Recovery

In the craziness of the last week – has it really been a whole week ago since Sparkie got sick?! – I forgot to mention we’re out of Townsville and are heading south again.

 

Some more information on Sparkie’s sickness: the vet said it could have been something she ate or some sort of virus she picked up from somewhere or maybe some sort of infection. We went to the beach in Pallarenda on Monday afternoon, and that night she got sick, so who knows? I didn’t see her eat anything, but we did walk quite a distance up the beach, without the other dogs, which could explain why she got sick and the others didn’t. Anyway, she’s recovering nicely, finished her course of antibiotics last night, and is constantly hungry! She was on small meals of chicken and rice for a few days, and now is getting bigger meals of regular dog food, and tonight I’m planning on giving her the usual amount because she’s just so hungry! The fur on her neck and leg is growing back pretty fast, so she won’t be needing her fluffy collar for much longer.

^^ Sparkie’s shaved patches on Thursday morning ^^

^^ Sparkie’s shaved patches today ^^

The collar could have been better if I did it properly, but I made it on Wednesday evening in a rush and my brain wasn’t working too good! LOL! But it does its job and Sparkie likes it, so it’s not too bad.

Sparkie turns four years old on the 1st of October, and I already have a present organized for her – a custom-made collar from a friend in New Zealand. It’s still in the process of being made, though. And I reckon it needs to be a fairly big celebration, because she nearly wasn’t around for it. Her first birthday was probably the worst, though – we were in Redcliffe and Mummy was pregnant with Jireh. She went for her appointment that morning and came home in tears after the doctor told her the baby would be born very sick. Of course it put a shadow on the whole day when she was rushed to Brisbane without us. We’d been planning on a decent party for Sparkie, with pies and sausages and presents, but it didn’t work out so well. Turns out the doctor was wrong, she’d read something wrong on the blood test or something like that, and Mummy came home at 5pm while we were running the dogs in the field. Jireh was born healthy nine days later. Sparkie’s second birthday was on the farm in Gympie, when I brought her a $30 bed and she chose to sleep on the concrete floor instead. Crazy dog! Her third birthday was in Goomeri and I had no money to buy her anything nice, so I tied a knot in the end of an old tea towel and that was her present. I’ve been wanting a nice collar for Sparkie for a few months now – the last collar she got was a cheap one from Crazy Clark’s last Christmas. So things are so far looking good!