It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

Those of you who read my blog will no doubt have come across posts about our Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff) Blue, well I’m sad to say Blue’s been a little bit under the weather these past few weeks due to damage to her cruciate ligament in one of her hind legs.

She developed some lameness in her leg in May which was prescribed anti-inflammatories for and this seemed to do the trick, however at the end of June, beginning of July her symptoms came back, so after 2 visits to the vets and a set of x-rays we were told that she’d most likely torn her cruciate ligament and were referred to a Consultant Vet at North West Surgeons nr Frodsham.

So along came the appointed consultation where we were told that from what could be seen from the x-rays it appears that Blues ligament has indeed been torn, this was apparently obvious from the x-rays (not a vet myself, so have had to take his word for it), the next step we’ve been told is surgery and at present Blue is booked in to have the operation on the 13th August 2010.

We’ve been told the operation has a 96% success rate, but this all depends on how her recovery is managed, so for the first 6 weeks, Blue will be crated confined and only allowed out for her constitutionals and that’s it, then after the 6 weeks its a case of very slow, gentle exercise, which will gradually build up to a manageable 20 minute walk, and then over time hopefully build up to longer walks and fingers crossed semi-normality.

I can honestly say I am very nervous about Blue going under anethisia, as thats probably the most dangerous part of the whole operation, don’t know what we’d do if anything every happened to Blue, so fingers crossed, wood touched everything will go smoothly.

Will endeavour to keep you all updated on how our little Princess is getting on

Been taking Blue on her new walk over the past couple of weekends, the lovely Tatton Park, lots of grassland for her to run about on, lakes to play in, woods to explore and lots of new smells.

I can highly recommend Tatton Park for a nice day out, lots of nice open space to have a picnic and exercise the dog.

 

There’s also the lovely village of Knutsford nearby to explore with its narrow streets and shops and there’s a Market there the first Saturday of each month selling good country fair to cook for tea

Today i got the most hits on my blog its ever had in one day let alone 6 months, all thanks to Phil Jupitus re-tweeting a picture I sent him of my Cane Corso Blue wearing a pair of glasses, I’d tweeted the nice man Mr Jupitus mentioning how in the photo Blue reminded me of him in his glasses and the next thing I know he’s re-tweeted it to his followers.

I actually only realised this when I went on my blog this evening to make a post and while there checked my stats out for the day and wondered why there was were no stats showing for the previous day, investigated a bit more and realised that there were stats there but they were so low compared to to-days that they were hardly showing in the stats graph, it was just a long line with one hell of a spike for today, checked out a bit more to see what everyone had been looking at and realised it was the picture of Blue.

Its amazing what a tweet on twitter can lead to . . .  So Phil were ever you are right now cheers matey

Oh and here’s the picture which started it

Phil Jupitus's Doggy Lookalike

As mentioned earlier headed across to Chorlton to take Blue round Ivy Green, met up with Luke at Electriks then headed across to Ivy Green, anyways decided to head along the Mersey to Jackson’s boat for a beer, absolutely stunning views with everything totally whited out by the snow, like being in another country.

Met a few other dog owners along the way and just generally enjoyed the walk and then it happened . . . Blue headed for her favourite bend in the Mersey, where she usually goes for a drink of water, but the edge was all iced up and Blue being Blue didn’t bat an eyelid, just went storming onto the ice, well ice and a 7.5 stone dog don’t exactly miss and the next minute there’s the sound of ice cracking and Blue disappears into the inky black water of the Mersey to reappear a few seconds later out of the ice hole she’d just created.

Soon as I saw her disappear I dropped my camera and dived down the rivers bank trying to get to her, she was a couple of feet out, way beyond my reach, but luckily for her and me there was a fcuking big branch log just laying nr the bank, so used this to smash through the ice and create a passage for her to get to the side, scariest 60 or so seconds I’ve experienced in a long time while smashing that ice I can tell you.

So managed to get her to the side and she was back to her normal self in a few minutes, though slightly damp for her ordeal, she soon shook it off, then headed to Jackson’s Boat so she could warm up and me and Luke could get a beer.

Apart from the unexpected dip in the Mersey it was a pretty good afternoon, nothing like trapping through snow and cold bracing fresh air to make you feel alive, finished the afternoon off with some very tasty French Onion soup at electriks, now at home watching Blue chilled out on the bed with Mel pampering her.

Might head out that way again tomorrow, but this time stay away from the ice . .

Just finsihed work and walked out into the car park to find my car covered in a freshly laid carpet of snow, which means I can have a mad moment with Blue our Cane Corso, she goes mental when its snows (see the video below)

So once I’m finished on here and got changed out of my work clothes me and my best friend are going for a walk round Longford Park and maybe chase some Squirrels in the snow, then after go get a nice Mulled Wine at Electrik Bar in Chorlton.

Back later

Today started off with a flat battery, just what I needed at 8:00am, believe me trying to find a neighbour with jumps leads and who’s not rushing off to work at that time of the morning is like trying to find rocking horse shit, spent about 30 minutes knocking on neighbours doors trying to find someone who hadn’t already left for work and could spare the time to give me a jump start.

Thankfully Mona’s son from 2 doors down was just walking past his front room window and I managed to catch his eye, so after about 10 minutes the car was up and running, really need to get a new battery for the car though now that winters here, this is about the 3rd time in as many weeks I’ve had problems starting the car.

Anyway got into work a bit late, but had rang up to let them know why, so didn’t get any shit off anyone when I got there which was a nice surprise, was expecting to get a 20 minute lecture on the pros of leaving for work earlier . .

Rest of the day was spent using photo-shop to mask some images for a catalogue I’ve been asked to create by a colleague, seems to be going well and I’m quite enjoying learning new photo-shop tricks, so the day passe’s by pretty quickly when you’ve got your head immersed in adobe.

Anyway 5:15pm came about pretty quickly and left work early to get home so we could take Blue to the vets for her annual checkup and her booster shoots.
She’s getting pretty used to the vets now and just walked in without any fuss, previous times I’ve literally had to lift her across the threshold, which for a big dog like a Cane Corso is not good for one’s back.

Vet gave her the booster shoots and some worming pills and gave her the all clear with her checkup, also complemented her on being a beautiful looking dog, something I think Blue already knows and uses to her advantage on many occasions.

Took her for a walk around the football fields afterwards and treated her to a large sausage from the chippy for being a good girl at the vets, don’t know what it is about our dog Blue, but she is honestly the most well behaved dog I’ve ever met and by far the best dog to cheer you up if your ever feeling down, so glad we found her . . .

Lenny, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Here Lenny an absolutly stunning lovable mastiff we see sometimes while walking our Cane Corso Blue round Ivy Green, Chorlton.

Gotta be the most lovable looking mastiff in Manchester after Blue.

Finally got around to uploading a few more of our video adventures to YouTube from the past few month’s, as usual quite a few of them are of our Cane Corso Blue on her various adventures round new dogwalks, theres also a few from our visit to Yorkshire in May and theres a video of a friends band Marble Valley when they played at the Irish Social CLub in Chorlton in April, anyway won’t bore you to much with the details, I’ll leave you to watch them and figure it out for yourselfs.

 

We took Blue our Cane Corso to a Fun Dog show today at Morley Green near Mobberley, was hoping she might win a prize or 2 but alas she got into the final 6 in 2 of the catorgories, but did’nt place, seems she was’nt the Prettiest Bitch and she did’nt have the most appealing eyes, though quite a few people commented on the that she should have won, but they we’re’nt the Judge.

Met some nice people there and got to see lots of different breeds of dog, shame it rained so much, we did however manage to leave on a high though as we got to get Blue 2 new collars, a pink one with pink leather flowers on it and a black one with love hearts cut into it which showed the pink leather underneath, the pair for a £10 so not bad at all.

Now at home getting ready for Miles birthday bash at electriks

Liam should be here shorlty and then its off to Fiddy Centz to pick him and Sophie up.

Picture 095, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Did’nt really post to much over the weekend as I spent quite alot of it in bed, due to being called out to an alarm call at my workplace, was there from midnight Friday till 5:30am Saturday morning, so spent quite a while in bed recovering.

So seeing as most of Saturday was spent in bed thought we#d better do something on Sunday, was’nt sure what to do or where to go, but in the end we decided on Chelford Car boot.

Got there for about 12:30 and spent a good hour or so just wondering round looking for bargain’s but think we missed most of them, so just ended up buying lots of quaility cheeses instead, more about those in another post.

After leaving we thought we’d best take Blue for a walk and on the way back we chanced upon Styal Estate a rather good dog walking place, we’d heard about it before but never actually bothered to go look for it, really wish we had cause its definatly a dog friendly walk, lost of paths and fields for Blue to galavant in, I’ll stick some photo & videos up this weekend so you can see for yourselfs.

Anyway its close to 8:00am and I’d better start making my way to work, cyas laters
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