Mr. Patch is poorly

Friday 19th October

I knew the moment I came in the front door.  I could hear nothing, no frantic scrabbling, no rush of paws tearing down the stairs, no bouncing dog through the glass inner hall door.  I opened the door and called out for Mr. Patch.  He came in slowly from the garden looking very sorry for himself, as if he had just been told off.  He avoided looking at me and disappeared behind the table.  Princess Polly was her usual over enthusiastic self, wagging not only her tail but the whole back half of her body in her excitement at seeing me again.  Actually she does this with everyone she meets, even complete strangers will be licked to death if they allow her too close, so maybe her enthusiasm is not specifically for me, but just for a human being who happens to have come to the house.  But Mr. Patch was hanging back, skulking almost and avoiding me.

Before I have taken my jacket off the usual routine is for me to say ‘Come on’ and the two dogs bound downstairs to be taken for a walk, but today no amount of ‘Come on’s’, ‘Walkies’, ‘Douggies’ or ‘Parky park’s’ or even the rattle of the leads made a difference to the surly Mr. Patch.  I took Princess Polly on her own.

Returning I discovered that Mr. Patch had just been sick and as if expecting to be reprimanded was hiding again.  Maybe he had licked a toad again, he simply cannot resist them, even though he is always ill and froths at the mouth after.  But no, no drooling saliva, just a shivering and the most hang-dog look a dog can give.

We decided that he had to go to the Vets, so off we sped through the rain to the Vet.  Temperature high, but not dangerously so, and still shivering, and feeling sorry for himself.  Three injections, antibiotic, pain relief and anti-vomiting, all of which he accepted without the least reaction, as if having three needles shoved into him was as nothing to how rotten he was feeling.

He seems to have slept well last night at least, but this morning he wasn’t eating and again didn’t want to go for his walk.  We are taking him back to the Vet tonight, hopefully he will have recovered somewhat.  So, come on Mr. Patch, hurry up and get better, we miss the mad frantic excitable dog you always were.