I think it would be fair to say that tomorrow did not improve, that was in fact yesterday. After settling Rush for the night on Thursday evening I finally went to bed and read until my brain had slowed down a bit. At about a quarter to one (am) Sedge was barking and so I ran downstairs, I don’t know why he was barking, maybe to ask for help for Rush, who knows, but Rush needed it he was unable to stand at all and was basically quadriplegic. He is a reasonably heavy dog, so I sort of carried and dragged him into the office as the other dogs were getting very wound up and phoned Eden Tanner again. He said bring him over, so I went down to the flats and woke Adam who instantly said he would be there, (what a star) and threw on some clothes, having realised that I had my skirt on inside out, grabbed my stuff, settled the other dogs and Adam carried Rush to the van. He stayed in the back with Rush and I drove to Ledbury, it’s a windy road, but its amazing how you can straighten it when you need to.

Rush was quiet in the car, but once we got him on the table at the vets he was seriously stressed and crying very loudly and obviously disorientated and scared. So Eden managed to get in an IV, which Rush was not helpful about, and administered a very slow dose of barbiturates to calm him down and put him out. It seemed to take for ever to have an effect, but finally it did and he settled, and Eden put him on a drip. Then the next question was what the hell was wrong, whatever it was certainly was extremely fast and aggressive as he had been perfectly normal at 4.00pm and virtually paralysed by 1.00am. Adam and I left wracking our brains and Eden stayed with Rush doing the same thing.

The next morning he was the same and I phoned several times during the day, we both thought that it was not his back, it just did not seem to be the right diagnosis, it was something neurological. So over the day Eden treated him, and we decided that whatever happened he was reasonably settled and not in stress or pain because of the various medications so we needed to give him a chance and the various drugs to kick in.

We had organised a BBQ for friends, and helpers and it seemed wrong to cancel it so we went ahead, and lots of people came and we had a good time. We got the table tennis table out onto the grass in the flying ground. And what with a breeze and four of the five dogs helping and Indigo catching the ball frequently, it was an interesting but fun game to play and took my mind off things. Simon fixed up the PA to have his Ipod playing music, although I am not sure that music is the term I would use to describe some of the stuff he was playing, but we ended up with Elgar, so that was very good. It was a lovely evening.

As we were clearing up Eden phoned, Rush was quiet and settled and we arranged that I would go over at 8.45am and we would discuss things then. I was quite expecting to have to make the decision to have him put down. (that is such a weird expression when you think about it). I drove to Ledbury to be greeted by a grinning vet, who said come and see and there was Rush sitting with his head up, which he could not do before and at 5.00am Eden said he had gone in and Rush was standing and even went out for a short walk!! Eden thinks and it is a guestimate as only a PM or an MRI scan would tell that he has Steroid Responsive Meningitis. He is not out of the woods yet, nor is he home, but the prognosis is way better than it was 24 hours ago.
I have six dogs, well seven but Aster lives away from home now, and it was amazing how just one missing for our early morning walk left a huge hole. I had no Rush to carry my early morning tea mug.

It makes you really appreciate the living creatures that you love, so be aware, cherish them all, animal, bird, human or whatever because you never know how long you have them for. Here is hoping that we have Rush for his due years of life.