Iced in and nowhere to go

When the boats are fast, In the icy blast,

And the strong Nor'easters roar'

Then we pay the price of the frost and ice,

In laying up and waiting for a thaw

Well I'm sitting looking out of my patio door at a lovely Christmas scene and thinking s**t! Minnow has been iced in up the Cannock Extension now since the end of November and looking at the way the snow is coming down here it does not look likely to be moving her back to Kings Bromley for a while yet. We were hoping to get out on her between Christmas day and New years day but that does not look too hopeful at the moment, but you never know. Our poor old Yellow Labrador (15 1/2 years old) is in a bad way at the moment, when I came home on Thursday he was in a terrible state being unable to stand and completely disorientated. We took him straight up the vets, suspecting that he had had a stroke. The vets prognosis was Peripheral Vestibular Syndrome. This is most common in older dogs and is caused by a swelling of the nerves between the inner ear and the brain, where balance is controlled. She gave him an injection of Steroid I think, and said that about 50% of dogs respond well to this treatment and that we should see a marked improvement in the next 24 hours. I am glad to say we have as over the next two days he seems a lot more settled, he is eating and now able to get up and walk about, albeit it very unsteady as if drunk. We understand that most dogs get over this and go on to have a happy healthy life, although we realise that 15 is already a 'good innings' for most dogs. At the moment he is being given 'special treatment' during his recovery and has the full run of the bungalow being allowed to lie down just where he wants, and needless to say he is taking full advantage of the situation. So for the rest of his time with us we will be taking extra special care of him and will try not to bang 'im about

Blossom