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

kennys party 071, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Kenny reached the grand old age of 50 last week along with Andy reaching the 40 mark, so they had a joint party to celebrate and used the oppurtunity to get everyone back togeather again.

It was good to see all the faces from the partys togeather again having a laugh and just generally getting on, party kicked off at of all places Stretford Cricket Club, then moved onto Lisa’s flat, where drinks flowed and people talked bollox (mainly due to what they’d had).

We left fairly early on in the morning 5:00am so maybe not so early, but the party carried on after we left, ending only when John, Ben and a few others decided to place most of Lisa food stuffs in the freezer . . . oh and after Ben had emptied a full bag of flour over the sleeping Lisa’s head (not nice Ben).

Gotta say Kenny was looking good for an old man and no doubt has many years left in him, all the best Kenny and Andy

Feel rough as fcuk, seems to be more water coming out of my nose than goes over Niagra in a day (ok maybe not, but it feels that way), already on my 2nd box of tissues . . I want my bed !

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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Is nothing sacred, it’s enough we have to watch the misery of Coro on the TV without having it on our computer screens as well.
My computer is my escape from dull evening soaps and now there’s a possibility that just as dull a game is going to be made all based on Coronation Street, what am I supposed to do if the missus decides she wants to buy it and install it on my PC, It’ll no longer be pure, it will be tainted by this thing they call a Soap.

Dear god what have us men done to deserver such punishment, how dare they consider placing such a game as this alongside my install of Half-life 2 and Call of Duty . . oh the pain . .

When we all get pulled outside for a little chat with our Dept Heads to discuss this year’s pay review . .

So how much are we all worth this year you wonder . . . well wonder no more for our company has valued us all at 3%, yes so for every pound I get paid this year another 3p will be added to it, just enough to cover 1 months mortgage payment (well it would be if I wasn’t taxed on it that is), while being given the “Good News” I was also informed that I might hear that some people got bonus’s this year ( I wasn’t one of the lucky ones), but not to worry because it wasn’t a lot, well excuse me but it may not have been a lot, but its more then what I actually got . . so of course I’m worried, who was it that got the bonus? What did they do that I didn’t ? What can I do next year to ensure that I get one at the next pay review ? Please someone tell me. .

Nothing like a Pay review to get you down is there . . .

Picture 067, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Well this is all that remains of Bernie’s caravan and her daughters boyfriend Johnny’s car after somebody decided to torch it in the early hours of Sunday morning.

No idea who’s done it and the Police don’t appear to be all that interested in the situation, they’ve just told her that it’s her responsibility to have the remains removed as there a health hazard due to all the toxin’s that were released when the caravan was alight, so as well as losing the caravan, Bernie’s then got to find £150 to get the thing removed, don’t know what Johnny’s going to do with his car as yet, guessing his insurrance company will come and take that away at some point, the only good thing to come out of the whole incident is that thankfully no one was hurt.

Yes believe it or not our Cane Corso Blue has had her identity stolen, well sort of . . let me explain :

A Cane Corso forum I’m a member of has a section on dogs for sale which details any adverts on the net that are spotted by forum members for any Cane Corso or Cane Corso X ? for sale, anyway while browsing this section of the forum I came across an advert for 6 Blue Cane Corso puppies for sale, 2 x dog and 4 x bitch, alongside this advert were some pictures of Cane Corso, 2 fully grown and 1 puppy, now you would assume these were the one of the 6 puppies and the dog and bitch they were bred from. nothing wrong with that you’d assume, but that’s where the problem was, it seems that the mother of these puppies in the photograph looked awfully familiar and the guy in the hat whose should the mother had her head rested on looked even more familiar.

Here let me show you a screen shoot of the advert in question

Who is that good looking fellow with the good looking Cane Corso

Now take a look at this photo from a set on my Flickr page of our Cane Corso Blue

Me and Blue in the car

Notice anything familiar about the photo in the advert and the photo from my flickr set . . .

Yes they are indeed the same photo and considering Blue’s not had any puppies and I aren’t selling any Cane Corso puppies for anyone, it would appear that someone’s stolen Blues identity to try and sell some puppies.

Now as this photo is listed on Flickr as having All rights reserved © i.e. it can not be used without my express permission, it would appear someone stole it from Flickr and used it illegally on the freeadds website.

So I contacted Freeadd explaining all of the above and they have now kindly removed the picture and the advert from there site, they’ve also sent me an email informing me that there moderators will be keeping an eye out for similar adverts, I’ve now emailed them back that I believe the advert to be something similar to the Nigerian Scam emails i.e. they try to sell you something and ask for the money up front, either that or its some other sort of scam.

So as you can see Blue has indeed been the victim of identity theft for profit, so if dogs are’nt safe from it what make you think you are !

The party’s finally over and me and Mel have made it home in one piece, though god knows if anyone else did . .

After meeting up with everyone in the Atlas Bar and a few journey’s backwards and forwards picking up late stragglers, we all attempted to get into D-Percussion, however by this time it was well to late and they’d stopping letting people in, so we headed to the White Lion bar just behind Castlefields to at least be able to hear the DJ’s playing, which we did and play well they did, spent about an hour there until Ash got everyone kicked out for uprooting flowers and throwing them at people, seems Ash really thought he was actually 12 yrs old (next time Amanda don’t give him a badge saying “I am 12″ on it) and decided to act like it.

So we all headed off to Ash’s house were the party carried on into the early hours of Sunday morning for me, Mel Damian and Debbie, though I believe some were still partying at 2pm Sunday and I actually know that Ben, John and Sophie are still there now (8.00am Monday).

Highlights of the evening were John getting all egged up by Ben and Ash, I understand he was also Brown Sauce d up and toilet papered at some point, though I missed that episode, other highlights were Kenny getting his clothes taken off him and thrown into next doors garden, though this did little to dampen penny’s mood and he proceeded to wonder around in his boxers and a cowboy hat (photographic proof on my flickr account) . .

I can now tell you what I got Ash for his Birthday it was this cartoon printed in A2 and framed for his front room wall, Ash loved it, Mel got him a jacket and a furry hat, Kenny got him a imitation gold medallion, aren’t sure what everyone else got him, but he seemed to have a good birthday and that’s the main thing.