Which is perhaps stretching these post titles a little too far! Nevertheless, Bingley is teething ferociously at the moment and has had a pretty rough weekend as a consequence: last night it would have taken more than a kiss to wake him from his deep slumber.
We were all up early on Sunday morning, yet again planning a longer and more interesting than usual walk; but once more those plans were thwarted.
Bing started to show signs of diarrhea on Saturday evening: possibly it was related to his teething, though it might have been caused by that left over take-away curry that he discovered ditched in the corner of the field during one of his off-lead romps on Friday, and which he greedily gobbled before I could get close enough to stop him! Whatever, by Sunday morning things were much worse. His energy levels didn't seem affected, and he was bright, alert and interested in everything. But he'd clearly had a very bad night and once we'd peeped in the doghouse it was obvious that at some point that day we were going to have to give him his first full bath.
We still had a very enjoyable walk around Bingley's Field and enjoyed watching the steel band setting up their pitch before the Great North Run; but his toilet didn't improve that morning so we decided to skip his lunch. However, things didn't get any better through the afternoon, so a twenty four hour fast seemed to be the only option (prior to calling the vet on Monday morning if there was no sign of improvement). Surprisingly none of this seemed to bother him too much; I would have expected whining and begging, but instead he just seemed to accept that he wasn't going to get fed that day. His bath went equally smoothly: it was a warm day, so that afternoon I held onto him in the backyard whilst Jane, using umpteen buckets of warm water, shampooed and rinsed him. I think that enjoyed the attention! We're hoping not to have to bathe him more than twice a year: that luxurious oily coat, designed to keep him warm as he plunges into cold water, can become very dry if it's shampooed too often. But this time a bath was essential and he certainly smelt better afterwards! It also has to be added that his coat did go appealingly smooth and silky - very puppy like, in fact.
He stayed active and alert for most of the day, but by the evening it was obvious that he was feeling under the weather. He became very docile (not at all like his usual self!); he was rubbing his jaws a lot and then became very sleepy. We were concerned, but not too worried: besides his unsettling toilet, he'd been fine all day. Nevertheless, it was difficult not to sit alongside him all evening, and this morning we were both down before 5am to make sure that he was okay. Much to our relief we received an energetic 'good morning', and things seem to be returning to normal today - though we've kept him on half-meals just to be sure.
We've rescheduled our long walk for next weekend. Let's hope that it's a case of third time lucky!
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