As the title says it’s been a very busy time on three fronts, dog listening, our new charity ‘Every Chance Rescue’ and domestically.
I am very busy at this time of year as people try to iron out problems with their dogs prior to Christmas. In the post Christmas period there are the dogs to be sorted out who have somehow upset their families over the holiday. There is also the puppy who has been bought as a present and is suffering shell shock who needs de-stressing. I’m also taking part in an ‘Enhancement Course’ in mid January. Along with dog listener colleagues I am always striving to improve both my knowledge and the service given to clients and their dogs.
Every Chance Rescue is due it’s official launch any day now. Watch this space for website details. On Friday I travelled to Scunthorpe for the first full meeting of the Every Chance team. It was a very productive meeting with a huge range of issues discussed. As with any such venture the main problem is going to be money. There is less of it about and more calls on it than ever before but if we don’t succeed then dogs will die because the dogs we are dealing with are the ones that have been let down big time by humans. Normal rescue centres can’t or won’t take them so it’s down to us. we mustn’t let them down. They’ve already been down that road.
On the domestic front it’s been a manic year with highs and lows. The high has to be the wedding of my son Richard to Kathryn in September and my trip to Montana to see the wolves in February. The lows have been varied and include my sister having her leg amputated just before the wedding. Due to the wonderful support and resources given to the NHS by the government she is being discharged to her home on Monday. She wants to go home but not in the condition she is in. Her wound has not healed and still bleeds heavily, she developed MRSA in hospital and is being discharged without the condition being resolved. She lives alone with an upstairs bathroom and no means of reaching it. The occupational therapist in the case has been superb and tried to arrange a number of things to improve the situation. However as my sister has worked all her life and contributed in taxes she now becomes a very low priority. She was stupid enough to buy her own house but has no savings to speak of and so will be left to fend for herself. I’m her next of kin but live some distance away and certainly couldn’t visit everyday. I have, in between hospital visits been making what alterations that I can to her house to make it more user friendly. Still I can relax in the knowledge that the money being saved in not treating my sister can be used in treating Waynes drug habit, Tylers ADHD or in giving AIDS medication running to thousands of pounds a month to someone who shouldn’t even be in the country and certainly has no intention of contributing anything. Bitter, moi?
The Simpsons is a very clever programme full of great observational humour. In one episode about income tax, Ned Flanders is asked by his sons, Rod and Todd why he has to pay tax. He replied “It’s to pay for the schools, the libraries, roads and hey, for those people who just don’t want to work. God bless them.”