Saying goodbye.....

July started off well for us, we sold our house and exchanged contracts, and we got a date for completion.  After a pretty disastrous year things were looking up, well we certainly didn't think they could get any worse.

Then on the morning of Monday 22nd July, my little boy Chihuahua, Choco, (kennel name Baudouin) woke up a bit under the weather.  He was desperate to get outside where he started to vomit.  This in itself is not unusual, dogs often eat grass and other stuff that causes them to throw up, but it was very unusual for Choco.  Choco was the youngest of our five dogs, and only 7 years old.  We've had him since he was just 7 weeks old and he has never been unwell in all this time.  He was full of energy, and full of life.  He loved to 'strut' around with his ears held high and his tail curled proudly over his back.

But on this particular morning, things just weren't right with him.  When the other dogs had their breakfast he just stayed away from them, he didn't want to eat anything and I thought that was fine, as long as he was drinking.

By lunchtime he seemed quiet and a bit lethargic, we had to pop out for an hour but thought that if he was any worse when we got back, then we'd take him to the vet later when they reopened at 5pm after the siesta.

When we came back Choco was quiet and a little more lethargic, he didn't run to greet us but just looked at us from his position sitting on the sofa.  He then retreated to his bed and was sleeping there for a while before we went to the vet.  

By the time we reached the vet's surgery, Choco was floppy and really not showing any interest in anything.  I knew things were not good when other dogs in the waiting room came to sniff him and he didn't even react.  When the vet saw him she said "he really doesn't look good" and immediately took his temperature and put him on a drip.  His temperature was 2 degrees lower than it should be and he was not responding to anything, even his eyes were glazed over.  She felt that he'd had some sort of brain injury.  She said that we had to leave him with her overnight and she'd be in touch later that evening.

We were really worried about him but I was convinced that by the time she called us, she'd be asking us to come and collect him as he'd probably be barking his head off at being separated from us.  How little I knew.  

At 11pm that night, our vet rang and gave us the bad news, things were not looking good for Chocs.  He'd not responded to any stimuli and was in a really poor state.  She warned me "Sharon, Choco is really very sick" but still I thought that by the morning all would be well, I mean not Choco, he couldn't be sick, he was NEVER sick.

Sadly in the morning we got the call that I have always dreaded.  Choco had passed away during the night.  He hadn't been in any pain, they'd had him dosed up on all sorts of things in the hope that they could fight whatever it was that was making him so sick.  But no, the poor little fellow lost his very quick battle and had left us, running over the Rainbow Bridge to play, free of illness.

Brian and I went to see him to say goodbye.  It was just so incredibly sad, he looked so peaceful but naturally his eyes were blank, his little paws felt cold...my natural instinct was to rub them to warm him up.  But he was gone.  

The vet asked if she could do a post mortem because she had no explanation for what had happened to him.  The x-rays that she'd done the previous night had shown nothing untoward, his organs looked exactly as they should be, except that he seemed to have full bowels.  She kept asking "has he had an injury, did he fall, could he have been poisoned or eaten a snail" all things that we were able to reply to the best of our knowledge in the negative.


We agreed to the post mortem and she called us a little later that same morning.  Choco had what I think she called a 'colonic torsion'.  Part of his colon or bowel had twisted and caused a blockage.  The space was very narrow and nothing could get through and as a result the part had begun to break down, and toxins released from this had traveled straight to his brain and his organs had started to shut down.  Basically my little lad was being poisoned by his own body.  Our vet had only seen three cases of this in her working life and never had she seen it happen so quickly.  

To say we are sad is an understatement, we are heartbroken.  I never for one moment thought that Choco would be the first of our five dogs to leave us, so the shock was immense.  

We are just so glad that his suffering was minimal, he never showed any signs of being unwell beforehand, it was just all so very quick.  And he was gone.

I shall always miss him, he was such a mummy's boy, following me around if not physically, then with his eyes.  He's sit on the back of my sofa and lick my neck or he'd actually try to sit on my shoulder!  He was a bundle of energy and we'll never forget him.

Rest in Peace little Choco ......  9th December 2011 - 23rd July 2019



 

Preparing for spring...

On Monday we went to Sevilla and ordered the wood to build our new pergola which will go over the jacuzzi/hot tub in our garden.  Some of you might remember that back on the 28th February 2013, which is a holiday here as it is el Dia de Andalucia, we had a heavy snow fall which brought down our existing pergola.  I say 'brought down', but the 'unusual for here' weight of the snow on top, actually broke it completely in half!!  We weren't here at the time as Brian and I had gone to the coast for a couple of weeks, but Brendan awoke to see the damage and sent us these photos...

You can see below that the metal cross beam at the far end is completely broken in the middle, and the one this end is just being supported by an 'acro' that Brendan put in place temporarily!! 

This was one of the 'upright' corner posts, which as well as being bolted into the ground, was also attached to the wall of the house with metal brackets!!!  

So for two years we've been looking for 'just the right' pergola to replace it, as without shade we can only use the jacuzzi at night when the sun can't shine on it and damage the fibreglass.  Because wood isn't used so much here, we've been quoted some very high prices for a simple wooden structure so we finally decided to order the wood and make our own.  It will be a standard pergola with 6 crossbeams.   The wood was delivered on Thursday, our hallway has been piled up with wood like an adventure playground for the last few days!!  The bag contains all the metal fittings!

And we decided to make a start on it today.  Brian has drawn up all the plans, he can't do the lifting but is the 'brains' behind the building, Brendan and I are the 'brawn' apparently!!!!  Not so sure, having lost more than 50 pounds in weight in the last year, that I really want to be known as the 'brawn' but it could be worse I guess :)

Brendan's face below, shows how not 'overly impressed' he was when I said that I wanted the corner posts shortened by approx half a metre....

Brian directs the procedings!!! Note those horrible matching woolly hats!

As the morning warmed up, Brendan starts to shed the layers!!

The metal 'shoes' go onto the corner posts...this is Brian's 'work room' with the open door...

Ah, here comes the Building Inspector....or Yoda as she's otherwise known :) ...

It's not often you see Brendan without his woolly hat in winter, but it was turning into a nice warm morning...

Drilling through the tiles into the ground...

In the meantime I got bored standing around waiting for my 'services' to be needed so I decided to do a bit of weeding and tidying up of the garden.  I filled three large sacks of weeds and leaves....just shows you how 'needed' I was!!!

I thought I'd share some photos I took of the plants.  Most have done well over the winter, some have done VERY well!!

The rockery plants are doing very nicely indeed, lovely and green.  Once I'd removed a lot of the weeds, you could see them properly!!  The yucca in the pot in front is usually standing behind the jacuzzi but we had to move it out of the way for the 'workers'.....we've had this some years now and got it as a tiny little 'stump' thingy!!!! It has sooo much new growth down at the bottom, but it does need repotting as it's got very top heavy and easily falls over.

Loads of lemons on the tree, even though I use at least one a day, thankfully they don't diminish very quickly!  They really are probably the nicest lemons I've ever tasted....and definitely the freshest! ;)  Am I prejudiced?  Maybe!!

This plant has done incredibly well during the winter, we bought it last spring and it's grown nicely in the pot...

This is our Hibiscus, again bought last year.  They can be very temperamental, but this one has done well in the cold as it's protected in this corner...

These two troughs of cactii and succulents are spreading nicely and filling in the spaces...

I don't know what this plant is called but it looks lovely in this old pot...the bottom of the pot is planted in the soil and has been since before we moved in back in April 2004, there is another photo of it further down...

The mandarin looks good and healthy now that we've taken it from it's pot and planted it in the soil...the stones around the base are to prevent the dogs from digging, which they like to do!

Another 'oldie', our cheese plant, normally a 'houseplant' in the UK, has been outside since we received it as a gift in 2006!

This palm will take over the garden if we let it, it was thoroughly cut back last year and needs to be done again very soon...

The mystery orange/lemon tree is producing lots of lovely fruit again.....even after almost 11 years living here, it's still such a novelty for me to have citrus fruit growing in our own garden!

Here you can see both the oranges and the lemons growing side by side in the same tree...

I love this succulent in it's pot on top of our garden 'plinthe', it always looks so pretty and healthy with it's green with red tipped leaves...

Here's the old plant pot buried in the ground that I mentioned earlier....we daren't try moving it as we're sure it'd just fall apart!! 

Some members of the family got very 'exhausted' watching the rest of us work!!!!  Suki, enjoying a bit of a sunbathe in her 'mummy made' furry coat!!!

 Whilst Chocco investigates (and eats) anything he can find!

 Yoda just looks at the 'whipper snappers' with contempt!

 
The other Yucca, also needing repotting...it has grown enormously!!

A few years back this large bowl was planted up with some small cactii.....now you can't see hardly an inch between them!

There's that old yucca again....oh and my lovely Lucy!

I got very excited when, having removed the weeds surrounding it, I found this plant in flower.....I thought my 'money tree' had begun to flower ;) only to realise that no, the money tree is next to it and as yet, no flowers!!  

This spiky cousin of the Aloe Vera has several flower stalks waiting to come up....won't be long now!

Why is it that grasses and weeds choose the sharpest plants to grow around....this spiky cactus is surrounded by 'stuff' that needs pulling up...

And finally a few photos of the doggies......Yoda

Choco in his usual 'upside down' pose!!!

And especially for Auntie Ronny, here is Kara, our tiniest little Chihuahua...

As for progress on the pergola, well the four corner posts are up and bolted to the ground, and two of the 6 rafters (one each end) are screwed in place....and this afternoon we had hailstones....so as the saying goes, tomorrow is another day!

I hope you've enjoyed sharing my Sunday and wish you all a lovely week ahead. :)