Friday, February 24, 2012

Oh no! Not the lampshade!

Retrievers are rightly famous for their ability to eat just about anything.

I should have been suspicious yesterday afternoon when Porridge started desperately trying to snatch at grass in the garden. The dressing on her operation wound seemed to be loosening and some of the compresses were hanging out. So I snipped off the excess and hoped for the best. We are talking about an enormous dressing here… about 9 inches by 5 with lots of padding inside it.

When I woke up this morning, it had completely disappeared. She had eaten the lot.

She was panting and restless and desperate to eat grass, but she still managed to down her morning biscuits before I realised this. Her tummy was absolutely enormous.

So…off to the vet. And we came back with…yes …you have guessed…a lampshade.

Now a lampshade takes some getting used to. It is hard to get through doorways.It got caught on a kitchen chair and she just stood there until I showed her how to reverse out.



She was so depressed that we took her out round the block, in hopes that natural functions might relieve the terrible abdominal pressure. Would she explode like Mr Creosote after “one wafer-thin mint”?


It is hard to get at things in a lampshade.

But it seems to work as a smell amplifier. And things got very exciting around our favourite rabbit warren. Look at the tension on that lead. She wanted to race into those brambles and sniff them out.

But no….

So we were a bit depressed again when we got home…


6 comments:

kool drum said...

Bet she can get good satelite reception though...Jimmy

julia said...

I hesitate to interfere but, my cats and dogs were able to be lampshade-free when we were about to supervise them and certainly during walks when the dogs really appreciated being unfettered...

just a thought

rr said...

Oh dear. I'm so sorry dear Porridge. But I'm laughing. Like a drain. Like a big-ass main drain sewage conduit under central London. One might, indeed, say I'm incapacitated with mirth.

Sorry.

Snort.

Rosie said...

I will probably take it off when I understand how to undo it...knowing her she will probably eat it by tomorrow morning...

Zhoen said...

A Very Difficult week.

Lucy said...

Aw poor Porridge!

Watch your legs as those things seem to build up quite a powerful swing action momentum and can inflict great thin weal-like bruises on one's unsuspecting calves. They certainly do seem to funnel all the smells up to that pink nose, don't they?

Mouse is right though, you can take it off for walks etc - the fastenings are a bit stiff at first but you get the hang of them.