dogs......... and anything else I have omitted to mention

Moaning, loadsa snow 'ere! Slushy already in the roads tho so I think it will be a fleeting visit by the white stuff this time Lunch with my parents & some guests yesterday - Dad did not eat well and coughed a lot. I am sure the mesothelioma is advancing Booking enquiries flooding in now for whitsun & June at WagTails House but I am already sold out in that period.

I've been reading but not had much to say really. My work colleague, James, remains in hospital, in a mess all down one side after his motorbike accident. He's been pinned & plated but they are not done yet & some of the skin around the wounds is dying so that will probably mean grafts. He had more surgery on Wednesday & ended up in intensive care with breathing problems. I've not heard whether he is back on the trauma ward yet. It will be a long haul. Yesterday we spotted a rat munching away at the foot of our neighbours bird feeder. Every time we went upstairs we had a peek & we saw the rat shin up the metal pole, have a good munch then slide back down. Entertaining! Neighbours are away

I recently went the laptop route because as well as browsing the web, I need to manage WagTails House website & send booking forms, invoices, quite long e-mails etc. I have no regrets other than Windows 8 takes a while to learn but as it is touchscreen you can still use it in a similar way to a tablet. My new laptop is an Acer & I did spend more than your budget but I hadn't had a new computer of any form since 2005 so I figured I was due a treat!

Jazz that sounds terrible, did they just turn up without notice. How can you have been fine to foster before & then suddenly you are not? Sorry to hear you are infested Sam. Will they let you through passport control with passengers? ;) Only joking, I know it's fungal really.

Hope you feel better soon Loobie. New sofa - lovely. I am pondering a new suite for us in the not too distant future. Current one is definitely tatty & under the throw one cushion has a tear in it! Need to sell some holidays first! Thank you for hints re horses. When the one wandered close to us it didn't seem aggressive but I'm less sure about the sudden thunder of hooves once we were past & they really were right on my heels. I really wasn't expecting that and have never experienced a horse breathing down my neck before! Having tied 3 dogs up a few metres away I did do some flapping & shooing trying to get them away so that poor Charlie Girl could get through & join the rest of us but the horses were pretty resistant and quite snorty! I won't be going back that way anytime soon!

Work colleague has had some surgery but one more session to follow. It sounds as if he has made a real mess of one leg. Does anyone know much about horses? We (i.e. me plus 4 dogs) have just been chased by two. It was quite scary! The horses were on the footpath in a field so we walked the long way round the other 3 sides of the field to get to the stile. Unfortunately by the time we were nearly there the horses had moved in that direction too. The ground is boggy & uneven so walking 4 dogs on lead is awkward so I put Hobie & Reuben on leads & the older girls walked close to me off leads. None of them barked or looked at the horses but one headed right for us. We carried on walking & got past the horse, Charlie lagged slightly but slunk past when called. I thought we were in the clear until I hear thundering hooves behind me & could hear the horses breathing near me so I virtually threw myself over the stile dragging Hobie & Reuben through. Toffee followed but poor Charlie got left behind with 2 big horses between her & the stile & gate. She was too frightened to come through for ages & hung back. I tied the other 3 to a fence post further down, managed to get the horses over to one side a bit & then entice Charlie along the fence & under the stile. Not sure what I should have done in the circumstances. Is it right to have horses that behave like this around a public footpath?

Worrying about work colleague in RTA yesterday, airlifted to hospital. No further news today as yet. Hoping he's had the surgery on his leg & is more comfortable. Well narked with someone who has not taken up a holiday booking because I smelt a rat a while back when they said they'd e-mailed me to confirm & basically they hadn't. A provisional enquiry is absolutely fair enough but I just don't understand why anyone has to lie. Actually beginning to wonder if this whole holiday letting lark is worth it!

Be proud of all you achieve Owl, keep the company of people you trust who make you feel good about yourself and don't allow the strange behaviour of an isolated individual knock you off track. What none of us know is what else might be going on to prompt this persons over the top and irrational behaviour - they may be ill, upset about something else & your post has just been their way of venting. Unfair though it is they probably have a lot more problems & a lot less freinds than you do. Welcome back Gooster. Sending best wishes to surviving pups in UK, Sri-Lanka and hoping Toby cat will be okay. Jazz - do you and owl have the same nutty stalker??? More very odd behaviour. The world is a strange place sometimes. On a different note, WagTails House has a brand new rear fence. 5ft 6" sturdy post & rail with wire attached so should keep any visitors dog out of the sheep field but still keep the lovely countryside view of natural ferny bank, attractive tree and rolling hillside behind. I am lucky to have good friends looking after the house who sorted it all out for me with the fencing chap.

Hobie & Reuben are absolutely fine thank you. It was all down to them sneakily eating indigestible things they shouldn't! They successfully ejected them by natural forces which I guess is better than surgery! An undisturbed night was lovely. I slept through our Welsh fencing contractor ringing well past 11pm to say he wanted to come today. Another call at 7am! He is trying to fit our job in while the wind & rain are not howling around. We decided to improve the fencing at the rear to be extra safe as there are sheep in the fields behind.

Woken up last night by Reuben coughing up a lump of stick & several times the night before by Hobie vomiting up chunks of a bone he found on hedge while out on walk. Tired & grumpy here. Wishing strength to all ill & motherless pups as well as poorly folk Congratulations to Owl & fellow trackers - inspiring, although I struggle to understand why anyone should think a dog cannot track another dog when dogs are used to track lost persons & various other animals.

Everything crossed for poorly pups. Our snow has dispersed massively today & now it is pouring so I expect that will complete the job & leave everywhere like a bog instead. Buying new bedding is a nice feeling - I'd bought my duvet sets before we'd even exchanged on WagTails House!

Happy Holiday Gooster Best wishes to all Not a lot to say here. Dad had his 3 monthly appointment to review his mesothelioma. They compared with previous x-rays and there is deterioration although they say it is not progressing as rapidly as it might. This time last year we'd just begun to implement the big decision about them moving house. It is very quiet in comparison

Really feel for poor fosterer and escaped Oldies Club foster dog - missing in PL18 area. If anyone has any contacts in this area & has not already responded to Facebook pleas then please share. Dog is a brown collie cross with collar but hadn't been chipped yet as newly arrived.

So sorry to hear your news Suzeanna. What a shame for your daughter & her OH. Same thing happened with me & my Grandad years ago - a phone call to come followed by another to say too late. I was on the "magic roundabout" at Hemel Hempstead at the time & still remember that moment so well